Hearth & Seoul Book

There are untold ways to connect with each other, but food is the one thing I’ve found that can bring us together in an abundance of ways. A shared meal can tell a story; it can speak of a place, offer healing, express love, create history. In my family a meal cooked by my mom who pours her heart into each ingredient could satiate a broken heart, cure a hangover, and comfort you through hard times. It was one of the few ways she knew how to express her love. Though it may not be obvious on the surface, this act of love passed down from my Halmeoni to my Oma can also be seen as an act of rebellion by the women raising their families in a world that offered harsh realities and few opportunities for expression.

 

It's a wonder to arrive in this space, writing a book about my personal journey with connecting to the food of my mother’s people and sharing our recipes while walking through the stories that influenced our ways. Creating a story of my Halmeoni and my Oma and the ways that our journey with sharing our love of nourishing our families have shaped our lives and forged a connection through generations of daughters. We have lived in different timelines and places of the world, and yet this thread that connects us remains intact and stronger than ever.

 

These stories weave through my Halmeoni’s experience as a first female chef of her time in a small town in South Korea post Korean war using ingredients available at that time from the land before American influence had reached her; my Oma’s experience cooking for her three brothers in South Korea during times of poverty and then her immigration to America where the ingredients shifted and began to influence her style and creativity; to my own experience with an abundance of ingredients available and the ability to modify dishes to fit my health needs coupled with my deep interest in what mother nature has to offer through plants.

I would by no means call myself a professional chef; I’m a daughter of a wonderful cook, the granddaughter of a professional chef, and a mother herself who has worked in the food industry, cooked her whole life, and continues to experiment in the kitchen. The stories and recipes shared in this book are specific to the history of the women in my family and the ingredients we chose to use based on what was available and our own preferences on the dishes we created. They are recipes harnessed with love and careful thought for the wellbeing of those we were nourishing and the hope that they would be strong and forge on with any adversity they were facing. All we’ve ever wanted was for our children to thrive and feel loved. I want my Halmeoni and Oma to know that they have succeeded and that I plan to carry this forward with my own family.