Japanese culinary authority Elizabeth Andoh was in her Tokyo kitchen on the afternoon of March 11, 2011 when the Great Eastern-Japan Earthquake struck. The enormity of the toll stunned the world: unprecedented loss of life, and nearly all who did survive lost their homes and businesses. Entire communities had to be evacuated; whole industries were wiped out.

Elizabeth wondered what she could do to help those in the devastated Tohoku region. Eager to preserve the area’s rich culinary heritage while nourishing the morale of displaced residents, she began writing KIB? (“Brimming with Hope”): Recipes & Stories from Japan’s Tohoku (Ten Speed Press, February 2012). In this, her culinary tribute to the region, she shares Tohoku classics with a global audience, including recipes like Persimmons Stuffed with Fall Fruits in Pine Nut-Tofu Sauce.

Kibo by Elizabeth Andoh

Snapshot of the eBook original Kibo

Elizabeth and publisher Ten Speed Press are donating 50 percent of the profits from the book to GlobalGiving’s Japan earthquake and tsunami relief and recovery projects, specifically Sponsor Fellows for Tohoku and Japan’s Recovery. This project, launched and managed by ETIC (Entrepreneurial Training for Innovative Communities) has a dual goal: creating jobs in the area devastated by the disaster and developing a new generation of business leaders in Japan.

To read in Elizabeth’s own words about the birth of Kibo, click the eBook cover below:


The devastation of Japan’s Tohoku and Kanto regions [hyperlink map] began
with an earthquake of remarkable force on Friday, March 11, 2011, at 2:46
in the afternoon. The record-breaking tidal waves (tsunami) that immediately
followed left crushing, crippling destruction in their wake. In the days,
weeks, and months thereafter, nature’s onslaught continued with hundreds
of very strong aftershocks, many accompanied by yet more tsunami and by
landslides. When winter thawed into spring, melting snow revealed deep,
destructive fissures in the landscape. To compound the horror, damage to
the Fukushima power plant produced severe and extensive energy shortages
and wreaked radiation havoc, forcing widespread evacuation and focusing
world attention on safety issues in the use of nuclear energy. The triple
calamity—earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown—officially has been
named the Great Eastern-Japan Earthquake Disaster (Higashi Nihon Dai-
Shinsai), shortened by most to a painfully simple word: Disaster (Shinsai).
Yet, as Japan struggled—continues to struggle—to rebuild in the aftermath
of tragedy, the prevailing mood is one of dogged determination,
imbued with hope. In a single Japanese word: kib?. And that is what I have
chosen to name this culinary tribute to the Tohoku.

Kibo by Elizabeth Andoh