Having one's first ever sushi lesson with 61-year-old Nobuyuki 'Nobu' Matsuhisa is rather like Elton John teaching you how to play Chopsticks on the piano or Philip Roth teaching you the alphabet: just ever-so-slightly humbling. Yet here we are, and Nobu-san (san means Mr in Japanese, as well as Ms, Miss or Mrs) is being remarkably patient with his five-thumbed student as, yet again, I produce something that more resembles a slug dozing on a rice mattress, than the kind of epicurean masterpiece customers - and celebrities - pay top dollar for.

I have come to the flagship London Nobu restaurant located in Park Lane's Metropolitan hotel, to be taught the tricks of the trade in a two-hour private session from the man whom many credit with making sushi sexy. Nobu-san, who is over from Beverly Hills, where he resides with his wife, Yoko, to host a series of special "umami" dinners, is slim and sprightly, emanating robust good health that is helped along, no doubt, by the balmy California air.