Smiling Sushi Roll

Turn your lunch break into the perfect time to create priceless works of sushi art in this humorous book

With Smiling Sushi Roll, lunch can resemble great works of art, like Munch's "The Scream" and Rodin's "The Thinker." In this unique, humorous little book, modern maki (sushi roll) artist and instructor Tama-chan, otherwise known as Takayo Kiyota, shows how familiar ingredients like rice, seaweed, pickles, and cucumber can be used like paint and ink to create maki that is so fun to look at, you almost won't want to eat it.

Mostly humorous art book, part sushi cookbook, Smiling Sushi Roll includes a few of the basics of using condiments, herbs and spices to colorize rice as well as preparing a sushi roll for some artistic strokes. Tama-chan's rolls feature original whimsical cartoons of Japanese culture and social commentary, as well as interpretations of famous works. Some of the pictures even change with each slice of the roll to form a running narrative.

Some of the sushi art projects in this book include:

• Famous paintings, like "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt
• Objects, like a gun or a guitar
• People, like a Hula dancer or a Ninja
• Animals, like a dinosaur or a fish
• Symbols, like a Japanese character or a "radiation" warning sign

The result is a funny, joyous celebration of food preparation and presentation, and a whole new definition of "culinary art."

Born in Shinjuku, Tokyo ＂Tama-chan＂Takayo Kiyota graduated from Setsu Mode Seminar and worked as an illustrator on various ads and magazines. In 2005 she began designing maki-sushi, and created her ＂Smiling Sushi Roll＂ method of making maki rolls that are fun works of art. Her workshops focus on educating people not only about the maki they cook and eat, but on finding joy in the making of them.