Japanese dining specialist in Sabah
KOTA KINABALU: Japanese celebrity dining specialist Noriko Sato, who is here for a visit, hopes to start enhancing hosting experiences for restaurant business owners and aspirants in Sabah.
“Supported by Sabah Tourism Board (STB), Noriko, 48, will conduct a one-day workshop covering food presentation to creative table settings.
“Her workshops are so sought after that 17 of her fans have traveled all the way from Japan just to see her in action,” said Sabah Tourism chairman, Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.
Noriko’s interests started first with hosting dinner for friends then, at her small wine bar in Akasaka, Tokyo where her talents and hosting skills escalated.
She has since published three books and has been conducting workshops in Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo.
Joniston said Japanese personalities are good ambassadors for tourism Sabah especially those who actively promote food and lifestyle. Japanese food fighter Yuri Ishizeki, who visited Sabah recently, sampled most of the food Sabah is known for.
“Food fighters, or big eaters, are popular Japanese pop culture figures.
“They are mostly active on Social Media, where videos of them eating in big portions would easily attract millions of viewers,” he said.
“STB has an active and booming social media presence. We currently reach out to English, Japanese, Korean and Russianspeaking audience. We are connecting people in a significant way,” Joniston added.