HOME COOKING IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL COOKING.  

Hello, my name is Sonoko Sakai and I am a cook, teacher and writer based in California.

The essence of my very being is rooted in my Japanese heritage—my name means “garden”. My cooking reflects my rich cultural upbringing as I lived in many places as a child. I was born in New York and moved to many cities including San Francisco, Kamakura, Mexico City, and Tokyo.

The five keys to my cooking philosophy are freshness, seasonality, simplicity, beauty, and economy. At its most fundamental level, my philosophy is about respecting the ingredients and letting their natural flavor come through. Your ingredients should be as fresh and seasonal as possible…let the ingredients speak for themselves!

While pursuing a doctorate in Education at UCLA in the 80s, I worked as a substitute teacher for the Los Angeles School District as well as a photography assistant for Lou Stoumen, a professor at the Film and Theatre Arts Department at UCLA and award-winning documentary film director and writer. I would often make family meals for everyone at his studio. Lou loved my cooking and family stories so much that he encouraged me to write about them and helped me find my voice in English through food. Three years later, I published my first cookbook, The Poetical Pursuit of Food: Japanese Recipes for American Cooks (1986 Potter). For the next 25 years, I pursued a path in film as a film buyer and later as a producer. I travelled all around the world but I never stopped loving my time in the kitchen cooking for my family and friends. To satisfy my interest in food and storytelling, I occasionally contributed stories and recipes to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Los Angeles Times.

In 2008, I produced a film which opened during the week of the global market crash. I experienced personal and financial hardships. Before long, I left the film world and pursued the art of artisan noodle making in Japan, which helped restore my sense of being. In 2009, I began teaching Japanese cooking workshops including noodle making from my house.

In 2016, I published a little book called Rice Craft (Chronicle Books) and got back to food writing. In 2019, I published Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors (2019 Roost Books). The book won the IACP International Cookbook Award. I am currently working on my fourth book, tentatively titled Simply Wafu: The Art of Everyday Japanese Cooking (Knopf). I am also working on my first children’s book Melon for Obachama (Shambala - Bala Books).

My favorite pastime is working in the garden and coming back to the kitchen with something I grew and cook with it. Then, going back to the garden with kitchen scraps and getting my hands dirty again. The cycle of cooking begins and ends in the garden.