Nami Yamada is a medicinal herbal chef, nutritional researcher and international Chinese herbalist. She is a graduate of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where she now serves as the head of the Dietary Research Institute. She studied under Suzuko Take, the representative of Tokyo Yakuzen Institute, and learned about traditional Chinese medicinal cooking and dietary healing methods. She has produced and explained fermented food and medicinal herb recipes for magazines and television and held workshops at her studio in Japan. She is an advocate for Japan's traditional food culture and has published several books on the subject of nukazuke and healthy eating.