Meeting people who create delicious food is what nourishes me as a barista. Yukiko Takahashi, Food Researcher, MONOSUS

Hello, I'm Sugimoto, a writer living in Kyoto.
I usually write manuscripts at my desk at home, but when I get stuck, I pop into a coffee shop or cafe. Spending 15 minutes with a cup of coffee helps me relax my overheated brain. Whether it's at home or at a shop, it's nice to have someone make coffee for you.

Yukiko Takahashi, who joined MONOSUS Shokuken in 2021, is a barista who brews just such a cup of coffee. This time, we visited Everfresh Cafe, a cafe operated within the office of a major British pharmaceutical company where Takahashi serves as the manager. We spoke to her about her work so far and her daily life since joining MONOSUS Shokuken.

I want to make delicious coffee for my dad.

Sugimoto: I'd like to ask you about how you ended up joining Monosus. You originally worked as a barista. What made you become interested in coffee?

Takahashi: When I was a child, I saw my beloved father grinding coffee beans and drinking it black every morning, and I wondered, "I wonder if that mysterious liquid is tasty?" That's how it all began. I wanted to like the things my father liked, so I started drinking it little by little, with sugar and milk added. The reason I became a barista was because I wanted to "make delicious coffee for my father someday." I entered the cafe industry when I was 20 years old.

Sugimoto: I'm sure her father was very happy to have his daughter, who has become a barista, make him coffee.

Takahashi: I thought she would say, "It's delicious!" but she said, "Hmm. Well, it's good, but it's not quite there yet" (laughs). Later, my mother told me, "It was actually delicious, but I couldn't say it honestly," so I thought, "Next time, I'll get her to say it was delicious," and in the end she did say it.

Sugimoto: Have you been working in the cafe industry since you were 20 years old?

Takahashi: I was into herbs and aromas, and I worked as a herbal tea blender for a while. But I wanted to go back to the cafe industry. I talked to my mentor about it, and he advised me, "If you want to have your own cafe, you need to study alcohol," so I worked as a bartender for six years.

When I finished my job as a bartender in 2015, the first latte art champion came from Japan. I realized that I hadn't studied latte art, so I applied to work at a cafe with a qualified barista, and my current boss, Shigeta Arai, was there.

Japan Barista Association Certificate of Completion

Attention to Customers Unique to Employee Cafeterias

Sugimoto: What kind of work were you doing at that time, Arai-san?

Takahashi: I was a food manager at Google. I applied because they were looking for a barista team to be created in the Google cafeteria.

Sugimoto: What are the differences between working in a regular store and working in a company cafeteria?

Takahashi: Anyone can visit regular stores, but the cafeterias and cafes in offices are basically only for employees. The number of customers per day doesn't fluctuate much, and we have an average number of customers. Because we see people almost every day, we can notice when they look a little pale today. I also felt it was rewarding to be able to change the coffee I serve by observing their condition, saying things like, "Would you like it a little lighter today?" or "I'll make it strong." I thought that the meaning of our existence is to help customers who come to buy coffee in between work relax, even just a little.

Sugimoto: Have you been working with Arai-san ever since you met at Google?

Takahashi: When Arai-san left Google and moved to nonpi Inc., I followed him. After helping out at the cafe in nonpi's main kitchen, I became the manager of this "Everfresh Cafe". However, three and a half years after opening, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and fewer people came to work, so Everfresh Cafe was closed. That's when I left nonpi.

While I was working at another cafe for a while, I thought, "I want to work with Mr. Arai again somewhere," and then, at "Kamapan & Friends <Natural Products Hall>," which had a temporary store in the Ginza Sony Building, he asked me if I would like to work part-time because there was a vacancy. That's how I became involved in the MONOSUS Shokuken project.

In 2022, MONOSUS Foods was tasked with reopening Everfresh Cafe, and I returned as the store manager last summer. The employees remembered me and would ask me, "Hey, Takahashi-san! What have you been up to?"

My world expanded through working with Mr. Arai

Sugimoto: You said earlier that you would like to work with Arai again, but I'd like to hear why you would want to work with him.

Takahashi: Mr. Arai looks at things from a very neutral perspective. For example, when I was at Google, there were dozens of staff members, but he didn't discriminate based on whether they were part-time or full-time employees, or male or female, and instead assessed people's abilities and got them all moving together. I respect him because I think it's rare to find someone who can see things like that. Also, Mr. Arai himself has experience as a barista, so he can sympathize with what I want to do. Mr. Arai's espresso is really delicious!

Also, the cases that Arai-san brings to me seem like normal work but are different in some ways, so I can make new discoveries. When I was working at Kamapan & Friends, the store manager, Yuge (Kyoko), explained a lot of things to me, but I couldn't see the picture and it was all blurry. But when I went to Kamiyama and talked to the agricultural team, I thought, "I see!" I realized that there are a lot of things that you can't understand just by listening to them. I've been working in the food and beverage industry for 20 years now, but since joining MONOSUS Food Research, I've had a lot of first-time experiences.

Sugimoto: I heard that while you were in Kamiyama you helped out at Kamiyama Marugoto College of Technology and also supported the school lunch center that prepares school lunches in Kamiyama.

