Chefs have to train for years to prepare world's deadliest dish

We all like splashing out on a fancy meal every now and then, but one deadly feast could cost you more than a few quid if it isn't prepped right.

It's actually so dangerous that the food in question has been dubbed the world's deadliest dish, calling for brave chefs to train for years in order to properly prepare it.

Not to mention the fact that several people are known to have died from consuming the risky delicacy.

Photography by ZhangXun / Getty Images

Fugu, also known as pufferfish or blowfish, has internal organs absolutely filled with life-threatening amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin - for which there is no known antidote.

Tetrodotoxin, which is believed to be a staggering 10,000 times more poisonous than cyanide, is found especially in the liver, the ovaries, eyes, and skin of the fish.

The poison, which is a sodium channel blocker, effectively works by paralysing the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious.

The unlucky individual is then left completely unable to breathe and eventually dies from asphyxiation.

Not a nice thought at all, that.

Because of this, fugu must be prepared with the utmost care and precision in order to successfully remove the toxic parts and avoid contaminating the rest of the flesh.

And you thought de-shelling king prawns were a faff.

Juliet Lehair / Getty Images

So, given the fatal poisoning risk attached to consuming the scran - it's no surprise that the preparation of fugu is strictly controlled by law in Japan, Korea and other countries that serve it.

Only chefs who have qualified after three or more years of some pretty hardcore culinary training are allowed to prepare the fish, with unqualified domestic preparation occasionally leading to accidental death.

"Japanese chefs must have a licence to prepare blowfish in Japan," says a member of the sushi team at the renowned Japanese eatery, Nobu Berkeley St, based in London.

"This is very difficult to get and takes years of training."

To prepare fugu, chefs have to remove the skin, wash off the jelly and remove the spine and the eyes.

Then, qualified chefs have to gut the fish which involves incredible precision as one wrong move can burst the internal organs containing the tetrodotoxin poison.

Once that hard part is over, chefs then fillet the now-prepped fish as usual to make sashimi, and voilà.

If it wasn't obvious before, it goes without saying that you should not try this at home.

Daredevils looking to try out the deadly dish also have a few options on how to eat fugu; either as raw sashimi, boiled, served alongside miso, fugu sake - which is a Japanese rice wine - and even fried which apparently tastes just like chicken.

It's definitely worlds away from the ease of whacking a load of frozen fish fingers in the oven - that's for sure.

Topics: Animals, Food And Drink, Weird, World News

Rhiannon Ingle

Rhiannon Ingle is a Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from the University of Manchester in 2021 in English Literature. Alongside her studies, she was the Lifestyle Editor of The Mancunian, the largest student newspaper in the United Kingdom. Her favourite topics to write about include sex and relationships, bizarre lifestyle trends and all things travel.