Simple yet stunning: Sushi donuts take NC State by storm

Sushi donuts captivated the internet’s attention faster than you can roll a spicy tuna roll. The great thing is, like many photo-friendly food trends, the sushi donut looks amazing, but it’s also easy to prepare with just a donut mold or muffin tin, a few ingredients and a chef’s imagination.

Sushi is served day in and day out at North Carolina State University’s global restaurant, One Earth, and Executive Chef Manley Cosper, CEC, and his culinary team are always looking for cool new ideas.

Scrolling through artful sushi photos online—including some eye-popping sushi donuts—Cosper was inspired earlier this year. He and chefs Hector Vega and Gary Tessin got to work, “pressing sushi rice into a large muffin mold, then removing the center and forming the outside.”

The layering process then incorporates typical sushi ingredients: smoked salmon, sliced avocado, sushi-grade raw tuna, toasted black and white sesame seeds and spicy crab salad topped with tobikko (flying fish roe).

While those ingredients certainly yield a picture-perfect sushi donut, the sky is the limit when it comes to ingredients, Cosper adds, so it’s worthwhile to experiment with flavors, colors and textures

Making use of the negative space of the “donut hole,” they filled it with seaweed salad, a classic sushi accompaniment.

The sushi donut was first offered at NC State’s a la carte restaurant, 1887, as a weekly special. Students can look for the donut to pop up elsewhere throughout the school year, Cosper says, along with a few more innovative ways with sushi.