Her career
Tomoko Sakai developed a passion for pastry-making while she was working in finance. After learning the basics of the discipline in Japan, she decided to come to France to deepen her knowledge.
She pursued her pastry- and chocolate-making apprenticeship in some of Paris’ iconic gastronomy settings, namely Le Plaza Athénée, Le Pain du Sucre and Le Cacaotier d’Hubert Masse. Having acquired all this experience, she returned to Japan in 2007 to join L’École Valrhona in Tokyo. This institution became a second home for her, so it was only natural that she helped to create and manage the second L’École Valrhona in Japan. She is heavily invested in sharing knowledge, so she founded a multilingual recipe database which has become essential to extending L’École Valrhona’s international influence.
Her varied career has given her the means to pass on her wealth of knowledge as a pastry chef who teaches classes for the general public and semi-professional cooks.
