Miyoko Schinner | |
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 Schinner delivering keynote address at Animal Equality Gala 2017 | |
| Born | Miyoko Nishimoto 1957[1] Japan |
| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | St. John's College (BA) |
| Subject | Veganism cookbooks |
| Notable works | The New Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Cuisine for the Enlightened Palate (2001) Artisan Vegan Cheese (2012) The Homemade Vegan Pantry: The Art of Making Your Own Staples (2015) The Vegan Meat Cookbook: Meatless Favorites. Made with Plants (2021) The Vegan Creamery: Plant-Based Cheese, Milk, Ice Cream, and More (2025) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Miyoko Schinner (néeNishimoto; born 1957)[1] is an American-Japanesevegan chef,cookbook author, activist, cooking show host andsocial entrepreneur.[2] Since 2024, she has been on the faculty of theUniversity of California, Berkeley'sHaas School of Business.
Schinner was born in a town outside ofTokyo, Japan as Miyoko Nishimoto.[3][4] She left Japan and moved to the United States when she was seven.[4] Schinner and her family settled inMarin County, specifically inMill Valley, California.[5]
Schinner became avegetarian at the age of 12.[6][7] She describes this period as "the 60s and early 70s, the glory days of the hippie movement and spiritualism and hare krishna," or the turn tonatural foods within theAmerican counterculture.[6] Her initial exposure to this movement occurred during a camping trip that included vegetarians who "were from a spiritual family and didn't believe in harming animals. I went home and my mother put pork chops in front of me after being vegetarian for two or three days. I looked at the pork chop and just could not eat it. I stopped right there."[6] Schinner's mother did not support this shift towards vegetarian dishes, forcing Schinner to teach herself how to cook. However, Schinner credits this period as the time that she grew to love cooking.[6] Although this interest in cooking led her to consider culinary school, she ultimately decided not to attend (as she would have to work with animal products), and is entirely self-taught.[6]
Schinner began college at thePratt Institute in order to study graphic design, but dropped out after a year.[7] She eventually transferred toSt. John's College in Annapolis,[4] and graduated with a B.A. in philosophy in 1979.[7]
During the 1980s, Schinner returned to Japan and settled in Tokyo.[5] During this period she transitioned from a vegetarian to avegan diet[8][9] for "health reasons" (she realized that she waslactose intolerant).[6] As she began to explore how to create vegan dishes for herself, she decided to sell her creations. She started a small business called "Madam Miyoko"[10] and sold vegan poundcakes (made ofOkara), out of her backpack.She still missed cheese, describing the 80s as the "dark ages of vegan cheese" still dominated by "hippies and macrobiotic food."[6] She briefly visited the United States during this time to attend the Natural Products Expo, where she tasted "Vegan Rella," the only vegan cheese product available at the time. However, she found it disappointing and began to dream of alternatives.[6]
Schinner returned to the United States and settled in San Francisco.[11] She started a wholesale bakery out of her home, which evolved into a retail bakery, then a cafe.[11] In 1991, she published her first cookbook,The Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Cuisine for the Enlightened Palate.[12] The cafe evolved into the restaurant Now & Zen Bistro and Bakery in 1994.[13][12][10] During the holiday season, she would make the vegan Unturkey (a seitan roast with ayuba shell), which she exhibited at the 1995 Natural Products Expo (and ended up with $50,000 worth of orders).[10] She sold the Now & Zen Bistro and Bakery in 1997.[14]
Schinner also created a vegan natural food company called Now & Zen Inc. that focused on "The Unturkey," a dish that she first served at the Bistro.[13][10][15] However, as more orders came in for the Unturkey as well as different products, Schinner found herself overwhelmed. She also found investors more interested in investing in tech, as it wasthe dot-com boom. In addition, she had "married shortly before starting the café, and three months after they opened the door she gave birth to her second child. In fact, her water broke on the restaurant floor during lunch hour. Then, the head chef quit and his replacement turned out to have a heroin problem. Her mother, who’d needed Miyoko’s care in her last few years of life, died in 2000, and within a few months her father began to fade, also requiring end-of-life care until his passing in 2002. Finally, in 2003 Miyoko called it quits."[10][15]
During this period, Schinner produced three vegan cookbooks.VegNews listedThe New Now and Zen Epicure as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.[16]
In 2012, Schinner publishedArtisan Vegan Cheese, a cookbook that focused entirely on the production ofvegan cheese. In 2021,Food & Wine referred to it as "the seminal cookbook that put vegan cheesemaking on the map,"[17] andVegNews listed it as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.[18]
Schinner co-hosted thePBS cooking showVegan Mashup for three seasons (2012–2016)[19] withToni Fiore and Terry Hope Romero.[20] Guest chefs onVegan Mashup includedBryant Terry,Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Girl Gone Raw Elizabeth Fraser, and Cathi DiCocco.[21]
Schinner initially thought her cookbookArtisan Vegan Cheese had given readers all the tools that they would need to create vegan cheese. Fans told her however, that they wanted her to make the cheese for them.[6] Although Schinner was reluctant to start a business again, she was eventually persuaded to create a newvegan cheese company. She thus foundedMiyoko's Kitchen in 2014,[22][23] as an online business.[6]
