Today we’d like to introduce you to Sadako and Joseph Leta.
Joseph and Sadako, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am from Buffalo, New York, and Sadako is from Osaka, Japan. She moved to the US in 2005, living in both Buffalo, NY and Tampa, Florida. We met when she cooked for myself and a former girlfriend just before a trip we took to Tokyo. After I broke up with that person, Sadako and I started dating after bonding over our love of dining experiences and cooking together. We were just engaged as of December 2021, We established the Buffalo Food Otaku in 2018. It was the brainchild of Sadako, as she thought I was a “food Otaku.” In Japanese, this is a concept meaning obsessive or nerd. I had a history of writing food reviews, at one point being a stringer for the Buffalo News, and developing relationships with many in the local hospitality industry. Sadako started posting stories of our food adventures, and I began to write short blurbs about the same. Eventually, our brand began to grow as more and food hospitality professionals began to follow our stories, and become inspired by our words. In fact, our whole ethos is to creatively inspire the hospitality industry, by building up those going above and beyond, telling stories about the people creating our dining experiences, and recognizing techniques that add refinement and flavor. We have been written up by several of our local publications, as well as had news stories about us. We are beginning to expand to catered special events, focusing on unique dining experiences, or pairing up with local restaurants to raise money for charities like the Family Meal Hospitality Trust that helps members of our local hospitality industry. We hope to continue to grow in this manner.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Since this is not our full-time job, I (Joe) am an attorney, and Sadako has several occupations, this has been a fun experience for both us of, without the stress of a career. The biggest pressures have been to grow our social media base without compromising our ethos of integrity and truth. Many local restaurants have tried to buy positive reviews from us by offering favors or free meals. There is pressure to buy Instagram followers. This is not the otaku way. We are not influencers, as I stated before we seek to creatively inspire. I have recently written an article about the rules that anyone opining about the hospitality industry should follow. This includes things like being proud of what you write, reserving negative reviews for the most egregious offenders with systematic problems that devalue the industry, and acknowledging biases or limits. We have asked other reviewers to voluntarily adopt these rules to bridge the widening gap between the hospitality industry and critics. I hope to help build and develop this philosophy further.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Other than the foregoing, what we are most proud of is the means by which we tell our stories or voice our criticisms. We try and find what a creative is trying to say with their meals or drinks. The finer Chefs have a clear voice. I like to translate the voice to those who are not as in tune, and help other diners understand why these expressions move us. We tell our stories utilizing metaphors involving anything from music lyrics, to movies to Medieval philosophy. We like to take what we learn in all aspects of our studies and apply that to food and drink to help clarify both concepts. This would best be illustrated by actually reading one of our more esoteric blog posts. We are otaku (nerds) and that is our ethos.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Being able to sleep soundly when my head hits the pillow.
Contact Info:
- Email: buffalofoodotaku@gmail.com
- Website: www.foodotaku.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buffalofoodotaku/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buffalofoodotaku
Image Credits
Joseph Leta
Sadako Lilley
