Viola Gaskell is a journalist and photographer from Hawaiʻi, where Japanese food culture is omnipresent. She has written about and photographed a wide range of subjects, from organic farming in China for Global Ground to disappearing cha chaan tengs(iconic Cantonese diners) in Hong Kong for Whetstone. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Eater, Monocle, The Independent, Al Jazeera, VICE, and Magazine B. She lived in Kyoto during the height of the pandemic and spent five years in Asia before returning to Hawaii in 2021. Kyoto Farm to Table is her first book.