Miyoko Schinner

Early life and education Schinner was born in a town outside of Tokyo, Japan as Miyoko Nishimoto. She left Japan and moved to the United States when she was seven.

Madam Miyoko During the 1980s, Schinner returned to Japan and settled in Tokyo. for "health reasons" (she realized that she was lactose intolerant). In 1991, she published her first cookbook, The Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Cuisine for the Enlightened Palate. During the holiday season, she would make the vegan Unturkey (a seitan roast with a yuba shell), which she exhibited at the 1995 Natural Products Expo (and ended up with $50,000 worth of orders).

Now & Zen Inc. 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. 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 was the 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."

2012-2016 Cookbook In 2012, Schinner published Artisan Vegan Cheese, a cookbook that focused entirely on the production of vegan cheese. In 2021, Food & Wine referred to it as "the seminal cookbook that put vegan cheesemaking on the map," and VegNews listed it as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.

Cooking show Schinner co-hosted the PBS cooking show Vegan Mashup for three seasons (2012–2016) with Toni Fiore and Terry Hope Romero. Guest chefs on Vegan Mashup included Bryant Terry, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Girl Gone Raw Elizabeth Fraser, and Cathi DiCocco.

Miyoko's Kitchen/Miyoko's Creamery Schinner initially thought her cookbook Artisan 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. as an online business. She launched the company with herself as CEO and four employees on a Friday, and by Monday they had 50,000 orders. located in Petaluma. Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi made an investment in Miyoko's Creamery in November 2019. In addition to vending within the United States, Miyoko's Creamery expanded its market in 2019, distributing to Canada and Australia. Miyoko's Food Truck, in a Cross Country Tour starting from March 4, 2020, distributed 15,000 free grilled cheese sandwiches around the United States in order to promote cruelty-free vegan cheese in the Country. In August 2021, Miyoko's Creamery prevailed on First 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.

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. 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. In response, on March 3, Schinner's attorney Lisa 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.” 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." The announcement also stated that they both “wish each other well as they go their separate ways.” In 2021,The Vegan Meat Cookbook: Meatless Favorites. Made with Plants was nominated for an IVFF cookbook award, and the next year The San Francisco Chronicle listed it as one of the "best new cookbooks to start 2022."

In 2024, Food & Wine named The Homemade Vegan Pantry one of "the 20 Best Vegan Cookbooks for Every Type of Meal," and VegNews listed both The Vegan Meat Cookbook as "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time." (Foreword by Isa Chandra Moskowitz).

Documentary 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).

2023-present In 2023, Schinner launched the YouTube cooking show, The Vegan Good Life with Miyoko. The following year, she joined the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business as "Professional Faculty" in Business & Social Impact. She teaches courses in the Plant-Futures lab with program co-founder Brittany Sartor.

Cookbook Schinner published The Vegan Creamery with Ten Speed Press in 2025. KCRW’s Good Food program listed it as one of "The Best Cookbooks of 2025 (according to Good Food)," and it won first place in VegNews's 2026 Veggie Awards (Best Cookbook). However, she said on November 10 that she was not successful, and the company will go to another bidder. 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.”

Awards and honors In 2018, Melaina Juntti of New Hope Network described Schinner as a "vegan rock star." She is considered a pioneer in the production of vegan cheese.

In 2023, Tasting Table named Schinner as one of the “21 Plant-Based Chefs You Need To Know,” and VegNews listed her as one of the "37 Creative Chefs Crafting the Future of Vegan Food."

+ Year Awards and Honors Event 2026 First Place: Best Cookbook, The Vegan Creamery VegNews: 2026 Veggie Awards 2022 Inc. (magazine) Female Founders 100: The Top Women Entrepreneurs of the Year Inc. (magazine) 2021 Food & Wine Game Changers for 2021 Food & Wine 2021 Miyoko Schinner:CEO, Founder, Miyoko's Creamery Forbes 50 over 50 2021 Person of the Year: Miyoko SchinnerNosh Awards 2021 2019 Sofi Awards Specialty Food Association Sofi Award, Business Leadership 2016 Vegan Hall of Fame North American Vegetarian Society 2015 Veggie Award Product of the Year VegNews: 2015 Veggie Awards

Personal life Miyoko and Michael Schinner have three children, a son (a basketball player in Japan) and two daughters. They divorced in 2023.