Cooking with Nao

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Let’s cook simple and tasty Okinawan and Japanese dishes together!

From this week we are re-introducing our popular weekly collection of recipes. This time we have enlisted the help of Nao who has years of experience in professional cooking, and has also taught people how to cook Japanese dishes. Here she introduces herself, so please enjoy, both cooking and then eating what you create. Her weekly recipes are available at http://www.japanupdate.com/life/gourmet/kitchen/

Editor

Nao is a professional cook and cooking teacher who has many years of experience teaching Japanese cooking to international students.

I’m Nao, the cooking class instructor at Andy’s Workshop in Yomitan. I’m originally from mainland Japan, but have been living on Okinawa ever since I moved back to Japan from the UK.

I worked in the catering and wine industries in Tokyo and the UK for many years, which was great because I’m a real food and wine lover! Also, when I was living in the UK, I did catering and taught people how to make sushi. Now I’m running cooking classes on Okinawa for anyone who wants to learn a little about this country’s cuisine.

Learning about food offers a great way to get to understand the culture it came from, and this is what I hope this column will help you do, for both the Japanese and Okinawan cultures. On a basic level, you might be wondering ‘how do Japanese people use soy sauce or miso to create such tasty dishes?’. Or ‘how can I create the same flavor or taste at home?’ Well, I hope I can help you discover the answers to these questions and any others you may have.

Every week, I will introduce Japanese and Okinawan recipes, which also use local vegetables, so you can get some new cooking ideas and support the local farmers. So, please check out my simple and tasty recipes every week.

And if you want to learn more about cooking Japanese food, don’t forget to check out my regular cooking classes!