Just One Cookbook

Namiko Hirasawa Chen and Shen Chen, Co-Founders

San Francisco, CA

2025

Just One Cookbook is bringing the joy of Japanese home cooking to readers around the world

In 2011, Namiko Hirasawa Chen started Just One Cookbook with her husband, Shen Chen, to preserve her family’s treasured Japanese recipes. Over the past 14 years, the blog has become a beloved resource for readers eager to explore Japanese cuisine and culture.

A taste of Japanese home cooking

Namiko Chen, affectionately known as Nami to her fans, loves to cook — and like any parent, she wants to pass this love of food onto her children. So for years, she would scribble down recipes on sticky notes, print some out, and translate others from Japanese to English. It wasn’t a very organized system, and naturally, she worried that some of these recipes would get lost.

As she wrote these recipes down, she decided to send some to friends over email. Finally, after trying and enjoying some of Nami’s recipes, a friend pitched a novel idea: “Why don’t you start a food blog?”

The idea stuck — and in 2011, Nami and her husband, Shen, started Just One Cookbook. Instead of recipes strewn across sticky notes and emails, all of Nami’s most treasured Japanese recipes would be collected in “just one cookbook” online.

“Our mission is to bring joy and happiness to those preparing delicious meals for their families,” says Nami. “We believe that mealtime is more than just eating—it’s a special time to share, care, and express love through both the beautiful presentation of food and its delicious flavors.”

Though they started the blog with no expectations, readership steadily grew in the first couple of years. While readers came for delicious, authentic Japanese home-cooked meals like chicken curry and miso soup, they also found insights into Japan's travel destinations and its unique, world-renowned culture.

With their audience growing, Nami and Shen started to think seriously about monetizing their popular content — so in 2011, they turned to Google AdSense.

Ads offer a helping hand

When Nami and Shen started out with ads, their ambitions were humble. The goal was to use ad revenue to cover job-related expenses like ingredients, a camera, software, and a computer.

“But over time, our ad revenue evolved into supporting additional resources and expanding what we can offer,” says Shen. “Most importantly, it allows Just One Cookbook to keep the content free for everyone. While we do offer an ad-free option behind a paywall, it doesn't include exclusive content. Everything remains accessible to non-paying customers.”

Revenue growth has allowed Nami and Shen to expand their team. Though they’re still the power couple behind the blog, they’ve added eight additional team members over the years. These teammates include a videographer/editor, travel writer, content manager, copy editor, social media manager, recipe developer, community manager, and assistant writer.

“Nami was doing everything by herself up until 2017,” says Shen. “She was doing social media, she was updating and creating posts, she was testing recipes — and with all this work, she was getting only about four hours of sleep a day.”

Thankfully, employing a larger team has lightened the load. It’s also helped Just One Cookbook think bigger about their content — increasing their travel budget so that they can offer more detailed guides to Japan’s many landmarks.

And in September 2024, Nami and Shen kicked off one of their most exciting new ventures yet: JOC Goods. Their online store features artisan Japanese tableware and kitchenware — so once you’re done cooking one of Nami’s home-cooked recipes, you can plate it in style.

“Even though it’s only been a couple months, orders are coming in quickly,” says Shen. “I think people really appreciate all the unique tableware we’re curating.”

Nami and Shen are also planning to launch Just One Cookbook’s Japan travel site, separating it from the main recipe site. They feel this will improve the user experience, helping travel enthusiasts find travel-specific content, while foodies can visit Just One Cookbook for exclusively food-related content.

“Over time, our ad revenue evolved into supporting additional resources and expanding what we can offer. Most importantly, it allows Just One Cookbook to keep the content free for everyone.”

Keep calm — and cook with Nami

With a bigger team and steady ad income, Nami and Shen now value the flexibility that an ad-supported model offers.

“It's really given us a lot of family time,” says Nami. “We’re always working, but then the flexibility allows us to just stop everything and be with the kids whenever we want to. Plus, we can work from anywhere in the world and aren’t tied down to an office. It’s great having no boss and ultimately answering only to ourselves.”

The blog has also expanded their world, allowing them to connect with a whole community of readers who are passionate about Japanese cooking and culture.

“We’ve gotten to meet so many different artists and people who are so talented,” says Shen. “They’ve learned how friendly Nami is, so they love chatting with her. Through these connections, we’ve really gotten to see more of the world.”

Nami and Shen also hear from readers caring for elderly parents who struggle to work up a healthy appetite. But that quickly changes once they smell one of Nami’s dishes cooking in the kitchen.

“We often receive heartfelt emails from third and fourth-generation Japanese-Americans,” says Nami. “Many readers express how their mothers or grandmothers never wrote down recipes, and they are deeply grateful to be able to recreate those cherished family flavors using our recipes.”

Nami understands that American readers might feel intimidated by Japanese cuisine. The meals might not be familiar, and finding all the ingredients at the local grocery store isn’t always easy. For those who feel hesitant, Nami has advice: just relax.

“Don’t worry,” she says. “We’re here to guide you every step of the way, so you can make Japanese home-cooked meals with confidence.”

About the Publisher

Namiko Hirasawa Chen is the co-founder of Just One Cookbook, a leading website for Japanese recipes. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, and now based in San Francisco, Nami has spent the past 14 years sharing authentic Japanese home-cooked recipes and insights into Japanese food with the world.