A young Bermudian female sushi chef, who describes sushi as one of the most erotic foods in the world is venturing into the catering business.

Saskia Wolsak, 29, studied the art of sushi making overseas before bringing her talent back to Bermuda.

She has now started working through Cafe Gio as an offsite caterer, making sushi for private parties and functions.

Ms Wolsak trained with master sushi chefs at the Hapa Sushi Bar in Boulder, Colorado.

She has grown up in kitchens, working as a cook at her father's restaurant in Canada from the age of ten.

An advertisement was placed in a newspaper in Colorado in search of a sushi chef apprentice.

Ms Wolsak eyes stumbled upon it, she applied for the job, and was hired "because of my previous restaurant experience".

Of her apprenticeship she said: "It was very innovative and interesting. I did it for one very intense year. I really enjoyed it but it was very challenging ? more difficult than being in school.

"I had been attracted to the idea of being a sushi chef ? I loved the pace, clamour, discipline, and beauty of the work."

Her teacher, Nobi Sakai used to tell her: "Making sushi is as rigorous and challenging as any martial art."

Ms. Wolsak, who studies Aikido, a martial art said: "And then he would tell me how to stand and at what angle to face the cutting board."

She described her apprenticeship as "unusual" because she said: "I am a non-Japanese woman and it was so accelerated.

"Traditionally, apprentices spend years washing rice, making tempura, and are forbidden to touch the fish for years."

Including her apprenticeship Ms Wolsak managed to train alongside one of North America's most renowned sushi chef's, Hidekazu Tojo.

"He let me into his restaurant for a day and we made sushi together. He showed me how he cut the fish."

She described her attraction to sushi in depth saying: "There is a great intimacy in eating another creature's body, be they are a plant or animal.

"Some sushi bars serve sushi on top of the bodies of mostly naked people. Food, is erotic, and sushi is famously one of the most erotic of the world cuisine's. For, like food, sex too is a part of system that is greater than ourselves, invoking the border between the living and the not yet alive.

"It is perhaps for these reasons including the simplicity and beauty, not to mention its array of delicious flavours that I was attracted to this food."

Ms Wolsak stressed the importance of being faithful to the aesthetics of nature ? the tastes, colours, and how the food is arranged on the plate.

"I like to decorate my plates with flowers, leaves, and wild plants. Nasturtium flowers, fennel, bamboo, surinam cherry leaves, wild mint, and lantana blossoms are some of the garnishes I use for my platters."

She said: "Sushi is about fresh food and reflects that which is local and seasonal.

"This is difficult in Bermuda as so much of our food is imported, and the ecosystems of these Islands weren't originally designed to support human life."

Ms Wolsak grew up in Vancouver, Canada and worked at her father's restaurant at the ripe age of ten ? by fifteen she was managing his beach side cafe.

While venturing around the world she supported herself by taking up cooking jobs at hotels and restaurants.

Six years ago she enrolled at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where she obtained a bachelors in Writing and Literature and a minor in Traditional Eastern Arts.

She returned to Bermuda in August 2001 and worked at Lillian's Sushi Bar for 18 month before receiving the catering job at Cafe Gio.