Where to Start with Sonoko Sakai
Sonoko Sakai is a Japanese-American food writer, cooking teacher, and grain activist based in Los Angeles. Born in New York to Japanese parents, she grew up across multiple continents, living in San Francisco, Kamakura, Mexico City, and Tokyo. This multicultural upbringing gave her a unique perspective on Japanese food: she understands it deeply from the inside while also knowing exactly what makes it confusing or intimidating for outsiders.
Sakai is the author of several cookbooks, including Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors (2019), Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes with Japanese Style (2024), and the earlier Rice Craft. She is known for her patient, detailed teaching style and her commitment to traditional techniques like hand-making soba noodles and preparing dashi from scratch. Beyond cookbooks, she runs workshops, lectures on food culture, and advocates for heritage grains and sustainable farming.
Start here
Japanese Home Cooking
Sonoko Sakai · 300 pages · 2019 · Easy
Themes: japanese cuisine, home cooking, dashi, noodles, seasonal ingredients
The essential guide to everyday Japanese cooking, featuring more than 100 recipes that cover the full range of home-style Japanese meals. Sakai starts with the foundations: the pantry, the five core seasonings, proper rice, and dashi. From there, she builds through breakfast, vegetables, grains, meat, fish, noodles, dumplings, savory pancakes, and sweets.
Why Start Here
This is Sakai’s definitive work and the book that established her reputation. It teaches not just recipes but a way of thinking about Japanese meals: the concept of “ichiju sansai” (one soup, three sides), the emphasis on seasonality, and the importance of balance across flavors and textures. The instructions are clear and patient, the photography is beautiful, and the recipes actually work. Whether you want to make a simple bowl of miso soup or hand-rolled soba noodles, this book will guide you through it.
What to Expect
A 300-page hardcover with full-color photography. The pantry section at the beginning is essential reading before you start cooking. You will need some Japanese staples like kombu, katsuobushi, and miso, but Sakai provides thorough guidance on sourcing. Difficulty ranges from very simple (onigiri, miso soup) to more involved (handmade soba noodles, gyoza), so you can start easy and build your skills over time.