Cross-cultured leader keeps Asahi Foods’ promise of perfect sushi fish
It’s cold outside, but it’s colder in Asahi Foods’ refrigerated cutting room, where stacks of cardboard and styrofoam boxes filled with giant fish await. The fish cutter is in early on a Saturday, wearing a white lab coat and heavy rubber gloves, various razor-sharp knives at the ready.
Charlene Thai, a tiny woman in a similar lab coat, hovers nearby, watching over the daily cutting ritual that begins the flow of fresh-cut fish for sushi and sashimi to 200 restaurants in Colorado and surrounding states.
“If you see our tuna, it’s clean-cut, like a machine,” she says. “It’s not just …