| Chef Sam was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. He
came to the United States when he was 21, following
the example of relatives who had already immigrated
into this country. Chef Sam took a long and winding
culinary road before finding the Japanese cuisine that
became his passion. In the beginning, Sam worked at
run of the mill Chinese and American diners. Gradually,
he became more and more serious about his culinary
career. So Sam decided to educate himself at the prestigious
Le Cordon Bleu school. It was at this school that Sam
honed his culinary skills in French cuisine and learned
gastronomy, the art of interweaving various ingredients.
Studying at Le Cordon Bleu was certainly not without
mishaps or setbacks. There was one time during a lecture
on how to prepare soup, that the kitchen became engulfed
in smoke because Sam forgot to turn off the range.
But now, such embarrassing moments are all a part of
his fond memories.
After graduating from Le
Cordon Bleu, it still took some time, however,
for chef Sam to find his true passion. Chef Sam
finally reached the decision that he should devote
himself to something he truly loved: Asian style
cooking, especially sushi, which was his favorite
food. Thus chef Sam took a job at Sushi Mon in
Beverly Hills and faced new challenges as a sushi
chef. From properly fluffing steamed rice to delicately
shaping rice balls, everything was new to Sam.
After some time at Sushi Mon, chef Sam acquired
a position at another Japanese restaurant, Haneda,
in Koreatown. Haneda’s clientele is
mostly Korean, who love eating fresh seafood and
are extremely demanding about quality. Chef Sam recalls, “the
Executive Chef at Haneda really taught me from scratch
how to judge the freshness of seafood as well as
how to keep it fresh.” You can imagine the
tough path chef Sam must have trodden before he got
where he is today.
Chef Sam loves eating
good food and hopes to share that joy with as many
people as possible. This love was the starting point
when chef Sam began in the world of cooking. Since
his greatest pleasure is to satisfy his customers,
chef Sam only uses the choicest handpicked ingredients
and employs his highly sophisticated skills in preparing
them. While cooking, he pays the closest attention
to harmoniously combining various ingredients. Some
combinations of ingredients, no matter how much you
love them individually, have conflicting flavors
and ruin the taste of everything in the end. Harmonious
combination, therefore, is chef Sam’s basic
principle. His training in French cooking still shows
in the delicate attention he gives to the various
sauces he creates.
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