At home she is a TV star mobbed wherever she goes. Her cookbooks have sold seven million copies and her shops set trends in kitchenware. Now Harumi Kurihara, Japan's answer to Martha Stewart and Delia Smith, is expanding her personal empire to Britain.
The Far East phenomenon has struck a lucrative deal with Sir Terence Conran, founder of Habitat and a leading restaurateur, to publish a recipe book aimed at making Japanese food easy for home cooking in Britain. She is also in talks with Conran and other retailers about launching her range of crockery, fabrics and even a full-length apron to be worn when taking out household rubbish.
Kurihara, 57, can lay a stronger claim to the title of domestic goddess than Nigella Lawson. She insists: 'I'm still just an ordinary shufu,' the Japanese word for housewife. She still rises early to do housework and cook for her husband despite achieving sudden fame in her forties. She has an almost religious following among middle-aged housewives in Japan, but hopes to make the national cuisine accessible to the 'sushi bar generation' of young women - and men - in the West.
The Japanese food market has exploded in Britain, growing by 200 per cent in recent years, and is expected to be worth £13 million by 2005. But while restaurants flourish, Kurihara believes consumers are still daunted by the prospect of cooking at home. She claims to demystify the necessary skills and ingredients in order to make dishes such as Japanese pepper steak or pan-fried noodles with pork and pak choy a staple of domestic dinner parties here.
'I'm sure there is a fear,' she said via an interpreter on a visit to London last week. 'Japanese cuisine has the impression of being difficult, and that is what I want to remove. My basic philosophy for the recipes is to have meals that are easy to achieve. Use microwaves, use tinned foods, use leftovers. While running your life you can quickly rustle up a meal that's tasty, healthy and delicious.
'For example, you can't get shiso leaves over here very easily, so use a mixture of fresh mint and basil instead and you get something similar with a Japanese flavour. Instead of it becoming a tense moment, enjoy it and get over it. Don't feel like you're going out for a meal but that you're enjoying it at home.'
Kurihara's willingness to take short cuts in the kitchen is regarded as liberating by the legion of housewives who admire her in Japan. Her appearances at department stores have attracted crowds of up to 10,000, with some breaking down in tears when they meet their idol. Since 1992 she has published 23 bestselling titles, sold five million copies of her magazine Suteki Recipes (Lovely Recipes), opened 23 shops, created her own range of tableware, gardening tools and bed linen and endorsed numerous international brands, including Procter & Gamble and Nissan.
Asked about comparisons with other cooking queens, she said: 'I haven't had the opportunity to meet Delia Smith, but I'd very much like to. We fulfil a similar role with home cooking. I met Martha Stewart on a TV show two years ago. And I have heard about Hell's Kitchen , but it's not my scene!'
Kurihara has a unique perspective on combining success as a career woman with the traditional role of homemaker. Married to Reiji Kurihara, a former TV anchorman, with two grown-up children, she said: 'I still do housework and cook for my family. When I get up in the morning I always put out fresh water, tea or rice. It's very important to get the household looking and feeling right.
"I'll give food to the cat and sort out breakfast. I'm incredibly busy and often don't have weekends, but I try to make sure how I am within my marriage is the same as when I first got married. Even though I'm really busy and going overseas and doing this and that book, I think it's very important because I'm writing for housewives. If I stop doing the things that other housewives do, then there's no longer any meaning in what I do, it's become too distant from the people I'm writing for. I don't think of myself as a success, I think of myself as a housewife.'
Kurihara, who grew up in a fishing village 100 miles south-west of Tokyo, said she was inspired by her mother's example. 'She would get up at five in the morning to ensure that a hot meal was on the table for her family by six. In the evening she cooked a light meal for the employees too. Even though she no longer has to cook for so many, she still gets up early and uses the time while the rice is cooking to prepare the rest of the meal and get ready for the day - this is her personal time.'
Harumi's Japanese Cooking, containing 70 recipes, is published by Conran Octopus in September. Deals have also been agreed in France, Holland, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, while negotiations are advanced in America and Scandinavia.
Kurihara added: 'I feel that it's rather overwhelming. I never believed my life would turn out like this. I can't believe anything more is possible. This is the fullest happiness I have.'
