Our Story — NOIX Seasoning

Chef Kurumi

Representative Director of NAC Inc.
Restaurateur, food-business advisor,
and a private executive chef of ten years.

A chef who travels the world in search of its food cultures,
gathering the flavors and aromas she meets along the way
and shaping them into seasonings — so they can be
enjoyed, simply, at any table in Japan.

NAC is a salt house. I am a cook.
And I believe cooking is allowed to be far more free.

As a cook, what could I really do?
"I just want everyone to gather and eat something delicious together." — That was where it all began.
To gather the aromas and flavors I had collected on my travels into a single jar,
and make someone's table a little freer.

Not to claim authenticity, but simply to offer — "here, taste this; isn't it wonderful?"
Not confusion, but harmony. — Fusion is Harmony.
This is the "single sprinkle" I always wanted to create.
— Kurumi

CHAPTER ONE

I am a Cat Lover.

It started, with cats.

Chef Kurumi Tadokoro with a white cat — a relaxed moment outdoors

Honestly, this whole seasoning journey began for one simple reason — I love cats.

When I was eighteen, I came across a single photograph online by chance. The sight of an abused, abandoned cat shook me to the core, and together with four friends from high school, I started to act. That was where everything began. At twenty, I founded a rescue-cat volunteer group, holding adoption events in the streets of Maebashi and finding new homes for cats in need.

At twenty-four, I opened a cat café and restaurant in Utsunomiya — a place that doubled as a shelter, which was still a rare thing back then. Alongside it, I set up a nonprofit organization to support the rescue work.
By anyone's measure, I am a Cat Lover.

And now — after traveling the world's tables as a chef, meeting Sel de Guérande, and arriving at the culture of seasoning — I still hope that cats will always be there, somewhere close, for the rest of my life.

In the end, it comes down to this: the delicious things I find, and the wonder of the cats I love — I want to share them all with everyone. That is where this seasoning began.

CHAPTER TWO

What I noticed on my travels.

Paris

Bangkok

Rosarito

Texas

Kyoto

A back alley in Paris, a temple in Bangkok, the cobblestones of Mexico, the far corner of a little eatery in Kyoto.
Wherever I traveled, there was always a cat — and the cat was always free, in the way only cats can be.

CHAPTER THREE

And so — together with cats.

Rather than recreating a foreign recipe to the letter, cooking however you please, following the mood of the day, is so much freer — and so much more fun. Just like a cat wandering as it pleases, curling up to sleep wherever it likes. A cat's "as it pleases" is, I think, the very spirit of enjoying cooking.

Gathering every spice from scratch is no easy thing.
So we shaped these into seasonings — where a single sprinkle brings a new, faraway flavor to the dishes you already make.
No complicated recipes, no special ingredients required.
All you need to bring is a single sprinkle of curiosity — the kind a cat has.

There is no one right answer in cooking.
Not to honor the "correct" recipe, but to enjoy yourself freely, however the day feels.
One sprinkle, two sprinkles, as much as you like. The moment your own face breaks into a smile and you find yourself saying "delicious" —
that moment is the very best recipe of all. On a fried egg, on ice cream, even on a bowl of plain white rice.
Your everyday dish becomes, just a little, the flavor of a distant land.

Nine cats will guide you to the tables of the world.
Start with just one — find the favorite that's waiting for you.

Fusion is Harmony.

Chef Kurumi

I am a Cat Lover.

What I noticed on my travels.

And so — together with cats.

Come and meet the cats.