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Bloomberg

Judy Joo says she used to read mostly about financial markets as she shows me around her quick-service Korean-American restaurant, Seoul Bird, in London’s Canary Wharf.
These days it’s more cookbooks, food magazines and menus for the former derivatives salesperson who ditched Morgan Stanley’s trading floor in 2004 after five years and went on to work in Michelin-starred restaurants and host her own TV cooking show.
Lots of people fantasise about ditching their careers to pursue their dream job. Joo is one of those who made it happen.
We spoke with Joo about how she engineered the successful switch. (Responses have been edited and condensed.)

Why did you leave banking?
It was no sleep and I was burnt out. I think I had sinusitis and laryngitis for eight or nine months, I couldn’t get better because I was working all the time. And I didn’t love the markets. Every moment of my free time I just wanted to read cookbooks, create recipes and bake cookies.
This Hong Kong pastry chef wants you to enjoy Michelin-star desserts at home
You also endured long hours and tough conditions when you started working in restaurants. What did you learn from that experience and now you’re the boss, what’s your approach?
My chief operations officer, Andrew Hales, and I have been in the industry long enough to know what doesn’t work.
Unpaid breaks in the middle of the day with no place to go, physically fighting for a staff meal that’s just kitchen scraps, having one day off, working two days and then another day off – it’s just not a nice way to live your life.
We provide people with a good wage and a community – it’s all friends, and friends of friends, of people who came to the UK to take a chance.
They can order whatever they want off the menu for their meal, they have a four-day working week and then they have three days off in a row.

UK restaurants have been hit from all sides: inflation, staff shortages and many office people working from home. How do you run a successful business in that environment?
We’re keeping our supply chain fresh, using many suppliers and making them compete with each other. We had to raise our prices and it was more of an art: a little bit here, a little bit there.
Energy prices are coming down, but then lettuce is becoming so expensive. Sugar has also gone through the roof – Coke is more expensive than Coke Zero now.
And we’re negotiating with our landlords: people are now working three days in the office, 2019 traffic isn’t coming back and they know it.
Does your banking experience make it easier?
How are we ordering and using ingredients? How are we writing the menu? Is it cost-effective? Are we meeting our targets? Owning a restaurant is finance at the end of the day.

I can’t understate the value of learning to model in Excel with different assumptions, like forecasting what happens if I open six days a week instead of seven, if I have 32 instead of 15 staff members.
And because of my finance background, I’ve been able to raise money relatively easily. I can talk shop to everybody and I understand the parameters, what profit and loss is, how quickly we can pay back investors, what margins are.
By the way, that’s why we’re a quick-service restaurant (which doesn’t include table service) – the margins are much better.
What would you say to people thinking about a radical career change?
Everyone has at least two or three lives in them. Don’t give up. You are going to be rejected 1,000 times, but all it takes is that one time to make it a success story.


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Food and Drinks

‘Don’t give up’: how to make a career shift succeed, from a former Morgan Stanley derivatives salesperson turned celebrity chef and restaurant owner

Celebrity chef Judy Joo (above on the Highland Park YouTube channel) talks about her career change from working in finance. Photo: Instagram / @HighlandParkOfficial

Judy Joo’s kimchi fried rice. Photo: Instagram/@judyjoochef

Judy Joo’s Japchae noodles. Photo: Instagram/@judyjoochef

Judy Joo’s raw Huelva white prawns with lemon and extra virgin olive oil. Photo: Instagram/@judyjoochef

‘Peeling every chickpea’: how Hong Kong Middle Eastern restaurant Sumac aims to change ideas about Lebanese cuisine, starting with the hummus

Hummus, the most popular menu item at Sumac. Photo: Sumac

Sumac’s owner and culinary director Nadim Hamze. At his fine-dining Middle Eastern restaurant, the chef aims to change Hongkonger’s views of Lebanese food by creating a ‘unique cultural experience’. Photo: Sumac

Hamze at work in Sumac’s kitchen. Photo: Sumac

The interior of Sumac. Photo: Instagram / @sumacrestauranthk

Hummus at Sumac. Part of the secret behind the restaurant’s most popular menu item is peeling every single chickpea of its outer shell. Photo: Sumac

Sumac’s sayadieh. Photo: Sumac

Sumac’s fattoush, a salad packed with fresh vegetables tossed in a lemon dressing and topped with crispy bread. Photo: Sumac

How the chef at Anajak Thai in LA left his Disney animation job to help out at the family restaurant, and made it one of the city’s most popular

Dry-aged fish tacos at Anajak Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Photo: Instagram / @anajakthaifood

Disney lead animator Justin Pichetrungsi  (left) with his parents. He helped out at their restaurant Anajak Thai when his father was sick, and has turned it into one of the most popular in Los Angeles. Photo: Instagram/anajakthaifood

Justin Pichetrungsi (centre) has been going to his parents’ restaurant all his life. Photo: Instagram / @anajakthaifood

Justin Pichetrungsi (right) and the kitchen staff at Anajak Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Photo: Instagram/ @anajakthaifood

March omakase at Anajak Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Photo: Instagram/@anajakthaifood

Soft shell crabs at Anajak. Photo: Instagram/@anajakthaifood

Why new Hong Kong cake shop Otera’s pastry chef and founder wants to you to enjoy Michelin-star-level desserts at home

New Hong Kong cake shop Otera’s signature banana whiskey flan with candied walnut. Other desserts available include a soy sauce caramel flan. Photo: Otera

Pastry chef Joanna Yuen. Photo: Otera

Yuen makes her signature soy sauce caramel flan at Otera. Photo: Otera

Otera’s signature banana whiskey flan with candied walnut. Photo: Otera

Yuen says that meditating two or three times a week is another way she imagines new desserts. Photo: Otera

The Flavour Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.

How a sushi chef in Hong Kong is breaking with centuries of tradition to offer a ‘more fun’ omakase experience

Fatty tuna sushi. Photo: Sushi Zo

Chef Michikazu Yoshida of Sushi Zo in Hong Kong. The chef explains how he aims to create a “memorable and interactive experience” through the restaurant’s non-traditional omakase menu. Photo: Sushi Zo

The interior of Sushi Zo, in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood. Photo: Sushi Zo

Charred fatty tuna sushi at Sushi Zo. Photo: Sushi Zo

Grilled sea urchin at Sushi Zo. Serving the dish warm as opposed to cool – how it is normally served in sushi restaurants – allows for a different tasting experience. Photo: Sushi Zo

Stewed abalone at Sushi Zo. Photo: Sushi Zo

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Changing careers requires overcoming rejection, says celebrity chef Judy Joo, who quit the finance industry burned out, feeling ill and ready to chase her dream
Since then, she has appeared on cooking shows, worked in Michelin-star restaurants and opened her own, Seoul Bird in London


Celebrity chef Judy Joo has hosted her own TV show, worked in Michelin-star restaurants and opened Seoul Bird, a quick-service restaurant in London. She talks about switching careers from the finance industry.


Morgan Stanley

‘Don’t give up’: how to make a career shift succeed, from a former Morgan Stanley derivatives salesperson turned celebrity chef and restaurant owner

Changing careers requires overcoming rejection, says celebrity chef Judy Joo, who quit the finance industry burned out, feeling ill and ready to chase her dream Since then, she has appeared on cooking shows, worked in Michelin-star restaurants and opened her own, Seoul Bird in London

Changing careers requires overcoming rejection, says celebrity chef Judy Joo, who quit the finance industry burned out, feeling ill and ready to chase her dream

Since then, she has appeared on cooking shows, worked in Michelin-star restaurants and opened her own, Seoul Bird in London