The belief that women have warmer hands is said to be the reason for
the scarcity of female sushi chefs.
"When Sakura-bana, a Japanese restaurant in Boston needed another
sushi chef it trained Jessa-Leigh Stadelhofer who had been a cashier
there. It was considered a risky decision because, says manager
Hironori Koga, some Japanese believe that women have a higher body
temperature than men and shouldn't handle raw fish because when they
do, the fish become softer, a no-no for sushi."
Virginia NOW: Daughter of No Comment
http://www.now-va.org/donc_winter99-2000.html
"It is so important that the fish be cool that for many years women
weren't allowed to be sushi chefs as it was thought that they had
warmer hands and would heat up the fish too much just by handling it!"
Post from rec.food.cooking newsgroup
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=347B44AA.5BCD%40gol.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
"It's said that women's hands are warmer. And who wants to eat sushi
that was handled by warm hands, or so the logic goes."
Post from ba.food newsgroup
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=6s1t1c%24blb%241%40nntp1.ba.best.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain
"Q: Why are almost all sushi chefs men?
A: The common answer given is that women's skin is thinner than men,
and there is a chance that their warmer hands would affect the
freshness of the fish."
Nova Station: Sushi Shop
http://www.nova.ne.jp/mamechishiki/contents/NOVA_STATION_DATA/station/snapshot/snap9809-2.html
Google Web Search: "women" + "body temperature" +"sushi"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=women+%22body+temperature%22+sushi
I hope this information is helpful. If anything is unclear or
incomplete, please request clarification; I'll gladly offer further
assistance before you rate my answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |