Episode Details

This week on Five Rules for the Good Life, Michelin-starred Chef Cheng Lin of Shota Omakase, talks about his journey from summer job to sushi master, which is a lesson in patience, precision, and passion. He shares the hard-earned rules behind his craft: self-taught knife skills, years of research, and the quiet power of knowing where your fish comes from. It’s less about flash and more about focus. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to dedicate your life to one thing and still love it decades later, these rules are for you.

[00:00:00] Darin Welcome to Five Rules for the Good Life. I'm your host, Darin Bresnitz. Today, we are joined by Michelin star, sushi master, Chef Chang Lin, who is the owner and chef at Shota Omakase in Williamsburg. We chat about his 30-year commitment to perfecting the art of sushi making, how he continuously pushes himself to learn more, and the importance of creating culture at any sushi restaurant. Let's get into the rules.

[00:30:00] Darin Chef, thank you for coming by the show. It's really great to have you on.

Cheng Thank you, it's my pleasure to be here.

Darin I've always wanted to ask, especially since I know that the road to becoming a sushi chef, especially one at your level, is such a long journey. What drew you to it? How did you get started?

[00:00:45] Cheng My first starting was teenage kids looking for a summer job, so my first job was working at a sushi restaurant here.

[00:00:54] Cheng In New York City. That's how I started learning any sushi coaching.

[00:00:57] Darin Was there any plan at the beginning or did you just fall into it?

[00:01:01] Cheng No.

[00:01:01] Cheng At the beginning, he was written in...

[00:01:03] Cheng Find a job, you see, that's wrong. It wasn't a friendly at the beginning.

[00:01:07] Darin How long were you working at a sushi restaurant? Did you start to realize that you really loved it?

[00:01:13] Cheng It takes me a few years actually, about three years. I was lucky to working with many great Japanese chefs at the beginning, but you know, I was young and I wasn't knowing much about sushi because in China I never eat sushi before I came to the United States before I started working in a sushi restaurant. It takes about three year for me to start more understanding about sushi, where is sushi, what is so different about sushi. Even my first bite of sushi was three years later. It was amazing. It tastes so great. Then I started to do more research about sushi. At the time that I was working at the restaurant that where my co-worker who has this book called Sushi no Soda, where I've been reading it, it really got me into about sushi

[00:01:57] Darin You worked at some of New York's most legendary sushi places, Blue Ribbon, Edo Tribeca. What was it like working at those restaurants during the rise of sushi's popularity?

[00:02:10] Cheng Every sushi restaurant, every sushi culture restaurant is very different. So I'm learning so much from every single individual person that I'm working with from every restaurant.

[00:02:22] Darin When did you realize it was time for you to go out on your own and open up your own restaurant, Shota Omokase?

[00:02:29] Cheng I always dream about to have sushi restaurant one day if I can own my own sushi shop.

[00:02:34] Darin The thing that I love about your journey is that you started from never having sushi, not knowing much about it to now being a Michelin star sushi restaurant. So I'd love fo