LA honors late chef Katsuya Uechi

He's a celebrated chef behind the Katsuya restaurants earlier today. A touching tribute from the City of L.A. Council members alongside family honor the legacy of Chef Katsuya Uechi. His signature creations, the crispy rice with spicy tuna that we all know and love, the seared albacore with crispy onions, have become icons of modern Japanese cuisine, imitated so widely that many diners don't know whose hands first made them. The stretch of Ventura Boulevard where his restaurant first opened is now a hub for some of the finest sushi in the country. Colloquially known as Sushi Row, Los Angeles is a richer, more flavorful city for the life he built here. Uechi died in June. He was 67. He was born in Japan and immigrated to the U.S. in 1984. Uechi was a master sushi chef and pioneer of L.A. sushi culture after opening his first restaurant in Studio City in 1997. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the flagship location.