Visiting Chef Series<\/a>,\u201d where a guest chef comes to Miss Kim for a night and crafts a curated menu for guests. What led you to establish that series, and how do you select chefs to be featured?<\/p>\nJK:<\/strong> We\u2019ve always had visiting chefs every once in a while. This year, I made a decision because, last year, I was out of town a lot and doing these dinner events outside of Ann Arbor. But I work with so many amazing chefs, and the way that chefs like to have fun is to cook together. I wanted to bring some of that back to Ann Arbor, and I decided that instead of me going out in the world, I wanted the chefs to come to Ann Arbor and share their food here. Sometimes it\u2019s a complete collaboration where there\u2019s a little bit of Miss Kim and a little bit of the chef in every dish. Sometimes, the chef has never been to Ann Arbor, and I want the Ann Arbor folks to really taste what their food is like, so it\u2019s their signature dishes or sometimes it\u2019s in the middle, but we play it by ear depending on the chef. How I select the chefs is very organic: I meet them, taste their food and I like it, and I tell them, \u201cYou should come to my restaurant, and then we should do an event together.\u201d It does tend to veer toward more of what you would call \u201cethnic food.\u201d We had a Sri Lankan chef and an Ecuadorian chef come. I just keep it kind of loose, and we try to have fun and bring different flavors to Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nTMD:<\/strong> What have been some of the biggest challenges you\u2019ve faced in the culinary industry, and how did you overcome them?<\/p>\nJK:<\/strong> I still get comments, but I get it less now, about how, unless the food is dirt cheap, it\u2019s not authentic Asian food. The tyranny of authenticity was always there. That\u2019s challenging for a chef who\u2019s doing a country\u2019s cuisine. It\u2019s not just limited to my experience. It\u2019s also what I hear from my Filipino American friends here, Chinese American friends or Japanese American friends; they hear the same talks like \u201cThis is not how my mom cooked.\u201d I think there could be more appreciation of the food and understanding that while your experience is authentic to yourself, other people may have their own experiences, and it doesn\u2019t invalidate each other. Also, in terms of the restaurant industry, the industry traditionally has not done the best with the staff. The pay has been low, benefits have not been offered and the hours are tough. I think there\u2019s this idea out there that the food industry employs temporary workers. It\u2019s like a summer job flipping burgers, but the reality is that people who are in the food industry have been full-time food industry workers for a long time. So the challenge is seeing not just fine dining staff but also just workers at any level as the professional, skilled workers that they are, instead of minimizing them into unskilled labor who do not get benefits or paid time off. So I think that there just generally needs to be an industry shift toward professionalism and taking care of the staff better.<\/p>\nTMD:<\/strong> How do you see Korean cuisine contributing to the broader story of Asian American identity in the United States?<\/p>\nJK:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just Korean cuisine. Korea has spent a good effort and has received good success in the spread of Korean culture. Yes, it\u2019s food like Korean fried chicken, tteokbokki or bibimbap<\/a>. It\u2019s Korean food, but it\u2019s also Korean music or TV shows on Netflix. What I see broadly happening is that every time somebody eats Korean food and really enjoys it, or every time somebody watches a BTS<\/a> music video or a TV show like \u201cSquid Game,\u201d<\/a> it breaks down the stereotypes just a little bit by expanding that person\u2019s experience. When I was growing up, it was unthinkable to bring kimchi or kimbap<\/a> to a high school cafeteria. I\u2019m hoping that it happens a little less and there\u2019s an embracing of differences within each student or each person because there\u2019s more exposure to Korean food and culture. So, I think it\u2019s really good that Korean food has played a role in it, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just Korean food. I think Asian food in general is hugely popular, and I\u2019m very pleased to see that.<\/p>\nTMD:<\/strong> Do you think the American or the Michigan culinary scene is becoming more open to more nuanced Asian American and Pacific Islander flavors?<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nJK:<\/strong> I think so, but I\u2019d like to see even more restaurants. Before I opened Miss Kim, I felt like at many Korean restaurants in this area, everybody had the same kind of menu. Like there was, if it was big enough for a restaurant, there was a Korean barbecue section, a bibimbap section and the same appetizers. Maybe they\u2019ll even have a sushi bar, even though sushi is not Korean. Lately, I see more diversity within the cuisine. There\u2019s HanJan Pocha<\/a> in Ann Arbor and there\u2019s Noori Pocha<\/a> in Clawson, so you start seeing different parts of Korean cuisine being highlighted. The specialty restaurants come along, instead of a catch-all restaurant. So to see these different kinds of food come up, even within one cuisine, is really great.<\/p>\nTMD:<\/strong> What advice would you give to aspiring AAPI chefs who want to offer foods from their cultures or related to their own experiences?<\/p>\nJK:<\/strong> Undertaking a brick-and-mortar restaurant is a huge commitment, so I would advise them to really suss out what they want to do and not jump into it right away. You can have your sites, like pop-up dinners, pop-ups at different restaurants or a food cart. You can do all that, but don\u2019t limit yourself. You can go to different restaurants that really inspire you and then work there, just to really understand that running a restaurant is, first and foremost, delicious food, but it\u2019s also good service, solid finances and good systems. You don\u2019t want to burn people out as you\u2019re running the restaurant and you definitely don\u2019t want to burn yourself out. As a chef, you have to wear a lot of hats, so by understanding every facet of running a business, by working for other people and getting paid, you can do other things and you\u2019ll have time to explore your own stuff with that security.<\/p>\nDaily Staff Reporter Eilene Koo can be reached at ekoo@umich.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
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