The origins of Umami
Umami is a family story, that of siblings devoted to Japan and good food. Jean and Laure Béguin grew up with a grandmother who was a pioneer of ikebana in France and a mother who was a cooking teacher, who instilled in them a love of Japanese taste and culture.
In 2014 , after several years importing gourmet products and a decisive trip to Japan, they founded Umami . Their ambition: to introduce Europeans to Japanese artisanal products, selected directly from producers. They then surrounded themselves with Yoko Kambe , a Japanese woman living in France, and Raphaël Berrhoun , a specialist in the Japanese language and market, who enriched the project with their international expertise. Together, they built a lasting bridge between Japanese artisans and European tables.
In 2016, Laure opened the “Matcha Café” in Paris, the first place in France dedicated to matcha, followed in 2019 by the “Matcha Café To Go”. At the same time, Umami grew and expanded its universe by launching a Tableware range in 2023. The following year, the company celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Parisian pop-up, before opening a new chapter in 2025 with a redesigned website and an ordering platform for professionals.
Today, Umami collaborates with more than 130 Japanese producers and offers more than 1,000 fine grocery and tableware products.
Why Umami?
Umami is the fifth taste, alongside sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. In Japanese, it literally means “savory taste”. You’ll find it in ingredients like Parmesan cheese, cured ham, ripe tomatoes, mushrooms, as well as miso, seaweed, matcha, or the famous dashi—making this flavor a central pillar of Japanese cuisine.
This unique flavor elevates foods, intensifies their natural taste, and wraps the palate in a long, rounded smoothness. It’s at the heart of Japanese culinary identity, but it also resonates throughout world cuisine.
We chose this name because it perfectly embodies our mission: to introduce European palates to the richness of this flavor and show that healthy, delicious cooking is above all based on the quality and authenticity of the ingredients. It’s also a simple word to pronounce and immediately calls Japan to mind!
The team
Our warehouse and offices are located in the Paris region, in Fontenay-sous-Bois . This is where around twenty employees work, spread between the offices and the warehouse: a passionate, dynamic, multilingual and multicultural team!
We manage all of our activities in-house : the careful selection of our producers and suppliers, purchasing, receiving and inspecting goods, preparing and shipping them, as well as all sales and marketing missions. This integrated organization allows us to stay as close as possible to our customers and guarantee quality at every stage.
Our philosophy
At Umami, we have a simple conviction: Japanese products fit naturally into French (and Western) cuisine and enrich it with new flavors!
Our mission is to:
- introduce the essential basics of Japanese cuisine ,
- bring authentic and original tastes to your everyday meals,
- transmit the knowledge of umami , the key to tasty, healthy and balanced cooking.
We carefully select unique products, crafted using artisanal expertise passed down from generation to generation. By supporting small Japanese producers, we help preserve their land and showcase the richness of regional culinary traditions .
