Unagi Restaurant Chef and Eel Sourcing Rules

A restaurant serving unagi as one dish among many, from pre-grilled product, needs only a competent Japanese-cuisine cook. An eel-led concept needs a trained specialist who can split, skewer, steam and grill, and who can name the species, farm and paperwork behind every eel bought. European eel exports are effectively blocked under CITES, and a 2025 vote to add Japanese eel to the same restriction was rejected. Confirm live-eel legality where you operate before you commit to the format.

1. Unagi is its own trade

Japan's eel cooks have a saying: 串打ち三年、裂き八年、焼き一生 — three years to learn skewering, eight to learn splitting, a lifetime to learn grilling. It is a saying, not a curriculum, but it shows how seriously the trade takes itself. In a dedicated unagi shop the cook usually does nothing else: no sushi, no tempura, just eel, rice and tare, hundreds of times a service. Abroad, most Japanese restaurants serve unagi as one item among many, often pre-grilled and frozen. This guide is for the smaller set of concepts where eel is the point.

2. Do you need a specialist, and what can you train locally?

Even in that third row, not every skill needs the same imported specialist forever. Splitting (saki) takes years and does not train up on a useful timeline: hire it in. Skewering and grilling from prepared fillets are learnable by a disciplined local cook in months, though a house tare takes longer to trust. Rice, unaju and unadon service need no specialist at all. Sourcing judgment, which species, farm and paperwork to demand, is taught knowledge, not a knife skill, and only trains if you teach it on purpose (section 3).

Working from live eel also depends on whether you can legally obtain and hold it where you operate, and what your health department allows. Confirm both before you write the job ad.

3. Species, supply and CITES: what your chef must know

Four Anguilla species are widely eaten: Japanese, American, European and shortfin (bicolor) eel, out of 19 species and subspecies. IUCN assessments list Japanese and American eel as Endangered, shortfin as Near Threatened, and European eel as Critically Endangered. Japan's own supply was about 63,600 tonnes in 2025 (imports ~46,000t, domestic farming ~17,800t), well down from a 158,094-tonne peak in 2000, per the Fisheries Agency.

CITES, reconfirmed for this rewrite: European eel has been on Appendix II since 2009, and the EU issues no export permits for it, effectively blocking export. In 2025 the EU and Panama proposed Appendix II for every Anguilla species, including Japanese eel; CITES CoP20's Committee I rejected it by secret ballot on 27 November 2025 (35 for, 100 against, 8 abstaining of 135 voting), confirmed by the plenary on 4 December. Japanese eel carries no CITES restriction today, but that vote shows the pressure has not gone away.

Live eel, country by country: we found no single global rule and are not inventing one. Expect two approvals: a CITES import permit if the species is listed, and a food-safety or animal-welfare licence to hold and kill live fish on site, usually the same regime as a live seafood tank. Get both in writing before committing capital.

Supplier due diligence: ask for the species (common and scientific name), country and farm of origin, and the paperwork behind it: a CITES permit number where listed, Japan's own distribution documentation for anything sourced there. A chef who has only ever bought "unagi" without asking is a risk on a menu that markets itself on eel. For the buying role in a larger restaurant, see hiring a fish buyer.

4. Where unagi specialists are

The deepest pool is inside Japan's dedicated eel restaurants, not general Japanese kitchens; a washoku or kaiseki cook may grill eel well but has often never split one. Ask how many years a candidate spent as the person cutting, not just working the room. Outside Japan, expect very few dedicated specialists already in your market. See where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad and recruiting channels in Japan for the channels that reach candidates still there.

5. Screening and a practical assessment

1. Training history. Where, how long, which style: Kantō (back-split, steamed then grilled, softer) or Kansai (belly-split, no steaming, crisper)?
2. A practical test. Whole eel needs splitting and skewering; prepared fillets need grilling, glazing and rice. Taste the tare.
3. Charcoal and ventilation. The same building and fire rules a yakitori concept faces; see hiring a yakitori chef.
4. Consistency. Ask how they keep the thousandth portion the same as the first.

Film candidates in Japan rather than relying on a live call: see testing chef skills remotely. Copy this brief and send it as is:

6. Cost and a hiring timeline

A backward schedule in weeks before your target start date. The steps are ours; the weeks are planning allowances, not published processing times.

7. Pay method and visa mapping

No official statistics break out unagi chefs, so there is no role-specific wage figure, and we will not invent one. Anchor on the nearest official occupation figure and place the candidate by scarcity: the US BLS median for Chefs and Head Cooks was $62,470 in May 2025, 90th percentile $98,560. A true splitting-and-grilling specialist who also owns sourcing belongs high on that range or above it. For other countries see sushi chef salary by country.

Visa systems have no eel-specific category; what decides your options is whether the role maps to chef or cook, and the pay attached to it. See Japanese kitchen roles explained for how titles and experience map to visa occupation codes, visa sponsorship for a Japanese chef for the country comparison, and, for a documented and unusual skill set, O-1 visas for chefs.

General information, not legal, wildlife-trade or immigration advice. CITES listings, wildlife-trade rules and food safety rules change and differ by country; the facts here are quoted from the official sources below and reconfirmed against them as of September 2026. Check import and wildlife-trade requirements with the authority where you operate before buying eel.