Richard Hosking holds an M.A. from Cambridge and was Professor of Sociology and English at Hiroshima Shudo University. He lived in Japan for many decades and lectured on Japanese food at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, and elsewhere around the world.

Debra Samuels has written about food for over three decades. After owning and operating a successful catering firm in the 1980s called "Eats Meets West" she developed the popular "Kids Are Cooking" series on food, culture and nutrition for Boston's Children's Museum. Samuels worked for many years as a food writer and food stylist for The Boston Globe. She has written extensively about Italian, Indian, Korean and Japanese cuisines, with a particular focus on the latter. In 2020, she was awarded the John Thayer Award from the Japan Society in Boston, which recognizes outstanding contributions to understanding and friendship between the U.S. and Japan. Samuels leads the program content and curriculum development for TABLE FOR TWO USA. Currently, she travels around the country teaching hands on workshops on bento, the Japanese lunchbox. She is the author of Tuttle Publishing's My Japanese Table, and co-author of The Korean Table and Japanese Cooking with Kids.