About us, or from a love and passion for Matcha

She grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture. After studying business and administration, despite expectations that she would fully engage in running the family construction business, she decided to follow her heart and enrolled in the Tokyo Seika Gakko culinary school. Her desire to find daily dietary ingredients conducive to maintaining health and well-being prompted her to further her education in macrobiotic cuisine at the world-renowned Kushi Institute.

She integrated her skills as a lecturer at the ABC Studio culinary school in Tokyo, while deepening her knowledge of the Urasenke tea ceremony in Yokohama. It was then that she decided to expand her culinary horizons beyond Japan and gain a solid foundation in European cuisine in Paris – working at the renowned Ze Kitchen Galerie in Saint-Germain des Prés, under the supervision of chef William Ledeuil, was an excellent introduction to further levels of education.

Hitomi Saito then graduated from the famous Le Cordon Bleu school, a hotbed of culinary talent, whose guiding principle is Art de Vivre – the art of living. The strategy of combining traditional, sometimes centuries-old recipes with modern flavors and dish arrangements, as taught at Le Cordon Bleu, is close to Saito's cooking philosophy. Her family ties to Poland, however, introduced her to another microcosm of flavors and allowed her to expand her own atelier's repertoire with new, unique combinations of Japanese, French, and Slavic motifs. She has cooked for, among others, the American diplomatic corps in Paris and Karl Lagerfeld.