Mother Tongue Cookbook – Japanese Family and Food

Mother Tongue is the first book from Akiko Kurematsu a journalist, writer, and expert on Japanese culture and food. The book features 50 classic home cooking recipes passed down through the women in her lineage. During the global pandemic, Akiko cooked her way through her mother Kozue’s cookbook “My Mother’s Love” which features her grandmother Fusae’s recipes. Akiko adapted the recipes to the produce and ingredients that she could find outside of Japan, simplifying the recipes for how we eat today – more local, sustainable, aware. The book contains childhood memories of meals with family, celebrating women as the backbone of Japanese home cooking. Simple recipes and tips make Japanese food at home accessible – how to cook perfectly fluffy rice in a pot, dashi from scratch, easy miso-soups and salads, as well as stand-alone dishes like okonomiyaki and soba.