Finally, please allow me to say a few words about myself.

I have spent a great deal of my life in the world of food. Much of my life so far has been spent right alongside the cooking and the people who eat it. I want to pass on what I have seen from that vantage point whilst I still can. That is the sole reason I wrote this book.

As I was writing, my hand kept stopping.

One concern I have is whether I am making too much of a fuss about cooking.Cooking is a modest, everyday craft. By proclaiming it to be a source of strength or the key to the future, might I not actually be pushing aside those unassuming gestures—which should, in truth, be the real stars of the show? As I wrote and erased, erased and wrote again, this thought was constantly on my mind.

There was one more thing that gave me pause.

There are people who want to cook but cannot. There are people who want to feed others, but they won’t eat. I know that when you’ve reached the end of your tether, everything comes to a standstill. That’s why I feel reluctant to speak as an expert and give the usual talk about nutrition.

I hope this book does not end up putting anyone under pressure. That, at least, is something I tried to be mindful of right to the very end.

Even so, I was able to finish writing this thanks to the people who appear in it.

Those countless scenes were not a story I had made up. I was simply there. If anything, it was I who was being taught.

The children, who shook plastic bottles until their arms grew tired, and the people who went home saying they would try it out at home, gradually showed us—whilst their hands were busy—what cooking is all about.

Now that I’ve finished writing, there’s something on my mind.

I want to make a decision. I want to give it a go. I want to share it with someone. As for that tiny sprout, I simply stood by and watched it.

So, I don’t want you to become good at cooking. Nor do I want you to come to like it.

However, if the number of times in a day when I feel like giving it a go myself increases, even just a little, that’s enough.

I believe that the small seeds of change are within us right from the start.

May something small be beginning in some kitchen somewhere today, too.

TERUMI ISHIBASHI

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