Billy Ngo of Kru Contemporary Japanese Cuisine got his start at an old-school Japanese restaurant on Broadway in Sacramento, spending hours washing dishes and painstakingly preparing shrimp for the week’s service. After a stint at Mikuni he understood how sushi could become something that mixed his passion for creativity and attention to detail.

Billy headed to culinary school in San Francisco and came back to work at The Kitchen for a year, where he learned the importance of good ingredients and good relationships with purveyors of fish and produce.

Then, at just 23 years old, Billy opened Kru on J street, which quickly became recognized as one of the best and most creative sushi spots in town. A decade later Billy moved Kru into its current, much larger home on Folsom Blvd. and it remains one of the hottest restaurant reservations in town.

Billy fills us in on sushi eating etiquette, talks about his early attempts at a Michelin star, why he loves cooking japanese and french cuisine, how he seeks to let the ingredients speak for themselves and how a burger permanently ended up on the menu at one of Sacramento’s most acclaimed sushi restaurants.

Recently, his high level of skill and execution, matched with his creativity and drive to please his guests has garnered Billy a finalist nomination for the James Beard Awards “Best Chef in California.”

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Comments, questions or suggestions? Email us at max@dineonesix.com or neill@dineonesix.com