POCATELLO — A pair of chefs from a Pocatello sushi restaurant took an all-expenses paid trip to the 2021 U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York City, where they made sushi alongside renowned chefs for the world’s most famous tennis players and executives.

Sumisu Asian Fusion & Sushi Executive Chef and Part Owner Daniel Russo and Sushi Chef and Sushi Bar Manager Justin Pehrson spent 17 days gracing tennis’s largest arena, Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, with their culinary craft.

While women’s tennis finalists Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez, and decorated tennis stars Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, played their respective championship matches, Russo and Pehrson were behind the scenes at the stadium preparing winning meals.

The pair were flown into New York and had all of their expenses covered by Morimoto, a high-end Japanese restaurant started by its namesake, world renowned Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

Russo was hand-picked to represent Morimoto as a chef at the U.S. Open by one of the restaurant group’s corporate chefs, Joel Hammond, who he said is a long-standing friend of his and has visited him in Pocatello many times.

“(Hammond) has paid us really high compliments, in terms of the quality of food that we make (at Sumisu),” Russo said. “So he knew that we were up to snuff and understood the quality that Morimoto expected of us when we went there.”

Russo and Pehrson were part of a small team of chefs making sushi for athletes in the Players Lounge, as well as for diners at Aces, an exclusive restaurant at the club level within the stadium that offers a white tablecloth dining experience.

Russo said their team of three-to-four people made no less than 600 sushi rolls each day. Their sushi was enjoyed by the likes of Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka and American players Austin Krajicek and Frances Tiafoe.

“It was intense, to say the least. It was very high volume and very high quality,” he said. “We were both very honored and excited to be there and be a part of such a strong team of really talented chefs.”

Russo’s career and talents have taken him across the country and even to Japan, but for Pehrson this trip to New York City was his first experience traveling for his craft.

Pehrson has been working at Sumisu for the past six and a half years. The Pocatello restaurant is where he got his start.

“Justin is extremely good at his job. He pays high attention to detail and has a lot of respect for ingredients and for our clientele, trying to give them the best possible experience,” Russo said of Pehrson. “So he was the right choice out of our staff of people that I knew would bring the heat but also get his mettle tested a little bit while we were there.”

The chefs with whom Russo and Pehrson worked in New York were surprised when they learned the duo was from Idaho, a mostly landlocked state not known for its seafood.

“Everybody else there lives and works in New York City and works for Morimoto or works for really high-end restaurants,” Russo said. “So to have two Idaho boys out there was kind of a surprise to them until they saw what we are capable of, and then I think we earned their respect over time.”

Morimoto has already invited the Pocatello pair to return for next year’s U.S. Open, and the restaurant group wants them to bring more Idaho sushi chefs with them.

For now, Russo and Pehrson said they’re excited to return to Pocatello and share with the community here the new techniques and plating styles they learned in New York.

“This experience was life changing for Justin and I,” Russo said. “It’s an honor to work with this caliber of people and a true privilege to bring that experience back to Pocatello and share it with our staff and community.”