One of the more popular recipes on Just One Cookbook is gyoza, or Japanese potstickers. In 2011, some of her friends suggested she start her own food blog. They got married, had two children, and when Nami was a stay-at-home mom, she started sharing simple Japanese recipes with friends on Facebook. That's why I actually like to cook - so that I can eat good food.”Īfter graduating from California State University East Bay, Nami met Shen while working at a digital map company in the Bay Area. I actually like eating more than cooking. “When I first came here and I missed Japanese food and I had to cook for myself, I realized, oh, I know all these dishes because I've been in the kitchen with my mom,” she said. But she didn’t realize she had any talent in the kitchen until she moved to California at age 20 by herself for school. Growing up in Japan, Nami would often help her mother cook dinner. One, the kemuri ceviche, even came with the dramatic flair of being seared with a blowtorch tableside.īetween bites of crispy tofu tempura and dry-aged salmon, the Chens walked me through the beginnings of Just One Cookbook. Each time I thought the plates were done coming, a new dish appeared.

We ordered an absolute mountain of food, from hamachi crudo to garlicky seared edamame and corn tempura.

They loved one of Kemuri Japanese Barú’s dishes so much, a burrata crostini with ikura and yuzu pepper, that Nami re-created it at home and shared the recipe on Just One Cookbook. The lunchtime spread at Kemuri Japanese Barú in Redwood City. “And I would say the majority serve very generic food like teriyaki salmon … and so when we find a restaurant that's run by a Japanese chef, the creativity, the flavor is different.” are not operated by Japanese owners or chefs,” Shen said. When I met the couple, who live in nearby Belmont, at the sleek izakaya for lunch, they greeted me warmly and immediately started gushing about the food. When they don’t feel like cooking at home, they go to Redwood City’s Kemuri Japanese Barú. Still, she and her husband, Shen Chen, like to go out to eat sometimes.

Chef chen redwood city