Sonoko Sakai is a Japanese writer and producer who calls two places home: Los Angeles, Calif., and Tokyo, Japan. Sonoko was born in New York but raised in many places -- Kamakura, Tokyo, San Francisco, Mexico City and Los Angeles. As a freelance writer,  Sonoko writes about Japanese food and culture, and pens memoirs of her multicultural upbringing and travels. She is passionate about making soba by hand.

Sonoko learned how to cook from two wonderful home cooks: her Japanese grandmother and her mother.  Sonoko's cookbook, The Poetical Pursuit of Food, Japanese Recipes for American Cooks (1986; Clarkson Potter) is about the season-to-season days spent in her grandmother's kitchen in Kamakura, the ancient city near Tokyo. Sonoko has contributed stories and recipes to the Los Angeles Times, the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Saveur and Bungei Shunju (Japan).

Besides writing and cooking, Sonoko worked as a film buyer for Japanese film distributors for more than 15 years.  Five years ago, she switched to producing films. In 2007, Sonoko produced the movie "Silk" based on the novel by Alessandro Barico and directed by Francois Girard ("Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould").  In 2008, she produced "Blindness," based on the Nobel Prize- winning book by Jose Saramago and directed by Fernando Meireilles ("City of God").  Sonoko continues to work in films.    

Last year, she decided to do something she has always wanted to do -- learn how to make soba by hand. She enrolled in a professional soba-making course in Tokyo.  She is now a certified soba maker. Her dream is to grow buckwheat and mill her own flour to make soba.

Visit Sonoko's blog, http://www.cooktellsastory.com for upcoming events.