In the moment of sadness, this recipe cured the broken hearts…

Sora has two mothers, a birth mum Kano and the mother Fumi who lovingly raised her until she had to move to Singapore due to her husband’s job transfer. Sora looks forward to living with Kano for the first time. After the move, though, she is sure that deciding to stay with Kano was a mistake. In dire need of help through the chaos of newly-found motherhood, Kano decides to rely on old friend Saeki, a chef at a local restaurant. She asks Saeki to cook daily meals for Sora and keep an eye on her. From Saeki, Sora learns not only how to cook, but also how pouring all her heart into the making of a dish has the power to heal people’s souls. A touching story depicting the rebirth of a dysfunctional family through food.


Chapter One: Fluffy Pancakes with Strawberry Jam

SORA KAWASE (6) has always been happy to have two mothers. Her birth mother KANO lives alone in a big old Japanese-style house on a hill that Sora often visits with FUMI (Kano’s younger sister by a different father), who is raising her. Sora looks forward to these visits because Kano is beautiful and fun and lets the kids eat things like ice cream that protective, health-conscious Fumi never allows. When Fumi’s husband KOTA is transferred to Singapore, Sora looks forward to living with Kano for the first time. After the move, though, she is sure that deciding to stay with Kano had been a mistake.

A busy freelance illustrator, Kano never cooks and often works long hours holed up in her room. She hires YASUHIRO SAEKI, an old friend from middle school, to cook breakfast for Sora, now a first grader, and prepare dinners she can reheat. His tattoos and piercings startle Sora at first, but he turns out to be a gentle and thoughtful caregiver. So much so that Sora wonders why Kano bothered to take her in at all if she was just going to pass her off to someone else. Kano seems more interested in her lover TSUGE, an older gallery owner, than in Sora. One day, frustrated by misunderstandings and Kano’s selfishness, Sora tells Kano she hates her. When Kano mutters that she “never should have taken her in,” Sora runs away.

Crying and miserable, Sora stumbles and falls. Saeki finds her, comforts her, and takes her to his family’s bistro. When he offers to make breakfast, Sora asks for pancakes, a special treat Fumi always made that worked like magic when someone was feeling down. Feeling alone and in need of a way to make her own magic, Sora asks Saeki to teach her how to make them herself. The pancakes they make are unbelievably delicious, but she doesn’t feel any better. Saeki explains that Kano doesn’t dislike Sora, she just doesn’t know how to show affection. Raised alone by strict grandparents who made her do all the cleaning and cooking, Kano never learned how to be loved herself and struggles to understand how to love a child.

Kano arrives and, after rebuking Saeki for not telling her he’d found Sora safe, apologizes to Sora for being such a terrible mother. Although Kano had thought it best for Fumi to raise Sora, she had still dreamed of living with her one day. Learning how Kano really felt, and sensing that she herself had been able to convey her own feelings for the first time, Sora feels the gap between them narrow. Kano tries Sora’s pancakes and compliments her on how delicious they are. Sora takes another bite and, though no longer warm, they now taste magical. Everything is going to be all right.