I've never considered cooking sushi before but here I am in the kitchen of Inamo St James restaurant in London, aproned up and ready to roll. Literally.

The maki roll is one of the staples of a sushi diet - rice, fish, garnish, wrapped up in seaweed paper - but we're going to mix it up people, we're doing an 'inside out' roll that has rice outside the seaweed paper - oh yes, this is not about having it easy. The inside-out maki roll comes from California, as does the rice we're using (great soil apparently). California? Japan? Oh well.

If you want to make your own sushi, here are sushi chef Jon Claro's top tips:

- Rinse the rice five times before you start to get rid of starch which will spoil the consistency

- Cook rice in a rice cooker for the best results; if you don't have one and are using a saucepan make sure it has a tight fitting lid

- Once the rice is cooked, stir it using a wooden spoon rather than a plastic or metal one, but don't over-stir, you don't want to break the rice up too much

- Buy your fish from a fishmonger to get the freshest cuts, you could also ask them to slice it for you.

- Use a bamboo mat wrapped in cling film to roll the rice for your maki rolls, then just cut the resulting 'rice sausage' into slices

- The key when working with rice, either spreading it onto seaweed paper or rolling into balls to top with fish, is to keep your hands cool so the rice doesn't stick to them. Keep a bowl of cold water beside you to clean and cool hands as you work

Try our sushi recipe here

We certainly enjoyed eating in the restaurant afterwards (though not our own sushi efforts which might have frightened the regular diners, our 'creations' were boxed up to take home - here's mine pictured!). The interactive menus make selecting and ordering a riotous experience. The whole table lights up (you can choose your own colour combinations and patterns) and ordering involves moving an arrow around the menu which is displayed on the table, selecting your choice (an image of which pops up on the virtual plate in front of you) and clicking to send it through to the kitchen. Drinks are ordered in the same way and the only time you see a waiter is when they come to drop off your food.

It's a novel idea and one that would be great for a first date - fill the awkward silences by changing the colour of your tabletop - or in fact for the end of a relationship when those long silences are becoming unbearable. Prices aren't particularly cheap - from £4.50 to £8.50 for a small plate and you'll need quite a few, large plates all over £1 - but the food is excellent (almost as good as my own dare I say it) and the fish so fresh they've barely just stopped swimming.

Inamo St James is located at 4 Lower Regent St, London; for more information and bookings visit the website at www.inamo-stjames.com.

Prefer your fish cooked? Try our classic kedgeree recipe