Schinner's initial goal was to create dairy-free products includingbutter and a wide variety of different types ofcheeses using traditional cheesemakingcultures and techniques, chiefly out ofcashews,oats, andchickpea flour.[24][25][26][27][28] She launched the company with herself as CEO and four employees on a Friday, and by Monday they had 50,000 orders.[6] In December of that year, the new company moved from a 4,000-square-foot facility to a 29,000-square-foot facility[29][30] located inPetaluma.[9] Fundraising continued to grow: in 2017, it obtained $6 million in funding, for a total of $12 million.[29] Eventually Schinner changed the name from "Miyoko's Kitchen" to "Miyoko's Creamery."[31]
Miyoko's Kitchen eventually accrued $1 million inseed money, first being invested in by Seth Tibbott, the founder ofTofurky.[24][32]Ellen DeGeneres andPortia de Rossi made an investment in Miyoko's Creamery in November 2019.[33][34] In addition to vending within theUnited States, Miyoko's Creamery expanded its market in 2019, distributing toCanada andAustralia.[35][36] Miyoko's Food Truck, in a Cross Country Tour starting from March 4, 2020, distributed 15,000 free grilled cheese sandwiches around theUnited States in order to promotecruelty-freevegan cheese in the Country.[37][38] In August 2021, Miyoko's Creamery prevailed onFirst Amendment grounds in their lawsuit against the California Department of Food and Agriculture's attempts to force the company to cease using the words "Cheese" and "Butter" (among others) in the marketing of their products.[39]
Miyoko’s Creamery removed Schinner from the company in 2022. Schinner described this decision as the result of a conflict over the “future growth” of the company. The Board said that it wanted a more traditional CEO.[40] On February 16, 2023 Miyoko's Creamery filed a lawsuit against Schinner, alleging that she misappropriated confidential information and copied the data to her personal cloud after the board of directors voted to terminate her as CEO. The case was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Case 3:23-cv-00711.[41] In response, on March 3, Schinner's attorneyLisa Bloom announced that she would be filing a wrongful termination counter lawsuit. Bloom stated: “The company's behavior in forcing her out of the company she created and built, then trashing her via an outrageously malicious and misleading lawsuit will be met with facts and witnesses showing that Miyoko's own complaints of toxic and sexist behavior by certain male executives were swept under the rug, and then she was demoted and fired.”[42] On May 18, 2023, Miyoko's Creamery and Schinner released a joint announcement stating that "they have resolved all legal disputes between them and that they have withdrawn all legal claims made against each other."[43] The announcement also stated that they both “wish each other well as they go their separate ways.”[43]
During this period, Schinner published two vegan cookbooks withTen Speed Press.Good Housekeeping listedThe Homemade Vegan Pantry as one of the best vegan cookbooks in 2019.[44] In 2021,The Vegan Meat Cookbook: Meatless Favorites. Made with Plants was nominated for an IVFF cookbook award,[45] and the next yearThe San Francisco Chronicle listed it as one of the "best new cookbooks to start 2022."[46]
In 2024,Food & Wine namedThe Homemade Vegan Pantry one of "the 20 Best Vegan Cookbooks for Every Type of Meal,"[47] andVegNews listed bothThe Vegan Meat Cookbook[16] andThe Homemade Vegan Pantry[48] as "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time."
During this period, Schinner also discussed her work with Miyoko's Kitchen/Creamery for the documentary,You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (2024).[49]
In 2023, Schinner launched the YouTube cooking show,The Vegan Good Life with Miyoko.[50] The following year, she joined theUniversity of California, Berkeley'sHaas School of Business[51] as "Professional Faculty" in Business & Social Impact.[52] She teaches courses in the Plant-Futures lab with program co-founder Brittany Sartor.[53]
In 2025, Schinner published another cookbook withTen Speed Press,The Vegan Creamery: Plant-Based Cheese, Milk, Ice Cream, and More.[54]
On November 5, 2025 Schinner announced that she created a bid to buy backMiyoko's Creamery (as it was up for sale).[55][56] However, she said on November 10 that she was not successful, and the company will go to another bidder.[57][40] A week later, Melt Organic (owned by Prosperity Organic Foods) was reported as the winning bidder.[58][59] Schinner responded to the news by stating: "I am not associated in any way, and while they now own the trademark ‘Miyoko’s,’ they cannot allude to my involvement nor endorsement.[59] Schinner also asked the new owners for her name back and torebrand as, "they cannot mention my name, ‘Miyoko’ or ‘Miyoko Schinner’, or imply any sort of reference that could lead people to think that I am somehow associated with it. Nor can they use my image in any way."[60]
In 2018, Melaina Juntti of New Hope Network described Schinner as a "vegan rock star."[8] Also in 2018, she was among 28 women featured inPopSugar's "28 Women Changing the World Right This Second" list, a project backed byUN Women.[61] She is considered a pioneer in the production ofvegan cheese.[62][31][63]
In 2023,Tasting Table named Schinner as one of the “21 Plant-Based Chefs You Need To Know,”[64] andVegNews listed her as one of the "37 Creative Chefs Crafting the Future of Vegan Food."[65]
| Year | Awards and Honors | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Inc. (magazine) Female Founders 100: The Top Women Entrepreneurs of the Year | Inc. (magazine)[66] |
| 2021 | Food & Wine Game Changers for 2021 | Food & Wine[67] |
| 2021 | Miyoko Schinner:CEO, Founder, Miyoko's Creamery -Forbes 50 over 50 | Forbes[68] |
| 2021 | Person of the Year: Miyoko Schinner | Nosh Awards 2021[69] |
| 2019 | Sofi Awards | Specialty Food Association Sofi Award, Business Leadership[70] |
| 2016 | Vegan Hall of Fame | North American Vegetarian Society[71] |
| 2015 | Veggie Award Product of the Year | VegNews Veggie Awards[72] |
Miyoko and Michael Schinner have three children, a son (a basketball player in Japan) and two daughters.[5] They divorced in 2023.[73][74]
Cooking shows
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
