Cookbook Live with Naoko Takei Moore, Pasadena

Cookbooks are too often treated as instruction manuals when they're really something closer to memoirs with recipes. Cookbook Live with Naoko Takei Moore makes that case out loud: an evening that brings together food, storytelling, and the particular intimacy of hearing an author talk about the dish that made them who they are.

This event is part of the LAist and James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Live series, a rotating program that brings some of the country's most interesting culinary voices to The Crawford in Pasadena for evenings of conversation, context, and (in most installments) food to taste.

Who Is Naoko Takei Moore?

Naoko Takei Moore is one of the foremost authorities on Japanese home cooking and specifically on donabe, the traditional Japanese clay pot cooking vessel that has been central to Japanese culinary culture for centuries. Her book Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking (co-authored with Kyle Connaughton) was widely acclaimed both for its recipes and for its framing of a cooking tradition that was largely unknown to Western audiences.

Beyond donabe, Takei Moore is the founder of TOIRO, a Los Angeles-based shop dedicated to authentic Japanese cooking tools and ingredients. She approaches food as a bridge between cultures, Japanese home cooking traditions carried into an LA kitchen, adapted without being diluted.

Hearing her talk about her work is an opportunity to understand something about Japanese culinary culture that doesn't come through recipe headnotes. Her cooking is inseparable from her biography: raised in Japan, based in LA, deeply invested in sharing something she loves with people who aren't yet familiar with it.

The James Beard Foundation Connection

The James Beard Foundation's involvement signals the seriousness of this series. The Foundation has spent decades supporting American food culture, and its partnership with LAist on Cookbook Live reflects a shared investment in making culinary conversations accessible to audiences beyond the usual food-media circuit.

This isn't a cooking demo or a book signing: it's an evening of genuine conversation about what food means, where it comes from, and how a cookbook can be both a technical manual and a cultural document.

Practical Details

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2026 Time: 7:00 PM Pacific Venue: The Crawford, 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105 Tickets: See laist.com/events for pricing and availability

Getting There: The Crawford is near the Del Mar and Memorial Park Metro A Line stations. Old Town Pasadena has excellent Japanese dining nearby if you want to make an evening of it, thematically appropriate, and practically delicious.

Why This One

LA has a rich Japanese culinary culture, from Little Tokyo's historic restaurants to the Torrance dining corridor to the Japanese markets scattered across the Westside, and events that illuminate that tradition with the depth it deserves are genuinely valuable. Naoko Takei Moore does exactly that.

If you're interested in Japanese food, in how cooking traditions cross cultural lines, or just in the specific pleasure of hearing a knowledgeable person talk about something they love, this is an evening worth your time.

Browse more food and drink events in LA or see what else is happening in Pasadena.