Meet the Chef: David Li of Sakura Café

An experienced chef, David Li has been making sushi for 15 years. He’s passionate about the restaurant business and says of himself and the owner Jade that “we do the restaurant with heart. Our heart takes care of every customer.”

He is proud of everything in his kitchen, down to the rice and the cooker it’s prepared in. “My cooker is very, very good,” he explains. “I use a steam one; I don’t like to use gas. It’s very big and it’s very good. When I came to this restaurant, I didn’t know how to use it. But I tried it and it’s very, very good. It’s expensive, and when it comes to sushi rice, it’s number one, better than all other cookers.”

Name: David Li

Age: 42

Current residence: Historic Annapolis

Historic Annapolis Patch: Where were you raised?

Li: China. At 28, I came to America.

Historic Annapolis Patch: How did you get your start as a sushi chef?

Li: In 1996, I came to America. I made sushi at the Kawasaki Japanese restaurant in Baltimore. I trained there.

Historic Annapolis Patch: I notice the menu is very big. How does somebody who has never been here before know what to order?

Li: This menu is so big, right? Sometimes I talk with the customer. I come out and ask the customer what kind of fish they like. “Do you like it raw or like it cooked?” So we have maybe 35 percent cooked sushi because American customers like cooked stuff. They don’t like the raw fish. So I give the customer suggestions. If for example, they like the tuna, I have a “tuna club” roll.

I could say, “This salmon roll is very good,” but if they don’t like salmon, they won’t like it. It’s very important that [customers] order what they like. This menu is from maybe ten restaurants because I’ve been working a long in time in sushi, and I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants. So in this restaurant the special maki recipe is from a famous restaurant. Jade [the owner of Sakura Café] is my friend. She told me she was opening a restaurant so I put this menu together. So a customer who comes here is very lucky and can try food from different restaurants.

Historic Annapolis Patch: So you made this menu? 

Li: Yes. I made this menu. Sometimes a customer goes to a restaurant they really like, then they come here and [ask] me if I can make what they had and really liked. So this menu has items from a lot of different restaurants.

Historic Annapolis Patch: If you could eat anything in the world on your day off, what would it be? 

Li: I’d try sushi first because I am a sushi chef, right? I must try Japanese food and note how they cooked it, how they did it. If I feel it’s very good, I remember it and do it for my customer. If customers don’t like it, I just forget it. If a lot of customers really like it, I keep it on the menu.

Historic Annapolis Patch: So your menu changes?

Li: Sometimes it changes. Customers can eat whatever they like. Just tell me, and I do it. For example, spicy Karen roll is from a lady’s name. She had a roll at a restaurant, I don’t know where, and she told me it was very good. So I made it for her, and every customer liked it. So I keep her name, made it special on the menu. Another example is the “yum yum roll.” One lady went to California, really liked this maki there, so she came back and asked me, “Can you do it?” She told me what’s inside, what’s outside, how it’s cut. I made it, and she said it was “very good, very yummy.” I asked her, what’s the name of this maki? She said, “I forget…yummy!” So I call it “yum yum roll.”

Sushi changes a lot, like Chinese food. Chinese food has changed a lot since it came to America. It’s American Chinese food. Now, Chinese don’t like it. Sushi is the same. For example, now only the big city restaurants have a Japanese chef. A lot are Chinese. Chinese people are the owner, or Korean people are the owner. So Japanese owners, just a little of those. This menu is different than Japanese, so it’s changed a lot. It’s American style. Americans like special maki, not so much sashimi. Japanese restaurant is very simple—just sashimi, a little bit of maki.

Historic Annapolis Patch: What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become a sushi chef.

Li: Usually they must train. First they learn how to cook the rice. It’s very important. Wash the rice. The master checks the rice and the water. If the water is clean, then the rice is cooked until it’s shiny. How it’s cooked can be different. Some use gas cookers, some use steam, some use electric, some big, some small.

Historic Annapolis Patch: What do you think of Chesapeake Bay seafood?

Li: I use rockfish in sashimi. For a special roll, inside I use Maryland’s famous blue crab. In Maryland, everyone likes the blue crab.

Historic Annapolis Patch: What do you like about the restaurant’s location?

Li: Very good. I like it. Business has gone up, up, up. When I came in, business was very slow. First day, we did just $145, very slow. The first day, we were Ego Sushi [before changing to Sakura Café]. Now we are very busy. Before it was one chef, but now it’s two chefs. The customers are talking, saying the restaurant’s clean, everything is yummy.

Historic Annapolis Patch: What would you say to somebody who wants to make good sushi at home?

Li: They can do it at home, but they can’t do it very good, very professional. The rice, the cooker, the special sauce—that’s a lot of things mixed together. At home a person will probably only use vinegar. So it’s very different. If a customer likes, we can do a class in the future. It takes two hours. If the customer likes, they can show up early for that; a few people together, I can help them do sushi. They can buy the special sauce here, any sauce.

Sakura Café is located at 105 Main Street, Annapolis. It is open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. Telephone: (410) 263-0785.