Harry Wolff Jr. was a swaggering Jewish man from Chicago who came of age during the Great Depression and was a natural salesman. Noritoshi Kanai served in the Japanese army during World War II, where he was a quartermaster, supplying the military with rations. An understanding of food logistics led Kanai to the U.S. At a trade show in Chicago in 1964, Wolff spotted him from across the hall and yelled, "Hey, are you Japanese?" He then proffered the wry tip, "If you want to succeed in America, you need a good doctor, a good lawyer, and a good Jewish friend."
Scouring Japan for the next great food product to bring to the U.S., Kanai took Wolff to a family-run restaurant, Shinnosuke, where the American discovered sushi. He instantly became obsessed.
Los Angeles Times staff writer Daniel Miller details LA's sushi revolution, describing how Angelenos fell hard for the dish in the late 1970s, even as Wolff and Kanai fell out over business dealings.