MILWAUKEE — Sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches to achieve your goals.

Screaming Tuna Mequon’s executive chef, Jason Morimoto, knows that first hand.

Jason Morimoto, the winner of the second season of “Morimoto’s Sushi Master,” almost wasn’t even on the show.

At the end of 2023, the co-owner of Screaming Tuna, Cristian Vega, got an email inquiring about his executive chef.

“We both kind of looked at each other thinking like maybe this was potentially some type of scam or something,” Jason Morimoto shared.

But Vega went ahead and looked into it anyway.

A few days went by and Vega finally got a response asking for a casting interview. Jason Morimoto would sit for three interviews. Then came the waiting.

The team behind “Morimoto’s Sushi Master” told him they would notify him if he was cast within 30 days, likely at some point in Jan. 2024. Well over 30 days came and went; Jason Morimoto said he had a hunch he had not been cast.

Jason Morimoto, the executive chef at Screaming Tuna’s Mequon location and former executive chef at the locale’s Milwaukee location, is competing on season two of Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s “Morimoto’s Sushi Master.” (Screaming Tuna)

He was right.

Kind of.

“There’s a kind of a wild, crazy aspect of what ended up happening … I was not originally selected,” he said. 

A producer texted him to let him know he hadn’t been chosen for the show. However, they needed a standby and the team behind-the-scenes was hoping Jason Morimoto would consider that position instead.

“So, the idea was they would fly me out and I would just spend a few days out there; if everything went smoothly, I would just be coming back to Milwaukee,” he explained.

The producers had Jason Morimoto wait in a conference room during the first day of filming in Feb. 2024. They told him he’d wait there, and once the first day of filming wrapped, he would head back to Wisconsin. At that point, he didn’t expect anyone to drop out and was just excited he’d gotten to see a tiny piece of the action firsthand.

“I was excited because I had asked them for the chef coat that was made for me,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘This is fantastic just to get the chef coat and go back home. This is perfect enough.’”

That’s when a producer came bursting in the door. Someone had dropped out of the competition at the literal last second.

“He tells me that I’m going to be on the show and I started trembling,” he recalled. “I was in my mind. I was saying, ‘No, no, no, no, no. I am not ready for this.’”

There was no time to waste. Filming started in just one hour. The team had to get Jason Morimoto changed and mic’d up. He’d need to sign some paperwork, too.

The producer told him, “we got to go over some things, but we got to get you to the set immediately," he said.

As quickly as they came, the producer left the room. Jason Morimoto said he was so caught off guard he could barely walk.

“I thought, ‘This will not happen. There’s no way that I’m gonna come here and someone’s going to leave at this point,’ but that’s totally what happened. Mentally, I was freaking out,” he said.

Jason Morimoto during a challenge on “Morimoto’s Sushi Master.” (The Roku Channel)

Next thing he knew, he was face to face with the show’s host, Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who has been on both the American and Japanese versions of “Iron Chef.” Despite having the same last name, the two have no biological relationship.

While there’s no familial relation there, Jason Morimoto admitted Masaharu Morimoto inspired his career.

“I feel like he hears this probably thousands of times, as to how inspirational he’s been to so many people. 'Oh I remember watching you in the early 2000s.’ ‘I’ve been following you since I was a teenager.’ You know, that all applies to me, but I felt like I had a deeper connection [than] simply just him being an inspiration,” he said.

Jason Morimoto, who had always wanted to learn how to make sushi, said sharing a last name really made him feel connected, too.

Seeing his biggest inspiration every day did not get old, he said. In fact, he said it was “jaw-dropping, every time.”

Jason Morimoto said that during filming, Masaharu Morimoto would come around and talk to the contestants. Jason Morimoto would have to remind himself to keep cooking, as he’d naturally want to give the Iron Chef his full attention.

“I felt compelled to stop working and look right at him. I would turn my body to face him. I would catch myself and tell myself, ‘You can’t stop working,’” he said.

“It was wild, especially since in the beginning, I didn’t think I was gonna be there and now for me to be here and he’s talking to me and I’m talking to him. It was crazy.”

Jason Morimoto said that doubt would regularly creep into his mind. He had to learn that he deserved to be on the show just as much as any other contestant.

He said sometimes, you won’t feel ready for what’s meant for you.

“I think over the the span of the time that I was filming, I learned that maybe it’s not important to feel like you have to be ready,” he said. Maybe he was ready, and he just didn’t realize it.

He certainly proved himself.

He started making sushi at his Milwaukee home when he was just 17 years old. At that point, it was just a hobby. But eventually, he realized it was more than just a hobby. He wanted to be the best.

About a decade later, he would join Screaming Tuna. He eventually took the reins as the restaurant’s executive chef at its Milwaukee location before moving on to lead its Mequon spot.

Jason Morimoto said he was able to refine a lot of his skills when he joined Screaming Tuna. He’s spent 14 years there.

“I have never once been tired of what I do. I really do love what I do. So, I have that, but I also feel very connected to Morimoto himself, where I do what I do with the passion and the respect and everything because of him,” he explained. “I wanted to be just as good [as Masaharu Morimoto], I wanted to do things the right way. I didn’t wanna be considered like a Morimoto who didn’t know what he was doing, so it was really important for me to do things the right way, the hard way, everyday kind of tasks, every single day without complaining to learn to be better every single day.”

Nor is he tired of Milwaukee. Jason Morimoto is technically a California native, but moved to Puerto Rico with his family shortly after he was born. He lived there until he was 10 years old when his family moved to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee is home, and despite enjoying his three weeks filming the show in Georgia, the Cream City is where he wants to stay. He said he was proud to share that love with viewers.

“It was huge. I really tried to make it a point that I was from Milwaukee. I have no desire to leave Milwaukee. I want to be the voice for sushi in Milwaukee,” he said. 

Eight contestants who are competing on season two of Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s “Morimoto’s Sushi Master.” (The Roku Channel)

The show started streaming on the Roku Channel April 25.

Screaming Tuna will host a series of watch parties starting the weekend of April 27 through the first weekend in June at the Mequon Public Market to cheer on Jason Morimoto. Find watch party information, here. 

The executive chef also shared that now that the show is out, some of his customers may recognize newer dishes he's been serving. Some of the dishes at watch parties and pop-ups are actually featured on the show. For those who won't be able to make them all and want to know which one to attend, Jason Morimoto shared his favorite episode is likely number two. He loved all of the challenges in that episode.