Hiroko’s Kitchen | Blog

Today I went to a party to celebrate Judith Jones’s retirement from Alfred Knopf. Her career lasted more than five decades working with noted authors such as John Updike, John Hersey, Elizabeth Bowen, Peter Taylor and Anne Tyler. When it comes to cookbook authors she worked with Julia Child, James Beard, Lidia Bastianish, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Joan Nathan, Jacque Pepin and Claudia Roden. I am one of the very luckiest authors who can work with her. Here is her with me. At this retirement party she told me that she is freed! from forced obligations. She has many ideas and projects to spend her rest of her life fun and more meaningful.

Kanpai! (Toast) to her new career!

What a fun, easy to use and convenient piece of cookware the new Zojirushi’s Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet is.  I have steamed mussles (after mussles are done, I removed them and heated tomato sauce in the same skillet), fish and vegetables, and grilled wagyu beef steak (raised in America), pork chops and chicken with the very handy, easy to use and flexible applicance.  Flexibility does not usually come with Japanese way of thinking and products, so this is a big thing.  Judith Jones, my editor of The Sushi Experience, enjoyed cooking sukiyaki (thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked together with a little sugar, sake, shoyu and water) in this skillet with me the other day, and she was in the heaven. 

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