Sonoko Sakai is a cooking teacher, noodle maker, food writer, and grain activist. She was born in New York and raised in Tokyo, Kamakura, Mexico City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  Her stories and recipes have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Saveur, and Lucky Peach.  Along with teaching cooking workshops around the world, she devotes her time to the restoration and preservation of food traditions and culture, soba noodles being among one of her pursuits.   She is the author of  two cookbooks, The Poetical Pursuit of Food: Japanese Recipes for American Cooks and Rice Craft and has a forthcoming cookbook, Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors. She lives in Los Angeles and on a ranch in Tehachapi with her husband, the sculptor Katsuhisa Sakai.