Carlmont parents cook up famous food blog

Evan Leong

To make a living, many people work a 9-to-5 desk job. However, Carlmont parents Nami and Shen Chen make a living by running their own food blog.

Their blog is called Just One Cookbook (JOC), which they run alongside a YouTube channel and social media platform. JOC provides the world with authentic Japanese recipes and guides to Japanese dining and ingredients.

In addition, it is one of the most famous food blogs on the internet. According to Nami Chen, the blog brings in 4 million monthly viewers, and the JOC YouTube channel has 900,000 subscribers. They have also been featured on news sites such as KQED and the Washington Post.

Nami Chen, the cook, recipe maker, and face of JOC, was raised in Japan and learned to cook there. When she came to America at 20 as an immigrant, she brought along all the cooking skills she learned in Japan.

“Most of my cooking comes from my mom. When I was in middle school, I was told to come and prep. A lot of tips that I learned are not from lessons but more by looking at how she cooked,” Nami Chen said.

Shen Chen, the photographer, editor, and accountant for JOC, initially started in the workforce, where he did marketing. When he began helping Nami with JOC, he was able to translate the skills he learned from the workforce to the blog.

“I have always been in the business of buying and selling clicks. Digital media was my entire career before JOC. I love the fact that we can deliver goods digitally. It’s a very clean experience versus physical shipping,” Shen Chen said.

Starting out and creating the food blog was quite challenging. At first, figuring out the recipes and what audience to appeal to was put into question.

“We were not sure what to do initially, so I started my regular recipes that I cook at home. Then I realized that some people prefer Japanese recipes. But at some point, we realized that we should include other recipes. I shared other Asian and Western foods, but they were not good,” Nami Chen said.

As the food blog started getting traction, Nami and Shen Chen needed to find ways to expand their platform. To do so, they started posting on websites outside of the blog, like YouTube and Instagram.

“Being a food blogger, you have to have a social presence. Our initial goal was to bring those people from YouTube and Instagram to our website, but we learned that no matter how hard we tried, they did not go to the website. They wanted to stay on YouTube and Instagram. Our focus is still the website, which is the main income source,” Nami Chen said.

In addition, Nami Chen, being the face of JOC, found it difficult to create videos that appeal to YouTube viewers.

“We know that most viewers on YouTube are looking for entertainment content. I can teach how to cook, but it is boring to watch for the majority of people who are on YouTube. YouTube audiences do not really fit my style of video,” Nami Chen said.

Shen Chen would eventually quit his job to support JOC further. He would take the role of doing everything behind the scenes. Together, Nami and Shen Chen’s combined skillset helped develop JOC beyond what they could do before, with Shen working a full-time job.

“The majority of food bloggers are only one person. It's a lot of work to do everything; You have to make recipes, cook shoot, and you have to choose the style. You have to video and respond to comments, emails on social media, and having a website is a challenge by itself,” Nami Chen said.

Nami and Shen Chen come up with recipes that users cannot find everywhere on the internet. These recipes often stem from traditional Japanese cuisine.

“When people go to Japan and have good food, they look it up on our website with a recipe that naturally brings a closer audience,” Shen Chen said. A lot of our audience are people who live like Americans or foreigners who lived in Japan and are now moving back to their country and then looking for that recipe. A big portion is people who just traveled and tried something like Okonomiyaki and go, ‘oh this is so good, I want to make this at home.’”

After over a decade of creating recipes and trying new ideas on JOC, Nami and Shen Chen have carved out their niche in the food blog world.

“One thing that differentiates us is we offer a stepby-step process helping readers go from ingredients to the final dish. Most food blogs today, regardless of ethnicity or cuisine do not include step-by-step photos. You have to figure it out there,” Shen Chen said.

In addition, Nami and Shen Chen focus on the authenticity of their recipes. The main point is to keep the Japanese recipes on JOC authentic.

“We believe in more evergreen content. So for example, if your entire website was about fidget spinners, the payment would be great for two years, but it’s probably pretty daring. So instead of going after what’s trending, we go after what’s authentic and what’s been around Japan for 90 years,” Shen Chen said.

After a decade of running JOC, Nami and Shen Chen always prioritized their fans.

“We committed to helping everybody so all the emails have to be answered. All the recipe post comments have to be answered, and we answer social media comments too but it is a little bit difficult. We try our best, but we have a dedicated employee for this. Most of us don't do that, but we are very sure that this is what we do. We want to help other people,” Nami Chen said.