The exterior of Fumie Ito’s Kitchen Therapy café is hard to distinguish from the other businesses housed in the same strip mall. On a routine tour of San Bruno, it looks like any other anonymous front door.
The magic kicks in on the other side of the threshold. With only five to six tables, the small dining room feels like someone’s cozy and intimate front parlor rather than a cramped, impersonal chain restaurant.
Although Ito grew up in Japan, she describes the menu as “Japanese-influenced” rather than as authentic or traditionally Japanese. When she started her own catering business, Sweet and Natural, a decade ago, she didn’t want to make sushi or tempura. Before social media popularized them, Ito was serving pork and chicken cutlet sandwiches. “Pork cutlet sandwiches aren’t traditional in Japan but I don’t think we see them prepared the same way anywhere else in the world,” she said.
Ito defines her “therapeutic” approach to running a kitchen with the motto “Eating is Healing.” The chef’s hakko dishes—curries, bento, onigiri and bibimbap bowls—incorporate a variety of different fermented ingredients, all made in house. During our phone interview, the chef explained why she included a selection of them on the menu. “I want people to be happy and feel good about themselves,” she said. “If your gut is healthy, you feel happy.”
Melted cheese bursts out of Ito’s chicken cutlet sandwich ($14). It oozes out of the fluffy white bread every time you take a bite. Two hakko dishes more readily embodied Ito’s campaign for her customers’ health and happiness: a bowl of bibimbap ($17), with fresh vegetables and Ito’s homemade kimchi, and an onigiri rice ball with a salmon center ($4.50).
When Ito opened Kitchen Therapy in July, business was slow at first. But on the grand opening day, a social media post got the word out. “It went really crazy and I wasn’t prepared for that,” she said. “Nowadays people want to try new things.” Ito wanted to create a space for people to relax. “I told my friends, just make this your new hangout place. Bring your friends for coffee and dessert.”
In addition to savory dishes, Ito is also an accomplished baker. When I ate lunch at Kitchen Therapy, she’d made a persimmon tart with a delicious layer of frangipane on top of a tender, flaky crust. Whether it’s sweet or savory, Ito said she likes to incorporate seasonal fruits and vegetables in all of the dishes. “I just started making a beef stew with an Asian twist to it, and more comfort food since it’s getting cold,” she said.
Koji is another homemade ingredient Ito incorporates in several of her dishes. “It’s fermented, malted rice and you make a seasoning with it instead of salt,” she explained. “It gives you that umami flavor.” She also makes amazake from fermented rice in place of sugar. Japanese food uses a lot of sugar, Ito added, but amazake is a healthier substitute. “I just wanted to introduce that part of Japanese culture to the American people as well.”
“My grandmother made everything from scratch, even ramen and soba noodles, miso and soy sauce,” Ito recalled. “That’s how I grew up so it was natural for me to start cooking professionally.”
Kitchen Therapy, open Tue-Sat 11am–5pm. 1590 El Camino Real, Suite H, San Bruno. 650.302.5376. IG:@cafe.kitchen.therapy.
