Naoko Takei Moore

Naoko Takei Moore is a Tokyo-born cook, author, and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles who became North America’s most persuasive advocate for donabe—Japan’s versatile clay-pot cooking tradition. After studying international relations and working in the music business, she moved to California and pursued formal culinary training, then wine credentials, before turning her attention to a humbler object: the lidded earthenware pot. In 2008 she launched TOIRO, first as a small online shop centered on Nagatani-en’s Kamado-san rice cooker, and later as a West Hollywood retail space celebrating Japanese artisan cookware. Moore’s 2015 cookbook “Donabe,” published by Ten Speed Press, helped English-language readers understand donabe not as a gadget but as a daily ritual connecting season, table, and community. She teaches classes, imports carefully chosen pieces, and narrates Japanese food culture with clarity and warmth. Her work sits at the intersection of design, education, and hospitality: she is less interested in spectacle than in helping people cook more thoughtfully at home. Moore’s biography is a reminder that influence in food does not always require a tasting menu.

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