Rice to the occasion

UNLIKE other sommeliers, Yuichi Sato doesn't play with pretty decanters, sniff and swirl, or expound on the differing qualities of red and white. Instead, he sifts through the contents of giant paper sacks, points out the minor differences between brown and white, and tells you that empty 1.5 litre PET bottles are his storage receptacles of choice.

Mr Sato, 32, is a rice sommelier - an unusual occupation anywhere else but certainly not in a country obsessed with the quality of just about everything, particularly this shiny, chewy staple that forms the soul of Japanese cooking. Sommeliers like him are taught to differentiate between different grades of rice, as wel…