Masayuki Qusumi

Masayuki Qusumi's standing rests less on trophies than on a single, durable creation. The Solitary Gourmet, which he wrote and Jiro Taniguchi drew, became one of Japanese television's longest-running food dramas and a cultural export, with a feature film and a growing English-language readership. For a writer who works across manga, essays, design and music, that reach is the real accolade: a series that changed how people eat alone and where they choose to eat.