Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares’s Umai Cookbook Opens the Doors To Japanese Home Cooking

Undulating crowds traversing busy crossroads and neon-streaked skyscrapers are just some of the images that might spring to mind when thinking of the Japanese capital of Tokyo—its chaos, energy, and spirit of adventure. But for Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares, it’s the calmness, serenity, and beauty of Japan that she has long wanted to celebrate. And Umai, her debut cookbook, offers just that.

The book, which could sit well-thumbed and dashi-streaked on a kitchen counter as easily as it could in a curated coffee table tableau, features recipes rooted in the home cooking Lagares does in her little kitchen, as well as from her childhood. There are also striking film photos of Kyoto by Lucy Laucht, and several personal essays and reflections by Lagares. “This book is just as much for a novice cook as well as a chef,” she tells Vogue.

Lagares had wanted to write a cookbook for years, but was never sure what her “niche” was. During the pandemic, she began making small cookbook zines and collaborating with friends who would send recipes that she’d illustrate. She doubled down after moving to her mother’s home of Japan in 2023, where she immersed herself in food, getting inspired by local ingredients, and trying the local fare in izakayas and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

Lagares spotted a gap in the market for a book exploring Japanese home cooking. “I think I found it majorly lacking in the cookbook scene as there are only a few authors that come to mind,” she says. A lot of people would tell her how they found the prospect of making Japanese food intimidating. “I guess because a lot of the time you think about more high end Japanese restaurants, or ramen that takes days of labor to make a perfect stock,” Lagares explains. “I just wanted to make it as accessible as possible with a few store cupboard staples. There’s a lot of what I grew up eating as a child and then things I made in the house of five of us when I first moved to Japan.”

Many dishes feature under 10 ingredients, with mostly pantry flavorings like soy sauce, mirin, sake, and dashi. “Not everything is so prim and proper,” she says. “A Japanese meal is all about having different textures, colors, and temperatures in one meal: That’s why so many home cooked meals will be based around rice, miso soup, a room temperature salad, or simmered vegetable element, a fish, or meat main—whether it’s fried, grilled, simmered—and maybe a slice of perfectly chilled fruit.”

Her memories of food are woven through the book: Visiting her grandparents in Japan during her childhood, she recalls her grandmother rising early to make rice, daikon, and wakame miso soup. She also remembers meals at the historic washoku restaurant Maisen, and Italian-Japanese fusion spot Konel in the Yoyogi Uehara district. A trip to Fujisawa in Yokosuka, a tiny, five seater soba shop, was her first meal upon permanently moving to Tokyo—and it inspired the book’s hiyashi rayu soba recipe, a dish of chilli oil chicken dipping noodles. “It immediately brought me back to making the decision to move to Japan, and tastes so comforting,” she says.

The Japanese izakaya—a laidback spot that’s like a pub with food—also gets its own chapter, inspired by Lagares’s travels around Japan to explore regional cuisine, like dashi-forward dishes in Kyoto and okonomiyaki in Hiroshima. But the book is a spectrum that allows any home cook to dip in and out: There are marinated tomatoes perfect for summer salads, on toast or with somen, as served in the book. There’s foil-grilled salmon that makes for an easy 15-minute meal without compromising flavor.

For something more fun? “I would always go to the karaage—my favorite recipe in the book,” Lagares says. Chicken thighs are marinated in soy sauce, ginger, and garlic, and they’re double fried. “I always make extra for sandwiches the next day.” Hosting? Go for gyoza—a fun group activity.

Below, find Millie’s recipe for her okonomiyaki, a popular traditional Japanese savory pancake that she grew up eating.

Photo: Lizzie Mayson

Okonomiyaki, a Japanese Savory Pancake

Serves 2

Okonomiyaki—a Japanese savory pancake topped with a variety of savory morsels and sauces—is hugely popular throughout the country. There are two main regional variations: The Osaka-style one is made with cabbage and nagaimo (mountain yam) in the batter to provide a fluffy pancake, while the Hiroshima-style one is a thin crêpe layered with a fried egg and filled with fried noodles. My favorite style is the former, which is found across the Kanto region, and is what I grew up eating at home.

Traditionally, this would be topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, aonori seaweed, and katsuobushi (dried smoked bonito flakes) with benishoga (pickled ginger) on the side. I love lashings of sauce and go generous with the katsuobushi, which provides a really nice smoky flavor. The aonori adds an element of umami to the dish that you can only get from seaweed. You could, of course, go with just the sauce and mayonnaise if the other ingredients are hard to find.

The grated nagaimo is what gives this dish its light, fluffy texture, so it’s worth tracking down. It’s available from Asian supermarkets and is sometimes sold as Chinese mountain yam or cinnamon vine. Negi are a type of Japanese spring onion. If you can’t find them, use spring onions (scallions) instead. Tenkasu are bits of fried tempura batter that add crunch.

For the batter:

• 1⁄4 head of cabbage, finely shredded
• 1 negi or scallion, finely sliced
• 31⁄2oz nagaimo (Chinese mountain yam or cinnamon vine)
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 tsp hondashi or vegetarian alternative
• 5oz/1 cup plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• handful of grated mozzarella cheese (optional)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

For the filling:

• 4 slices thinly sliced pork belly or unsmoked streaky bacon per pancake, or use shrimp and squid for a meat-free alternative
• 1 kirimochi per pancake, sliced into small chunks
• 2 tbsp tenkasu

Toppings:

• okonomiyaki sauce (if you don’t have this, mix equal parts Japanese tonkatsu sauce with ketchup)
• mayonnaise
• your choice of: aonori seaweed, katsuobushi (dried smoked bonito flakes), benishoga (pickled ginger)

1. For the pancake batter, combine the cabbage and negi in a bowl. Grate the yam in a separate bowl—a Japanese grater is useful for this, or use the finest setting on a box grater. Mix in the eggs, hondashi, and 5fl oz/scant 2/3 cup water, then add the flour, mixing gently to form a batter. Add the cheese, if using, then mix the cabbage and negi through the batter, and you’re ready to fry.
2. Heat half of the oil in a large skillet over a medium-low heat. When hot, add the batter and spread it out. top with pork slices/bacon, nestle in the kirimochi and tenkasu (if using) and allow to cook on one side. After 2-3 minutes, you need to flip the pancake—use a spatula to slide the pancake onto a plate, cooked side-down, cover with the pan, and turn the whole thing over so that the cooked side is now facing up. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes.
3. Serve immediately, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, and your choice of aonori, katsuobushi, or benishoga.