Started as a Project in the Product Design Workshop at ID, their Business Now Supplies Onigiri to Over 30 Chicago-Area Locations
After coming to Chicago to study design and business, Yuta Katsuyama (MDes+MBA 2021) found himself missing onigiri, the nori-wrapped rice snacks that he grew up enjoying in Tokyo
Nostalgia for this portable snack inspired him to prototype a packaged onigiri in Martin Thaler‘s Product Design Workshop. The following summer, he tested out Onigiri Kororin as a five-week pop-up, bringing in Cristina Tarriba (MDes 2020) as co-founder. The business quickly took off and was recently featured on ABC 7 Chicago.
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I feel a lot of support from the community, so I really enjoy doing business here. I didn’t expect this. More than 30 locations have our onigiri and it just started with my school project.
—Yuta Katsuyama
Watch the segment to learn more about their story and get a glimpse of their onigiri machine making over 1,400 onigiris per hour.