NEW YORK: When it comes to sushi chefs in the United States, Juntaro Takagi is a cut above the rest because he is licensed not to kill.

Takagi is one of a handful of sushi chefs in the United States who also holds a license that allows him to serve pufferfish — a delicately flavoured fish packing a poison that can kill a person within hours. One of the common ways to serve it is raw in wafer thin slices, often arranged on an exquisite platter to resemble the petals of a chrysanthemum, the flower of death in Japan.

About five or six people a year die from fugu poisoning in Japan and they are almost always amateur chefs who try to cut the fish themselves without undergoing the extensive licensing process required for fugu chefs.

In New York, restaurants that serve fugu must import fish that have been detoxified in Japan by having the poisonous parts removed and then deep frozen and shipped to the US.

AN UNPLEASANT DEATH: The poison in fugu is neurotoxin tetrodotoxin and although it is not always fatal, it can cause an unpleasant death. About 60 per cent of people who eat tainted fugu are killed, according to medical journals.