People often ask me when why I am working so hard to perfect my Korean food recipes if I’m using family recipes.  They seem surprised when I tell them “No”. Don’t get me wrong, I wish I was using family recipes; it would have made the last three months a lot easier.  Unfortunately my halmoni (grandmother) passed away 6 years ago and my aunts are too far away for me to be able to learn much of anything. Everything I’ve learned about Korean food I’ve had to learn the hard way; research, books and eating. Okay, so the eating wasn’t that hard and I get to pretend I’m Dae Jang Geum (A famous Korean drama about a cook in the royal palace that used food to find love and save a kingdom).  Also O’ngo Culinary School has been invaluable for research for when I took classes and the night dining tours when I was in Seoul. (Yes, shameless plug but I owe them a lot!) Most of my recipes I’ve created are a memory of a dish that I have tasted.  How? The tasting skills made famous by Dae Jang-Geum aren...

  Sunday was spent crammed into my little kitchen to work on recipes. Finally after almost three months of almost weekly testing, fiddling and researching I have finally nailed down one of the main recipes I’ve been working on.  It feels SO good to have that monkey off my back. Now I can concentrate on costing and sourcing ingredients and I can stop trying to find a use for leftover soybean sprouts and buchu (Korean Chives). Monday was the most epic shopping day of my life. Gangnam shoppers have nothing on me, I ordered an 18ft custom designed food truck in one fell swoop. I’m lucky enough to have a company here in Cowtown that builds food trucks and carts of all sizes and shapes and sends them all over the world. I set an appointment on Monday to go take a look at one they are building right now for someone else and to talk about pricing and options. As we talked we found a great deal on the base step van (think FedEx) that was too good not to snap up. Next thing you know, much li...

Two hours of my life I am never getting back.  Before we get to that story, I feel as though I should explain my absence for the last couple of weeks. Unlike Korea, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are a big deal here in the states and this year there was even a bonus. Since the holidays fell on a Sunday, well we picked up Monday as the “observed day” and everyone got a three day weekend!  This would be awesome except I’ve been waiting on my filing from the secretary of state so I could call the IRS so I can get a bank account set up, etc.  Now, with the three day weekend I was waiting longer than expected for the filing since Monday was the holiday and we all know what happens when we take a three day weekend: the work piles up and with everyone basically treating the Friday before New Year’s as a half day. So there are actually only 3.5 working days between December 23rd and January the 3rd. Yippee for everyone except for me. So I basically gave up on getting anything major done...

Two hours of my life I am never getting back.  Before we get to that story, I feel as though I should explain my absence for the last couple of weeks. Unlike Korea, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays are a big deal here in the states and this year there was even a bonus. Since the holidays fell on a Sunday, well we picked up Monday as the “observed day” and everyone got a three day weekend!  This would be awesome except I’ve been waiting on my filing from the secretary of state so I could call the IRS so I can get a bank account set up, etc.  Now, with the three day weekend I was waiting longer than expected for the filing since Monday was the holiday and we all know what happens when we take a three day weekend: the work piles up and with everyone basically treating the Friday before New Year’s as a half day. So there are actually only 3.5 working days between December 23rd and January the 3rd. Yippee for everyone except for me. So I basically gave up on...

The Korean Street Truck Adventures TCS, SOP, HACCP,MSDS, FAT TOM... If I hear another acronym this week I’m going to scream. TCS, SOP, HACCP,MSDS, FAT TOM, and the list goes on and on. I’ve been swimming in a veritable alphabet soup this week all because of one issue that no foodservice operation can ignore. Sanitation. Why the alphabet soup and concern with sanitation this week? ServSafe. ServSafe is a program from the National Restaurant Association that certifies a person in sanitation and safety issues and is nationally recognized. While ServSafe isn’t required for mobile operations by my local health department I decided to renew (you have to re-up every five years) my certification. The material is pretty extensive, not just your garden variety “wash your hands and watch out for salmonella”. It has not been fun to study, for example, look up Anisakis or any other seafood toxin and you will understand why I’ve gone almost borderline vegan this week. Ick . ...

Korean Street Truck Adventures: Chapter 2 Kermit always said it wasn’t easy being green, but sometimes I think that being a female in the culinary profession is just as hard. Ever wonder about all that stuff that Anthony Bourdain talks about in his books? It is all true, to varying degrees of course, being a part of the culinary world requires being a little bit crazy. (Okay, maybe a LOT of crazy) One of my favorite quotes about being a chef actually comes from the Korean drama "Pasta." “Being a chef is like digging a well in the desert” In other words, a crazy endeavor that sometimes pays off. Being a woman in a kitchen requires you to be even crazier. Everything is built for the men, right down to the clothes. Sure, now they make “women’s cut” pants and jackets but trust me, that has only been in the last 5 years. Even with these modified cuts, there is no good way to look like a girl. Hair pulled back and under a hat, no makeup or jewelry, a boxy jacket and even ...