An Evening with Meg Tanaka
Join us for an exclusive evening celebrating the launch of Osozai, the new cookbook by Meg Tanaka, co-founder and food director of CIBI, a lifestyle concept brand established in Melbourne, with locations in Melbourne and Japan.
Osozai is a Japanese word for everyday home cooking — simple dishes made to be enjoyed together at the table. More than a style of cooking, it’s a way of eating that values simplicity, seasonality, and sharing.
Meg will be in conversation with fellow writer Benjamin Law, sharing stories of cooking, gathering, and the simple pleasure of eating well together.
Featuring more than 70 accessible recipes made for sharing, Osozai showcases the food Meg grew up eating — pumpkin nimono, hakusai pickles — and the food she now cooks at home for friends and family — kara-age, miso butter corn, smashed cucumber and edamame salad.
Whether you’re new to miso, dashi and mirin, or looking to build a regular spread, you’ll find dishes to cook on repeat and make your own. This is modern Japanese cooking at its best: thoughtful, nourishing, and full of joy.
6:30pm arrivals for a 7pm start.
Tickets: $10 per person (+ GST and Humanitix fee)
Please note: Your $10 ticket fee is redeemable on the night towards any book purchase. Please see staff on the night.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Meg Tanaka is the co-founder and food director of CIBI, a lifestyle concept brand established in Melbourne, Australia in 2008, together with her husband, co-founder and creative director, Zenta Tanaka. What began as a small cafe and design store has grown into a cross-cultural platform spanning food, design and everyday living, with locations in Melbourne and Japan, including Tokyo and Okayama.
At the heart of CIBI is a philosophy of enriching daily life through thoughtful design, nourishing food, and the everyday happiness that brings people together. Meg’s work is grounded in washoku, traditional Japanese food culture, shaped by growing up in a multi-generational family in Okayama, Japan, and guided by the belief that food should nourish both body and soul.
Meg introduces Japanese home cooking to a wider audience through recipes that are easy to prepare yet rich in flavour, intention, and care — food designed not to impress, but to be lived with.
Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law (2010), Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East (2012), the Quarterly Essay Moral Panic 101 (2017), and editor of Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). Benjamin created and co-wrote three seasons of the award-winning SBS TV series The Family Law, based on his memoir, and his sold-out 2020 debut play Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company).
In 2019, he was named one of the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit’s (AALS) 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians (winning the Arts, Culture & Sport category) and one of Harper’s Bazaar’s Visionary Men. He has a PhD in creative writing and cultural studies from the Queensland University of Technology.