was a Japanese
celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...
,
food writer
Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians.
Definition
Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food ...
, and founder/leader of the charity "Kagurazaka Women's Choir".
Biography
Katsuyo Kobayashi was born in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
in 1937. A graduate of
Tezukayama Gakuin College Tezukayama may refer to:
*Tezukayama Station, a railway station in Osaka, Japan
*Tezukayama University, a university in Nara, Japan
*Tezukayama Gakuin University, a university in Osaka Prefecture, Japan
{{disambiguation ...
, she became a homemaker after marriage. When she got married at the age of 21, she couldn't cook although she was a homemaker.
She started learning how to cook from her mother and neighbors who could cook well. In 1963, initiated by a letter to a TV program, her career as a gourmet scholar started: she got her own TV program at the local television station in Osaka. In 1970, she debuted as an essayist, and published many cookbooks and essays. She appeared on NHK's cooking programs such as “Kyou no Ryouri (Today’s Dinner)” for the last 26 years and received public attention. She also created household products. Her serving dish “Kiai” was awarded the Good Design Award by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion Organization, which is instituted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan, in 1990. In 1994, she participated in Iron Chef and defeated Kenichi Chin, the Iron Chef of Chinese cuisine. In addition, her English cookbook “The Quick and Easy Japanese Cookbook” was awarded the Best Cookbook in Asia by the Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2000.
She published nearly 200 cookbooks and essays and she also supported people who are living in the disaster areas of the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995.
In 1994, she participated in the TV cooking contest ''
Iron Chef
is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook-off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle bui ...
'', winning against
Chen Kenichi.
Kobayashi, whose son Kentarō is also a celebrity chef, published more than 200 books.
A strong believer in
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on 3 May 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces th ...
, she was one of the founders of ''Magazine 9''.
After suffering a
subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2005, she died on January 23, 2014, of
multiple organ failure
Multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) is altered organ function in an acutely ill patient requiring medical intervention to achieve homeostasis.
Although Irwin and Rippe cautioned in 2005 that the use of "multiple organ failure" or "multisy ...
.
References
External links
Katsuyo recipessmart phone site)
Katsuyo Kitchen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kobayashi, Katsuyo
1937 births
2014 deaths
Japanese chefs
Food writers
People from Osaka
Women food writers