A one-shot manga by Ueyama titled Cooking Boss was published by Akita Shoten in a few issues of Monthly Shōnen Champion in 1982.

[12] Shortly thereafter he achieved a serialization in Kodansha's weekly anthology Morning with Ōaza Aza Basara Chūzaijo, which centered around a rural police station.

Its wholesome and heartwarming slice of life themes set the tone for his next work, Cooking Papa, which was picked up by the same magazine.

[13] Cooking Papa originated as a casual sketch by Ueyama depicting a father cleaning a house while carrying a child on his back.

[15] Weekly production on Cooking Papa starts with Ueyama preparing a dish and photographing every step for his assistants to illustrate.

Ueyama pens each installment's narrative around the chosen food, draws all the characters' faces, and opts to shade with screentone by hand rather than rely on digital tools.

[15] Known for its acceptance of foreign cuisine due to its proximity to other Asian countries, a number of dishes featured in the series originate from outside Japan.

[18][19][20] Onigirazu was posted on recipe-sharing websites such as Cookpad around 2015, decades after the original chapter was published, eventually leading to the food's international popularity.

[15][19] When Cooking Papa began in 1985, Japanese multimedia rarely depicted men working in the kitchen due to the country's social norms.

[14] Consequently, Kazumi spends a large portion of the early plot telling his colleagues that his wife Nijiko is responsible for his delicious lunches.

[14] He wished to include a nuclear family dynamic with a husband and wife having fulfilling jobs at and away from home while both providing happiness to and enriching the lives of their children.