Mariko Kallister knows the way of soba Meet Chicago’s master of handmade Japanese buckwheat noodles - Chicago Reader

Mariko Kallister’s strength flows from the force.

You could see it in action one rainy night last March, her hands deep inside a lacquered wooden bowl in the dining room at the West Loop’s TenGoku Aburiya. As she began swirling fine buckwheat flour with a scant measure of filtered water, guests rose from their chairs as if pulled by the scent that filled the room: warm, earthy, mushroom-y. Like “morning dew in the forest,” she later described it… Read More