Carl Rosa

Teaches at ExploreSushi

Carl was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. After he and his wife, Sonya, lost their home and possessions during Hurricane Katrina, they moved to Houston to start an entirely new life. While learning his way around the city, he stopped at his first Houston-based sushi spot and sampled the lunch menu...and it was awful. Soon after the experience, he founded an organization dedicated to learning and understanding sushi - the Sushi Club of Houston. In 12 years, it became the largest sushi-based organization in the United States; possessing more than 17,344 members.

Thanks to his own organization, he slowly developed a passion for searching and discovering the finest sushi available (in Houston and beyond). Today, he spends half of this time visiting sushi spots across the United State (and in Japan), documenting his best recommendations for quality sushi.

A few years after the Sushi Club of Houston had grown to more than 1,000 members, Carl began hosting small trips to Japan - for his members to experience serious, traditional sushi from the very origin of the cuisine.

Within 3 years, the interest and popularity of his trips grew to an impressive rate. Thanks to the assistance of the Internet, Carl provides eight tours to Japan every year for those interested in walking the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka for the very first time. Due to the volume of phone calls and emails regarding his trips to Japan, he created Journey2Japan.com - an online resource for those interested in traveling to Japan.

Soon after, he founded a group named 'Ramen in Common' - an online organization dedicated to promoting , evaluating and discussing serious Japanese ramen. In two years, Ramen in Common has grown to more than 2,300+ members.

Carl was also the focal point of a Japanese documentary named "The Pursuit of Perfect Sushi" - a student film dedicated to Carl traveling the land of Japan in search of the finest sushi available in the Japan (scheduled for release in Japan in 2019).

In September 2017, Carl was honored to become a visiting Sustainable Sushi Instructor at the Sustainable Food Center in Austin, Texas - promoting Sushi 101 classes that focus on sustainable farmed/fishing sources.