Introducing The Japanese Pantry & a Culinary Workshop in Nagano, Japan
My upcoming cookbook! Also discover the food traditions of the mountain villages of Nagano with me
The Japanese Pantry, my seventh cookbook, is at the printers as I type this!
It will be out this late October in the US, UK and Australia. This is a book that I hope will inspire people to make the most of these powerful pantry ingredients and feel confident in recreating Japanese flavours at home that are inherently simple and full of flavour. It has been such an honour to be able to write another book about Japanese home cooking with Smith Street Books, with the support of Hannah Koelmeyer and her wonderful team, my agent Lou Johnson, my team of recipe testers and the help of the talented Yuki Sugiura, who stepped in to photograph the cover (and you’ll notice we went with an illustrated cover in the end! More on the story and evolution of this cover soon).
After writing Gohan, one of the things I was asked most often about was the ingredients — what to buy, how to look for them, where to get them, possible substitutions, and whether you need many special ingredients to cook Japanese food.
The answer is — you don’t actually need much! I grew up watching my Japanese mother make her favourite food abroad with just a few essential ingredients. Together with seasonal produce and some other basics such as tofu, rice and noodles, you can easily prepare a wonderful Japanese meal.
I have chosen 7 ingredients that make up 7 chapters that I consider essential in my Japanese pantry: soy sauce, miso, rice vinegar, seaweed, sake, sesame and tea.
In each chapter I have given context to the process, history and culture behind the making of these ingredients (I traveled to Japan last year to visit producers of each of these ingredients!), sprinkled with essays that highlight stories about Japanese cuisine — I really enjoyed this part of the process and went all out, researching unexpected places for food stories, from medieval waka love poetry (seaweed is often used as a love metaphor) to ukiyo-e prints, a Renaissance travel account and the influential tea master who invented wabi sabi aesthetic who was ordered to commit seppuku/harakiri by a jealous daimyo (if you’re into these kind of stories too, I go more in depth in my Scribehound column).
The book is also illustrated throughout with my linocut prints! Finally, that Fine Art degree in Printmaking (RISD ‘02) came in handy!
Some of the recipes I’m particularly excited about are the sesame “tofu” (just 3 ingredients and 10 minutes), a staple of temple cuisine, the takikomigohan (a different one from Gohan, if you’re familiar with it, it was the quiet hero of my last book, I see people making this all the time! This time it’s a pantry version), the umeboshi chicken, and hoto noodle hot pot, a super comforting and filling dish that happens to be also vegan. As I want to make sure everyone can cook these recipes, you’ll find substitutions for almost every recipe to make them in vegan/vegetarian versions.
I have so loved delving into these ingredients to not only show how they are they made and how they can be best be used and how to cook with them (they’re not just for drizzling/dipping/accompanying!) and discovering some really delicious ways to use them. I hope you’ll love this as much as I do!
You can pre-order the book now, hold onto your receipts as there is a particularly nice giveaway coming up soon — I have partnered with Kokoro Cares, a Japanese based company that do highly curated care packages of absolutely incredible artisanal ingredients. You’ll have everything you need to cook something out of each chapter!
Where to pre-order The Japanese Pantry?
UK/EU: 30 Oct 2025 | GBP £30 | Amazon, Bookshop.org UK
AUS/NZ: 04 Nov 2025 | AUD $55| Amazon, Booktopia, Readings, YourBookstore
US/CAN: 28 Oct 2025 | USD $40, CAN $55 | Amazon, Bookshop.org US, Rizzoli
(I know Amazon is pretty convenient to most people but we don’t need to give Jeff Bezos anymore money so please consider also ordering it from your nearest local independent bookshop!)
Book tour
Stay tuned for in person events in Australia (a special preview as it will be in August!) and the UK (late October)! I’ll keep my events updated on my website here.
Bringing The Japanese Pantry to life: Come with me to Japan on a culinary workshop!
I am finally offering a culinary workshop in Japan, December 5-10, 2025! I’m taking you to Nagano, a place I keep going back to over and over again. I’m taking you in the winter — yes, off season, for a million reasons but my favourite of which might be because there is nothing like sitting in an onsen, the boiling hot natural springs contrasting against the chilly air, seeing the steam rising, the winter forest surrounding you and possibly even noticing tiny snowflakes falling.
We’ll do onsen, we will stay in a small village, in a stunning traditional ryokan and a beautifully restored Japanese farmhouse, but also homestay so that you get to experience a real Japanese home and real Japanese homecooking. We will cook and eat seasonal, local mountain food. You’ll learn about Japan’s ancient Jomon people and we will even cook like they did. You’ll spend time with a tofu maker, a kanten producer and you’ll make your own miso (and take it home!). I truly cannot wait to show you this quiet, slow part of rural Japan, where you can truly delve into Japanese traditions.
We will meet in Tokyo, where hopefully you will have had some time to spend exploring. From there we take the train (2 hours) to Chino, Nagano, to start our culinary adventures, we will spend 5 nights, 6 days, cooking, eating and discovering the local traditions of this mountainous, forested region.
This is for anyone interested in delving into Japanese food traditions, seasoned travellers, first timers, the only requisite is curiosity!
Included in this 6 day, 5 night trip:
Accommodation for 5 nights, including two nights in an onsen with natural hot springs, a village homestay and two nights in the beautifully restored farmhouses of Yamaura Stay
All meals during the workshop, including at local eateries
Daily cooking classes (5 in total), including a miso making class
Visits to a kanten and tofu producer
Visit to the Togariishi Museum of Jomon Archaeology
Walking tour of Sasahara village
Train fare to and from Tokyo
A signed copy of The Japanese Pantry and a wonderful goodie bag of local specialties
See the full itinerary and details here.
Come and join me in Japan this December, 5-10!
More of my notes on Japan:
I’m writing up a full Tokyo guide for my guests on this workshop who might want to spend a bit more time in Tokyo. There will be loads of tips, addresses and even books and movies to indulge in before the trip!
I’ve written more about Yamaura Stay here.
Also check out Wabunka for some beautiful experiences in Tokyo or other Japanese cities, like a kintsugi workshop, tea ceremony or wagashi making workshop (note, as I have a partnership with Wabunka, I do make a small commission on bookings made through their website, though not at any cost to you).
Also check out this previous posts on where we will be:
A restorative trip to Nagano, Japan
On my wishlist of things I wanted to do in Japan on this trip (after a whirlwind visit to relatives and a nostalgic visit to Tokyo) was to photograph artisanal tofu for my upcoming cookbook, Gohan (I so miss proper tofu like the one my grandmother would prepare), and to take a dip in an onsen, Japanese hot springs. Many of my favourite trips growing up …
I pre-ordered your new book. Looking forward to it. Best of luck!
SO want to do your trip but just returned from my FIRST Japan trip, too quick a turnaround. Hope you keep up these special trips. I will join another one. All your columns were so helpful for our trip, love your suggestions and food help! Pre ordered your new book, can't wait.