Yoko studied Chinese at the University of Osaka, which led her to working with various trading companies in Japan. After 12 years, she decided to leave this career behind to pursue her real passion: cooking. She started her own cooking school, gained her official tour guide license and has not looked back. She aims to show Japan to tourists through not only food, but also history and culture. She has won awards from the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau and has been featured in the UK newspaper 'The Telegraph'. Her recent learning obsession is fermentation and her kitchen has pots of miso, soy sauce, and Koji bacteria powder packets. Nov 2022, she published her first cookbook “YOKO” in Dutch. She believes that food has the power to make the world a more peaceful place. "May food be with you!"