Fourth generation Montanan Jaison LeRoy grew up in Bozeman. He set out to see the world at age 18, when he enrolled in Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. To cover his expenses, he worked a bus boy at a small mom-and-pop restaurant that served authentic Japanese food. He soon learned to cook rice and was drawn into tradition, creativity, textures, and unique tastes of modern Japanese cuisine. He packed a small backpack and booked a one-way ticket to Japan, seeking inspiration in fish markets as he traveled throughout the country. He learned that the core elements of fine Japanese food —rice, fish, and your knife— are simple, but these are the hardest things to master.

After his training, Chef LeRoy went on to hone his craft in fine restaurants around the US. He is the former owner of Sushi Rei in Mammoth Lakes, California, and was nominated for a James Beard award in 2018. He became a private chef in Big Sky in 2019. The Chef follows the kaisen philosophy, which holds that developing a craft like sushi is a journey of constant learning and self- betterment.

The Omakase project comes out of Jaison’s 25 years of experience in fine dining. Everything about Omakase reflects the philosophy of learning and experimentation inspired by his travels. Chef LeRoy sources his fish from the purveyors with whom he connected in Japanese fish markets during his travels. Fresh ingredients are flown in from Japan directly for each omakase dinner. His goal is to give his guests an intimate experience as he recreates the tastes and textures he learned from the Edomai style of sushi in Japan, which was invented in Tokyo about 200 years ago. Edomai involves skill-intensive techniques such as curing, aging, and pickling. Chef LeRoy modernizes the Edomai style, using a traditional technique on almost every piece of fish, while serving the fish as natural as possible to enhance the flavor.