Hiroko's American Kitchen
Hiroko’s third book is Hiroko’s American Kitchen: Cooking with Japanese Flavors (Andrews McMeel 2012). The book won the IACP Cookbook Award as "The Best American Cookbook of the Year."
The book provides an entirely new perspective on American cooking. Rather than teaching how to prepare classical Japanese cuisine, it focuses on integrating Japanese flavors, cooking techniques, and staples into the North American table.
The Sushi Experience
Hiroko’s second book, The Sushi Experience (Knopf, 2006) was a James Beard Foundation finalist. The book explores the history and culture of sushi and thoroughly details its preparation. It is recognized as a standard by professionals and avocational cooks alike. The book was edited by Judith Jones (the woman who discovered Julia Child).
The Japanese Kitchen
Hiroko's first book, The Japanese Kitchen (Harvard Common Press, 2000) was selected as an IACP Best Cookbook Finalist. It was recognized in Food & Wine magazine's Best of The Best, and in Cooking Light magazine as one of the Top 100 Cookbooks of the last 25 years.
It is considered the standard work on Japanese cooking for a Western audience, and is the largest-selling Japanese cookbook in the American market.
The Japanese Kitchen has been translated into Spanish and published in Spain, as La Cocina Japonesa.
La Cocina Japonesa
Hiroko's first book, The Japanese Kitchen, has been translated into Spanish and published in Spain, as La Cocina Japonesa (RBA Libros, 2000, 2006, 2024).
In this book, you will find detailed descriptions of Japanese ingredients and how to select them, as well as explanations of culinary techniques and more than 250 recipes with useful illustrations.
From the foreword by Ming Tsai: "Japanese cuisine is a tool that should occupy a place in every cook's library. From beginners to experienced chefs, they will all learn from Hiroko."
Featured Writings
Hiroko enjoys producing high-quality stories and recipes for magazine readers to enjoy online and in print.
She has been a guest contributor for major culinary publications worldwide.
Interested in new work? Submit a contributor request to get started.
Food & Wine: Beef Sukiyaki Noodles
A mix of colorful vegetables and juicy, thin-sliced steak is tossed with spaghetti for this sweet and savory Japanese-inspired dinner. Cookbook author Hiroko Shimbo riffs on Japanese sukiyaki, a hot-pot dish featuring beef and vegetables simmered in a sweet and savory sauce, in this weeknight-friendly meal. In lieu of a hot pot, Shimbo uses a skillet to quickly sauté sliced rib eye, cauliflower, and Broccolini in a maple syrup–sweetened sukiyaki sauce. Served with thin spaghetti, this satisfying meal is ready in under 45 minutes. Continue reading on Food & Wine >
Food and Wine: Okura No Nibitashi
This chilled, umami-rich dish features tender okra pods marinated in a sweetened dashi sauce with katsuobushi. Crisp whole okura, or okra, take on the lightly sweet and smoky flavors of Japanese cooking authority Hiroko Shimbo’s dashi and are served cold with the broth. Continue reading on Food & Wine >
Food Republic: Chorizo And Shrimp Rice Recipe
My teaching trips to Spain have inspired this combination of Spanish chorizo and shrimp takikomi gohan. I often make a double batch and freeze some for a quick and satisfying lunch. In this recipe, I use wholesome brown rice, but this dish is also very good with polished white rice. Continue reading on Food Republic >
The Wall Street Journal: Kelp Wanted
What's the secret to making all kinds of dishes infinitely more delicious? It's in this simple Japanese stock. Whenever I see the leathery black kelp known in Japan as kombu, I think of my mother, reaching into our pantry and retrieving a sheet or two several times each day. As a little girl in Tokyo, I had no idea why kombu was so important to her cooking; I just knew it was omnipresent. As I grew older, I learned that infusing this kelp in water makes an elemental stock with a round, rich taste, a mild sweetness and a touch of saltiness from the sea—the basis for countless Japanese dishes, and the source of their profound depth of flavor. Continue reading on WSJ >