Currently sushi chef at Rainbow Café in Grand Case, David Cudicio has been mastering the art of this typical Japanese dish for more than 15 years. Here comes the portrait of a passionate self-taught master.
After a hotel management training, David Cudicio found out about cooking while he was on apprenticeship in a restaurant in Bourgogne. After working for several restaurants, he settled in Saint-Martin in 1995, two months after the hurricane Luis. He held the position of second de cuisine in different gastronomical restaurants, particularly the Chanteclair on the Marina Royale, before joining the Kontiki team in 2005 to take care of preparing sushi. Trained during a week, David Cudicio continued his training on his own. He soon got a taste for this very particular culinary art where the fish is king. “At the time there were many gastronomical restaurants and I was happy to offer something else”, he says. As an avid fan of cooking, David Cudicio participates in lots of cooking contests of all kinds. In 2016, he won the title of best chef and best seafood chef at the Taste of the Caribbean contest organized in Miami, Florida.
Tradition and inspiration
One year before Hurricane Irma, David Cudicio left Saint-Martin for the mainland. In 2019, while he was sushi master at the La Signature restaurant in Pornichet, in Loire-Atlantique, he got selected to participate in the french national sushi championships organized in Paris. So far he had been a big fan of american style sushi, but this is when he learned more about the traditional sushi making method called “Edomae”. The championships require attending several events such as the making of 15 nigiri sushi out of a whole salmon in less than 15 minutes or the making of a plate of 12 signature pieces. David Cudicio finished in 6th place.
Since the beginning of 2021 and his return to Saint-Martin, the sushi master has been surprising the Rainbow Café customers with fusion food and Omakase menus, prepared to his will with seasonal products. “My inspiration usually comes from the market and the fish derived from local fishery,” David Cudicio explains. Seconded by Michel Hunt from Saint-Martin, voted “best apprentice of France” in 2015, the chef is now sharing his passion with the younger generation. He is hoping to bring Michel to the French national championships to represent Saint-Martin for the first time.
