Meet the Tokyo experts

Ai Uchida

NHK World reporter

A native of Japan who grew up in Tokyo and Seattle, Ai Uchida is a dedicated foodie who daylights as an NHK financial reporter. She is a regular contributor to The Miele Guide, an annual publication that surveys Asia’s best chefs and restaurants, and was most recently featured on the Travel Channel. When she's not reporting on stock markets she writes about the good eats found in and around Tokyo at tokyoalacarte.

Melinda Joe

Food journalist

Melinda Joe is an American journalist in Tokyo specializing in food, drinks and travel. She is the bar editor for the award-winning restaurant and bar guide Bento.com, sake correspondent for the Japan Times and a panelist for this year’s Miele Guide. Her work has appeared in a number of print and online publications such as The Atlantic.com, The Wine Enthusiast, The Guardian and Real Eats.

A certified wine and sake professional, Joe has given sake pairing seminars and conducted private gastronomy tours. She chronicles her adventures in food, sake and wine on her blog Tokyo through the Drinking Glass.

Patrice Martineau

Chef

Patrice Martineau is the executive chef at Peter in the Peninsula Tokyo. He heads fine dining events for the Peninsula, such as the annual week-long Cirque Culinaire, in which world renowned chefs cook with him -- dishes from these fabulous dinners are paired with wines and champagnes from co-host wineries. The 2010 Cirque Culinaire will be held November 19-22. Details can be found at www.peninsula.com/tokyo.

Before moving to Tokyo in 2007, Patrice was the youngest executive chef in the history of London's legendary Savoy Hotel. Prior to that he spent six years at New York's Michelin three-star restaurant Daniel, three of them as Chef de Cuisine. Patrice's career also encompasses stints at other world-renowned Michelin-rated restaurants such as L'Abbaye Saint Michel and La Cote Saint Jacques.

Brian MacDuckston

Ramen expert

Brian MacDuckston is an English teacher living in Tokyo. When not shaping the minds of the nation's youth, he is out visiting as many of the city's 5,000 ramen shops as he can, writing about the best on his website, Ramen Adventures.

His ongoing quest for the perfect bowl of noodles has been featured in The New York Times, and he has contributed to the 2011 Tokyo Time Out guide.

Robb Satterwhite

Author

A Manhattan native and longtime resident of Tokyo, Robb Satterwhite has eaten at thousands of restaurants throughout Japan. He publishes Bento.com, a popular web and mobile-based guide to eating in Japan.

Bento.com covers the restaurant scene in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Kanazawa, and offers food-related travel features and a collection of Japanese recipes.

Satterwhite is also the author of several books. The most recent is a revised edition of "What's What in Japanese Restaurants," an introduction to Japanese specialty cuisines. It will be published by Kodansha International in December 2010.

Etsuko Nakamura

Sake specialist

Nakamura says her passion for local brewing and culinary traditions "led me to want to help people really see, feel and taste food and drink from way off the beaten path." Trips can be booked through Sake Brewery Tours.

Visit tokyofoodcast.com for Nakamura's latest nihonshu and restaurant discoveries.

Nakamura is a Government Certified Bilingual English Guide and Sake Advanced Specialist.