While some see cooking as just a means of nourishment for the body, in many cultures, it is also a way of expressing our love and care for others. For Yui Yamashita, it is this belief that led her to become a private chef, focused on making high-quality, wholesome meals for post-natal mothers.
Based in central Sydney, where she lives with her two-year-old son, Issa, Yui founded her culinary business in 2020, through which she offers weekly family meal packages and more – her own granola. We recently caught up with Yui in her home, where she showed us how to prepare one of her favourite Japanese breakfasts, shared more about her journey into health and wellness, along with a recipe that you can recreate at home.
Born in Tokyo, where she spent many of her formative years, Yui’s passion for health is informed by her Japanese heritage, as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda – two key practices which she incorporates in the kitchen. Drawing much of her inspiration from meals that she ate during her childhood, she recalls fond memories of her grandmother and mother’s cooking. “I remember staying at my grandmother’s home in the south of Japan, where she made us brown sugar steamed buns with sweet azuki bean paste,” says Yui. “She let us help wrap the sweet bean paste inside the buns and seeing them coming out of the steamer all puffed up and hot was one of my happiest food memories.”
While Yui had always had an interest in food and cooking, it didn’t initially strike her as a feasible career path. After finishing school, she cut her teeth in the wellness industry working as an occupational therapist, but ultimately realised that a traditional 9-5 wasn’t quite the right fit for her. “I worked for a few years but I knew it wasn’t for me and I started travelling around the world, teaching yoga and cooking in detox centres, volunteering and hitchhiking,” she says.
Upon moving from Melbourne to Sydney a few years later, she established her meal package offering as an extension of her private chef service. “One of my clients made a specific request to cook replenishing meals for her after she’d had some complications post birth,” explains Yui, “This started my journey in learning about the fourth trimester and how important it is for mothers to have proper nourishment and care during that time. I realised that all the wisdom and knowledge of postpartum nourishment came from the Eastern traditions and I felt that it was my purpose to learn and share this food.”
One of Yui’s most recent ventures was launching her own granola, Uchimama, which she created with her co-founder Alex. The name Uchimama is a portmanteau of ‘uchi’ meaning ‘home’ in Japanese, and ‘mama’ referring to the postpartum mothers she endeavours to nourish with her cooking. “Like so many, we were juggling the demands of work and motherhood and we needed a way to look after ourselves so that we could show up each day,” says Yui. “Our mission is simple; to help people nourish themselves, so they can be the best version of themselves.” Made in small batches using premium ingredients, the granola is gluten-free, and infused with powerful supplements like lion’s mane, mesquite and inca berries – all of which are renowned for their ultra-nourishing and anti-inflammatory benefits.
Reflecting on her own journey with wellness and nutrition, Yui shared some insights for those looking to lead a more health-conscious lifestyle – with high quality ingredients being one of her top priorities. “I go to farmers markets or the local organic grocer to get my fresh seasonal ingredients,” she says, “Choose something that you haven’t seen or you can only buy during the season and try something new, because this way your gut bacteria will love you for diversifying the food you’re eating.” As a big advocate of slow cooking, Yui continues “Pair [your produce] with cuts of meat with bones or joints that you can slow cook. It takes time but it is much easier for your body to digest and absorb and you will get all the minerals and nutrients from slow and low temperature cooking.”
Between the demands of work, friends, family, and for many of us – parenthood – we could all benefit from investing a bit more energy into our wellbeing. Should you wish to try out one of Yui’s nourishing meals for yourself, read on, as she shares her recipe for a salmon, soaked egg and pickled vegetable breakfast.
Salt cured salmon
This is the fish we eat for breakfast and you get for breakfast in most traditional hotels in Japan. The salt curing preserves the fish for a few days in the fridge and it's a quick grilling in the morning to provide a sustaining breakfast. The grilled fish can be crumbed and mixed into rice for kids to eat or to make onigiri - Japanese rice balls.
Serves 2
200g salmon preferably wild sustainable Canadian salmon
4g fine salt (I use celtic sea salt)
Cut the salmon into 2cm long strips. Place the salmon in a ziplock bag and weigh the salmon. It doesn't have to be exactly 200g, the ratio of salt to salmon has to be at 2%. Work out the amount of salt you'll need and add the salt to the salmon. You can make a few batches of it and freeze it - keep for up to 2-3 weeks, or keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. Move the salmon around inside the ziplock bag to distribute the salt and leave in the fridge overnight.
To grill, take out of the bag (if frozen, defrost in the fridge first) and place on a baking tray skin side down and grill for 5 minutes and turn and grill for another 3 minutes. You might need to grill a bit longer if your piece is thick. Serve with rice and pickles.
Japanese style pickles
Pickles are an essential part of every Japanese meal. There are many types of pickles (about 600 types) using different ingredients to pickle and preserve the vegetable, which started about 1300 years ago. It's an ancient wisdom to preserve and enhance the flavour. With this simple salt and vinegar pickle you can use any veggies such as cucumber, radish, daikon, carrot and even celery.
Makes 1 large jar
1 cucumber
4-5 radishes
About ½-1 tsp salt
2-3 tsp umeboshi plum vinegar or rice vinegar
Use a mandolin or a slicing setting on your food processor. You can still slice with your knife but you get the most beautiful evenly sliced pickles if you have a mandolin. I use mine all the time for pickles and slicing veggies for salads and making coleslaw. Slice the cucumber and radish and place them in a bowl. Sprinkle the salt and massage lightly with your hand (add 1 tsp salt if you used a very large cucumber). Leave for about 15 minutes and one the veggies have released some liquid add the vinegar. Depending on the size of your veggies add more vinegar if there's a lot of veg. Mix and put it into the jar and keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. Normally pickles have sugar in them but I don't like to use sugar if it's not necessary, and this recipe seems to work without it. If you can get the umeboshi plum vinegar please do because this is another Japanese superfood: antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-aging and repairs DNA mutations. I use it for dressings as well.
Ajitsuke tamago
Also known as ramen egg. It's a soft-boiled egg soaked in sauce to add flavour and to preserve. It's delicious with rice or in a noodle soup.
Makes 6
6 large eggs refrigerated
4 tbs water
3 tbs soy sauce or tamari
2 tbs mirin
1 tbs sugar - I use coconut sugar
Make soft boiled eggs by boiling water in a large saucepan and place the eggs from the fridge gently into the pot. Put the timer on for 7 minutes - if you need it to be hard boiled, boil for 8 minutes or longer. Drain and place the eggs back in the pot and run cold water until the water in the pot becomes cold and leave the eggs in the pot. To make the marinating liquid, place water, soy sauce, mirin and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to boil and simmer for 3 minutes and let it cool. Peel the eggs and place in a ziplock bag. Pour the cooled liquid into the bag and seal the bag. Place the eggs in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours (preferably overnight) and it will keep for 2-3 days.
Discover more from Yui at yuiyamashita.com
