Akino Ogata

Author, YouTuber, Recipe developer, former owner-chef of a pastry shop.  Baseball mom, and cat mom (Alex the Russian Blue Cat)

In 2004, I opened my small pastry shop in Nara, the oldest palace city in Japan. ( known for wild dears walk freely around the city center.)

Aside from running my pastry shop, I used to teach at my baking class for more than 15 years.

I know exactly how and when students make mistakes from my long-term experiences.

In 2016, one of my friends asked me to give a Wagashi (Japanese sweets) lesson for international students in English.

Japan had grown as the fastest tourism country at that time.

I said YES, and I started learning English to watch YouTube cooking show 8 hours a day for a month.

I was an English major, and I worked for a multi-national company for seven years.  But I teach only Japanese students, I had no vocabulary in Cooking.

The lesson went successfully, I felt relieved, but I felt something is missing.

I thought I don't want to waste my time learning English.

So I decided to start my own YouTube channel, "Kitchen Princess Bamboo."

Soon enough, my channel grows, and I became swamped.  I had no time to run my pastry shop.

In March 2019, I transferred my pastry business to a social welfare association to develop the local community.   (I am still in the business as a consultant.) 

Now that I am spending my time developing recipes to make them simpler and more accessible for home bakers.

I want to share my experience and knowledge that I accumulate over the years.

And yes, you can learn how to bake the best Shokupan in the world in your own kitchen!

I upload a video every Saturday at 23:00 JST (PST 6:00, EST 10:00) on my channel, it's not always about baking, but it might help improve your baking skills.