Takahashi: At first, I was supposed to stay for a week to help out at a technical college event. But I ended up staying for almost two months. Working at the school lunch center was also a new experience for me. For example, there are three sinks to wash vegetables, and I fill them with water and wash each vegetable, and each cabbage and lettuce leaf three times. It was my first time to see the operation of making 200 meals at once, and I was amazed by everything.

Meeting the creators of delicious food

Sugimoto: How do you feel about joining MONOSUS Food Research Institute and expanding your work beyond just coffee?

Takahashi: Until recently, I only wanted to work on coffee. But as I listened to the thoughts of the farmers and chefs in Kamiyama, I started to think that seeing a world I didn't know about, regardless of my occupation, could be a new stimulus. I started to want to try anything and everything. In this cafe, we serve meals using vegetables from the Food Hub Project (hereafter referred to as Food Hub), and because I know the thoughts of the producers, I can convey that to the customers. This creates new communication, and I feel like I want to know more.

I think that ultimately leads to the kind of coffee I want to make. For example, we eat vegetables on a regular basis. But when I went to Kamiyama, I was surprised and thought, "Were vegetables really this delicious?" Recently, I've been unable to buy cheap vegetables at the supermarket, and it's hurting my wallet (laughs). In the highly competitive coffee industry, how can I make something that makes people say, "Was coffee really this delicious?" I've been thinking about that more and more.

Sugimoto: I think there are a lot of people around Shashokuken who make delicious food. Has being around such delicious creators deepened your sense of "delicious"?

FarmMart & Friends' donuts are made to bring out the flavor of the ingredients

Takahashi: There are a lot of professionals at Monosus, so it's stimulating. What impressed me the most was the food made by chef Keiko Hosoi, who develops menus for Kudan Shokudo and Marugoto College of Technology cafeteria. She knows that "this vegetable tastes best in this way," and she makes the most of the flavor and aroma. The pasta she served me was incredibly delicious, and she said, "It's a really simple thing to make," and I was amazed that she could make something so simple! After eating Hosoi's food, food at other restaurants seems bland.

I once asked Hosoi, "How do you know so many delicious things?" He replied, "I research and order them, or go and eat them myself," and I thought, "That's the real deal!" Yuge also knows a lot of products, and he said, "I research and buy them myself, or go to the local place and buy them."

But when I think about it, I'm the same. I'll go to a cafe I'm interested in right away, and I'll order coffee beans from a shop that's far away and I can't go there right away and brew it. I realized that even though the genres are different, it's the same.

Coffee is not a job.

Sugimoto: If you're doing what you love for a living, you end up thinking about work even in your private time, so it must be difficult to switch on and off.

Takahashi: Basically, when I come to work and put on my uniform, I'm "on," and when I take it off, I'm "off." When I'm off, I get tired of interacting with people, and I really like being alone. Because I erase my "self" existence, when I get into my casual clothes and get on the elevator, customers look twice and say, "Takahashi-san... Takahashi-san, right?" (laughs). It's so different that people say they didn't even notice me.

Sugimoto: You can turn off your customer service duties, but do you ever find yourself going to a cafe on your days off or constantly thinking about coffee?

Takahashi: Ah, I don't really think of coffee as "work". For me, coffee is something that is inseparable. The reason I want to go to cafes on my days off is because I want to keep finding delicious things. The times are changing rapidly, and all kinds of new things are being created. If I don't keep taking in new information in order to continue working in coffee, I'll get stuck with old information and only see a narrow world. Also, going to cafes is like a hobby, so I feel like I want to go. And it feels like that leads to work.

Sugimoto: Are you taking on any new coffee-related challenges in your current job?

Takahashi: Creating FarmMart & Friends' coffee "Donut Blend". Yuge-san and Tanemoto (Hiroko) told me that they absolutely wanted me to use coffee beans from Kamiyama's "Mamechiyo Roastery", so I started by having them send me samples to taste. In fact, the donuts hadn't been completed at that point. Based on past trends, it would be something that makes the most of the ingredients, so a coffee with a strong impact would overshadow the donuts. I decided to make the donuts the main focus and aim for a coffee that goes well with them.

Right up until the donut tasting, I had Mamechiyo change the roast level and the combination of beans, tasting so many times that I felt like my stomach was going to explode. When I tried it with the donuts at the tasting, it went perfectly with the donuts, so I thought, "Yay!" Arai-san and Manabe-san also praised it.

The result is a coffee with a body that rivals the sweetness of a donut, but with a gentle flavor.

Sugimoto: Is there anything you would like to try in the future regarding coffee?

Takahashi: I want to try roasting. I bought some green beans and a small roaster, and am trying it out little by little.

Sugimoto: I'm looking forward to drinking coffee roasted by Takahashi someday! Thank you very much.

After the interview, Takahashi made me a latte.
I took a sip and thought, "This is so gentle." The coffee is softly enveloped in the sweetness of the milk, creating an exquisite balance that relaxes the mind.

"I always brew coffee with the hope that even one more person will find it delicious and soothing."

I felt like Takahashi's words were in the cup. If there was a place near me where I could drink this kind of latte, I would go there every time I finished writing a manuscript. I'm looking forward to the day when I can drink Takahashi's latte again.