Free cooking demonstration
chef chigumi obayashi
FUNDING PROVIDED BY
Japanese organic food culture and reusing leftovers Saturday, Nov. 19 | 11:30am-12:30pm Chef chigumi obayashi Reading Terminal Market, Organic Food Specialist, Filmmaker City Kitchen Born in Tokyo, Chigumi Obayashi grew up surrounded by movies, the daughter of esteemed Japanese film director Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose first feature film was House (1977), based on a story written by Chigumi when she was 11 years old. Ever since she was a child, Chigumi has been involved in filmmaking in Japan, appearing in her father’s early films as a baby, and working on the set or as a promotions assistant as an adult.
2016 PAAFF
Chef chigumi obayashi
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In more recent years, Chigumi has become a filmmaker herself, and in 2013, she completed work on a documentary film about innovative organic farming methods in Usuki-city, in Ohita prefecture. This four year project, LIVING HARMONY (Japanese title: 100-nen gohan, literally “100 years of food”), was released in 2014, and has gone on to receive great acclaim all over the world. The film has been screened all over Japan, usually accompanied by a food event, and was well-received by domestic critics. LIVING HARMONY has also been screened overseas in Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Los Angeles and New York City. Chigumi has been invited to speak along with her film on many occasions, from cities
to remote islands and villages around the world. She has published a book based on the film about the same subject of sustainable, organic cooking, and has had more than 130 screenings worldwide to date. Chigumi is also well known for a book on Japanese-style “hot sandwiches,” and her fresh and exotic ideas about mixing ingredients in an innovative way has caught the eye of the foodie scene in Japan. As a chef, Chigumi studied under the former head of the Imperial Household’s kitchen, Makoto Watanabe, and alongside the founder of Academie Culinaire de France, Andere Lu Cont. She earned a diploma in etiquette and protocol in 1997, and is a lecturer in Western protocol and cooking. Her “Hot Sandwich Club” numbers over 6000 members, and she has had numerous appearances on Japanese television shows and in popular magazines. Her publications include “Well Done: 100 Hot Sandwich Recipes” and “Passing the Baton of Food to the Future.”