The dining table has been and always will be the center of family life.
The 39-year-old well-known chef in Japan gained overnight fame when she was first featured on a TV show in February 2017. It was a life-changing moment for her that allowed her to follow her passion and enlighten us all at the same time.
Shima-san, as she is called, is known for preparing 15 dishes in three hours all while they are partially frozen. Securing her services has now become impossible for other potential customers because of Shima-san’s preference to working or single mothers.
She has 15 years previous experience as a chef at a famous, 5-starr French restaurant in France. She has since fallen in love with French food, culture and eating habits.
She soon quit her job in a professional kitchen to get married and have kids. However, she needed to look for a way to be a wife, mother and chef and pursue her true passion. But then, she decided to try her luck by using someone else’s kitchen. And it worked.
After that stint, consumers in Japan were now willing to pay more for convenience, and companies even providing housekeeping, child care and food service as employee benefits, Tassin succeeded in turning her passion into money.
Majority of her clientele are double-income families. However, her sadness comes when she hears of children eating their dinners at childcare centers while their parents work late.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released statistics showing that the French spend 2 hours and 11 minutes on eating and drinking per day. Japan comes in at 1 hour and 35 minutes per day.
Tassin says that Japanese women feel that cooking needs to be complicated and time-consuming. French women, on the other hand, seem to have no issue with slapping together a simple meal.
Reference: Food expert’s advice: When in Japan, do as the French do
