My love for hosting comes from my mother. She grew up in Fukuoka, Japan on a farm (yep, southern farm girl). She met my American father and was transplanted to America. The language barrier she had with her peers left her lonely and pining for home. Cooking  was the balm to her missing Japan and additionally it redirected her sadness into creativity. My bold and fearless mom would invite people over even with her limited English and would often make Japanese soul food. Growing up, my siblings and I would race to the table after enduring the aromatics of my mom’s dinner prep and we would laugh, tease and furiously eat gyoza, curry, katsudon or soba etc. These dinners are the continuation and extension of the joy I felt all those nights.