About Us
About Common Grains
Common Grains showcases the everyday importance of grains in Japanese daily life and aims to educate consumers on the importance of grains within a healthy lifestyle. Common Grains is collaboration between Kobe-‐‑based Shinmei Co. Ltd., the leading Japanese miller and distributor of rice, and local food writer and artisan soba maker, Sonoko Sakai. The Common Grains program is made possible by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) Cool Japan creative industry initiative that promotes cultural industries as strategic sectors for Japan.
IN THE KITCHEN
Sonoko Sakai
Sonoko Sakai is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Los Angeles and Tehachapi, California. Her kitchen memoirs, recipes as well as stories on soba, sake, miso and katsuobushi artisans have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Saveur and Zester Daily.
Sakai’s cookbook, The Poetical Pursuit of Food, Japanese Recipes for American Cooks is about the season-to-season days spent in her grandmother’s kitchen in Kamakura, Japan. In 2010, Sakai decided to do something she has always wanted to do — learn how to make soba by hand. She enrolled in a professional soba-making program in Tokyo. Her dream is to grow buckwheat and mill her own flour to make soba.
Sakai is the program curator for Common Grains, an innovative cultural initiative dedicated to raising awareness of about Japanese Grains in the U.S. In addition to her passion for food, Sakai has worked as a film buyer and producer. Her most recent film project, “Blindness,” was directed by Fernando Meireilles (City of God). Currently, Sakai is developing “The Perfectionist, Life and Death in Haute Cuisine – The story of the French Michelin Chef Bernard Loiseau.”
For more information on Sonoko Sakai, please visit her website at www.cooktellsastory.com.
Mutsuko Soma
Mutsuko Soma was born and raised in Tochigi Japan, famous for kanpyo, a dried gourd used in sushi. She move to Seattle to get Culinary Arts degree at The Art Institute of Seattle in Washington, which is the leading buckwheat growing state in America. She worked several restaurants to learn European cuisine, such as Chef de patie at The Harvest Vine, and Excutive chef at Chez Shea. She moved back to Japan for more culinary experience, and became interested in Soba making. Soma studied soba at Edo Tokyo Soba no Kai in Tateishi in Tokyo, and worked several soba restaurants in Japan. Soma met Sonoko Sakai during her search for buckwheat in US, and joined the Common Grains project as chef in charge of the kitchen. Soma is also certified sommelier and sake sommelier, and aspires to open a soba bar in Seattle. Visit her blog at somakamonegi.blog.fc2.com
Shinmei
Shinmei is a leading rice miller and distributor in Japan. Shinmei opened Shinmei USA Corporation in Los Angeles in 2011 and is planning to open a soba‑based restaurant, in Torrance, CA in spring 2012. For more information, visit Shinmei’s website.
Cool Japan
The Common Grains project is made possible with a grant from Cool Japan. Cool Japan is an initiative of the government of Japan, aimed to promote cultural industries (or creative industries, such as design, animation, fashion and movies) as a strategic sector for Japan. Under the single, long-term concept of “Cool Japan,” the Creative Industries Promotion Office will promote these cultural industries in cooperation with the private sector by facilitating their overseas expansion and human resource development, disseminating relevant information in Japan and abroad
