"Fighting in Iraq, Washing Dishes, and Learning to Cook"… NYT Focuses on Chef An Seongjae

Introduction of Chef Anseongjae by NYT
"He walked a difficult path to achieve success"

The prominent American newspaper The New York Times (NYT) published a lengthy article featuring An Seongjae (42), a chef famous for holding three Michelin stars, on the front page of its website.

On the 21st (local time), NYT introduced Chef An's story in an article titled "He is Seoul's only Michelin 3-star chef. Don't cross him." The article detailed how An immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of 13 and chose a life as a chef. NYT stated, "He took an unlikely and difficult path to success, fighting as a U.S. soldier in Iraq, working as a dishwasher to pay for culinary school, and more."

Chef An Seongjae is explaining about the dishes at a VIP dinner held on the afternoon of the 20th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, where tourism experts from the California Tourism Board and representatives of Korean travel agencies were invited. Photo by Yonhap News

According to the report, Chef An had an impoverished childhood, enlisted in the U.S. military, and was deployed to the Iraq War as a mechanic. After his discharge, he aspired to become a Porsche mechanic. However, just two weeks before starting mechanic training, he impulsively enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in California after seeing students attending there.

After graduating from culinary school, he knocked on the door of a famous Japanese restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, expressing his willingness to work unpaid to learn cooking, and started his career as a dishwasher. Chef An learned a lot there, but he felt uncomfortable seeing customers perceive him as Japanese rather than Korean because he worked dressed in Japanese-style attire. He said, "That troubled me a lot," adding, "It felt like I was imitating someone else, not myself."

After various efforts, he was able to open a restaurant in San Francisco in 2016, which earned one Michelin star in its first year. The 18-seat restaurant was always fully booked. Nevertheless, Chef An decided to close the restaurant the following year and return to Korea. He recalled, "People said I was crazy."

Fortunately, his restaurant 'Mosoo,' which opened in Seoul in 2017, achieved great success despite initial skepticism. Mosoo earned one Michelin star in 2019, two stars in 2020, and in 2023 rose to become Korea's only Michelin 3-star restaurant. When Mosoo opened in 2017, even his wife expressed concern over the high menu prices. However, Chef An said, "It's not too expensive," and "This is the value I set."

Despite reaching the pinnacle of the culinary world, Chef An was relatively unknown. However, NYT reported that he gained fame after appearing as a judge on the Netflix cooking show "The Big Day." Joseph Lee Zhou, chef of Evett, a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Seoul, said of Chef An, "He is probably the most influential chef in Korea." The publication evaluated, "The place where his American dream was ultimately realized was his homeland," adding, "While he was away, Korea transformed into a global powerhouse in music, art, television, and food."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.