Chef Keiko Kuwakino’s food philosophy revolves around produce from the Japanese mountains
- 1 Star in the Michelin Guide Niigata
- Best Lady Vegetables Chef Awards 2023.
- 18th @Top Best Vegetable Restaurants 2021
More 1 Stars chefs here. Other Japanese chefs here. More female chefs here.
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Native to Japan, Keiko Kuwakino studies the lore of wild vegetables of the mountains-side. Her relationships with locals and their generational traditions entwined with her creative sensibilities, she creates a novel and lyrical expression of satoyama cuisine. Her career began when traveling to Australia and India to learn about Ayurveda philosophy. By experiencing the local food culture and climate, Keiko Kuwakino now honors life in snow country as Chef de Cuisine at Satoyama Jujo in Minamiuonuma, Japan. Awarded one star in the Michelin Guide Niigata 2020 Special Edition, Terroir Awarded in Gault&Millau 2022. Represents Best Lady Vegetables Chef Awards 2023.
She’s touted as the best female vegetarian chef in the world. Hailing from Minami-uonuma, a mountainous region peppered with beech forests and terraced rice fields outside Niigata in Japan, Keiko Kuwakino’s food philosophy revolves around produce from the mountains: Working with local farmers and foragers to both support the local community and ensures that the plants, tubers, grains and nuts she cooks with retain their maximum nutritional value and energy potential.
It’s at Sanaburi, the Michelin-starred restaurant within Satoyama Jujo, a luxury boutique hotel, that Keiko Kuwakino brings her philosophy to life. Working with mainly seasonal plants, but also fish and other animal proteins, she creates menus which are both pure and light and enhanced with her own fermentations.
It’s a food philosophy that has earned Keiko a slew of awards: From World’s Best Female Vegetable Chef by We’re Smart World in 2023, to Two Knives at The Best Chef Awards in 2024. Sanaburi has 1-Michelin star. It also has a Terroir Award and holds a score of 15.5 by Gault Millau.
