&gt; I read stories like this, and I wonder: does washing rice for 3 years really make your sushi that much better?<p>Probably not. With a proper training schedule and applying basic engineering&#x2F;scientific approach, I doubt it would take much time to learn to wash rice to its proper starchness needed for sushi.<p>But when you are buying sushi you are buying a ritual. Not food. So your chef must have washed rice for 3 years to make it real ...<p>It amazes me how the Japanese are so good at extracting value and price premium for everything that is related to their way of life.