Chef Morimoto’s Knife Techniques

Chef Morimoto shows off his traditional yanagi, the knife used for slicing fish fillets in the preparation of sushi and sashimi.

Chef Morimoto begins to remove the red snapper's head by scoring the fish behind its gills.

Chef Morimoto removes the red snapper's head by cutting behind its pectoral fin.

Chef Morimoto begins to split the red snapper's head in two by inserting the tip of the deba, or pointed carving knife, into its mouth.

Chef Moritmoto breaks through the red snapper's skull.

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Chef Morimoto splits the red snapper's head in half.

A look inside the head of the red snapper.

To remove the whole fillet, Chef Morimoto begins cutting at the tail-end of the red snapper.

Chef Morimoto carefully extracts the whole red snapper fillet.

The cleaned red snapper after fillets are removed.

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Chef Morimoto trims bone and cartilage from fillet.

Chef Morimoto cleans the fillet by removing the belly lining.

Chef Morimoto's deba knife and fish parts: The head, two fillets, and cleaned backbone.

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