Hello! My name is Michele Kitagawa and I am the owner of astellar production. I am taking this moment to reintroduce myself to the world.
I was born 10 days early in October on my brother’s 4th birthday. I made an early entrance. Makes sense now. I didn’t want share my birthday with Halloween, I wanted to share it with my brother. It truly teaches you about sharing and compromise instantly when you and your siblings are born on the same day.
My mother is a Peruvian (French, Spanish) red head with green eyes and freckles and my father is Japanese Canadian. My brother is married to a beautiful and caring Italian Aussie and have two kids that I adore. My husband is from Iceland and when we all get together we form the united nations.
My mother, Maria, is an amazing cook. She is well known for her Peruvian cuisine, however, her asian food repertoire is unmatched. I grew up in the kitchen helping her out. Prepping things. Washing things. Setting the table. I could use a fork and knife at a very young age. Manners were very important in our home. Every night we always said Please and Thank you for the supper and asked to be excused before clearing our dishes. (Manners are IMPORTANT)
Around 5 years old, I used to help my dad get ready in the morning. Pick out his tie for his suit and stand in front of the mirror with him mimicking everything he did. He was old school and had a brush for his shaving cream. He would let me do this too. SO there we were in the morning staring at the mirror with our shaving cream beards. I can still remember the smell of the shaving cream.
I digress. I went to art school in San Francisco and was amongst some of the top filmmakers and artists. I studied fashion design and merchandising so when I met my film friends and they asked me to do wardrobe or build a set, it wasn’t too far off from what I was doing. A natural career progression if you will. I loved it. And miss it.
I worked on countless hip hop videos building sets or dressing the artists.
I refound my passion for food after I broke into the film business and worked in the art department. At the time there simply was just not enough jobs art jobs to be sustainable. Not to mention I kept getting hired for computer desk jobs, which I am not suited for. I wanted to feed people. I am now feeding my coworkers and happy to flex my creativity and try new recipes on them.
I have been feeding the film business for over a decade now. It has brought me to the most breathtaking locations. I usually take time off to go back and explore the places we shoot at.
Alas, it is officially time for me to start making how to videos and work on my cookbook. 💗
astellar.life 