SONOKO SAKAI was born in New York and raised by Japanese parents. She lived in many places as a child, including San Francisco, Kamakura, Mexico City, and Tokyo. She is the author of Rice Craft (Chronicle, 2016) and Japanese Home Cooking (Shambhala, 2019). She has worked as a recipe developer, producer, creative director, cooking teacher, and lecturer. She is also a grain activist. Sonoko currently lives in Los Angeles and Tehachapi, California, with her sculptor husband, Katsuhisa Sakai.