Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz
Washoku Culinary Coach
I grew up in the Washoku-ish food culture of Hawaii’s Japanese community, where food traditions connect generation after generation — nissei, sansei, yonsei — to our issei, who brought their southern Japanese farm recipes with them to Hawaii at the end the Meiji Era.
A lifelong student of Japanese home cooking, I began a serious study of washoku traditions through chef Elizabeth Andoh’s Tsudoi Project. I use 15 washoku principles and practices as a unique frame for whatever class I'm teaching.
My washoku cooking classes are held several times a month at the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, where I am the Instructor Coordinator for the Culinary Arts Studio. I am a recipe developer for Providence Heart Institute, and have more than a decade of experience researching nutrition and lifestyle medicine content for Providence and other hospitals and corporate wellness programs.
My love of the food world has led me to a variety of delicious work over the years: from food styling, video production, and cookbook design, to running the Cuiline Test Kitchen, where I helped international chefs create recipes for American home cooks taking online cooking classes.
My certificates in health and culinary coach training are from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and the CHEF coaching program at Harvard’s Institute of Lifestyle Medicine.