Professional Experience, Skills and Publications

Biographical Background
Emi is a freelance writer and journalist based in London contributing to Japanese national newspapers and magazines. She furthermore published her own London Theatre Guide and London Restaurant Guide for the Japanese market. She also acts as theatre consultant for a major Japanese theatre company. She is currently writing her first Japanese book to be published in Japan.

She was born in Tokyo to an old, traditional family; her banker father was descended from a line of Shinto priests and her mother from a high-ranking Samurai family. She was brought up in old-fashioned surroundings immersed in art, literature and good home cooking. She attended the prestigious Tokyo Kaikan Cookery School for French cooking as part of her traditional bridal training, and also learnt Chinese, Japanese and Italian cooking privately. Other training includes tea ceremony and flower arrangement.

Education & Degree
BA Hons in English Literature from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo
University of Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English

Professional Experience
Emi has been a freelance writer contributing to Japanese national newspapers and magazines on the subjects of theatre and Britain in general before taking up writing Japanese cookery books in English in 1984. She was also an editor/publisher of a Japanese magazine on Britain, the London Theatre Guide and the London Restaurant Guide.

She has worked for a British TV production company in London, and contributed her knowledge of food and cooking to the making of a series of TV programmes, ‘The Spice of Life’, transmitted by Channel 4 in 1983. More recently she led a TV crew to Japan to make a 3-part series based on her book Street Café Japan which was transmitted through the UK Style digital channel in the UK and Australia in 2001.

So far Emi has written 7 Japanese cookery books (see below), and contributed articles on Japanese food and cooking to various publications. She has done food-styling for the photography of some of her books, and sushi and other Japanese cooking demonstrations at various venues.

Emi has also worked for a major supermarket as food development consultant giving demonstrations and guiding research teams to various parts of Japan.

Books and publications

Masterclass in Japanese Cooking (Pavilion Books, 2002) Japanese food and cooking (Lorenz Books, 2001) Easy Sushi (Ryland Peters & Small, 2000) Street Café Japan (Conran Octopus, 1999)

Also: The food and drink section of Eyewitness Travel Guide to Japan (Dorling Kindersley, 1999) The Book of Japanese Cooking (Salamander, 1998) The Japanese and Korean sections of Oriental Cooking (Octopus, 1991) The Little Japanese Cookbook (Appletree, 1984) An article on 'Eating in Japan' for Condé Nast Traveller (2000)

Award
The Best in the World Asian Cuisine Book Award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2001 in Périgueux for Japanese Food and Cooking (Lorenz Books, 2001)

Memberships
The Guild of Food Writers, UK
The Society of Authors, UK
International Association of Culinary Professionals
Slow Food (a member of the Slow Food Award jury, 2002-2005)