Profile | Michelin-star Korean chef on the joy of being in Hong Kong, his not-so-simple food and how seaweed works like MSG
- When Korean chef Sung Anh cooked in his family’s restaurant he knew nothing of fine dining. Now he is opening a branch of his Mosu Seoul restaurant at M+ museum
- Dining in Hong Kong has a ‘sense of excitement and discovery’ he has not felt anywhere else, he tells Bernice Chan, in part because of diners’ sophistication
“My family immigrated from South Korea to the United States when I was 13 years old. My parents used to own a Chinese-American fast-food restaurant – a Panda Express-ish restaurant – in San Diego, California. I helped them after school so I could make my US$5. I cooked hot and spicy chicken, corn chicken and teriyaki chicken.
“My father was the chef and my mother was the server. We had the food prepared and heated on top of a steam table so it was not à la minute cooking. I helped cook, serve and as the cashier since my English was the best in the house, though it was horrible back then. I have an older brother and sister, but they were more focused on studying and going to college. By the time I was in 12th grade, I could run the restaurant without my parents – and I loved it.”
What did you do after leaving school?
“Since I worked so much at the restaurant, I didn’t do much homework and couldn’t get into college. I didn’t know what to do so I joined the US Army for four years, and went to Baghdad, Iraq, for a year in 2002. I enjoyed the army because I could travel and experience so much. At that age you live for danger and find it exciting, and that’s how stupid I was.
“After four years, at the age of 24, I decided to pursue my dream to be a mechanic. In the military, I fixed cars and vehicles, looking after them. So when I left the army, I signed up for mechanic school in Arizona and was going to move there the week after.
“I parked my car and went into the culinary school, talked to a counsellor and it seemed like a fun job. They even told me a job was guaranteed, which sounded great. The school was Le Cordon Bleu, in Pasadena, California.”
So you changed your plans?
“I told the mechanic school I wasn’t coming, and called my future roommate and told him he could keep my deposit and that I’d signed up for culinary school instead. My parents were surprised and didn’t take it well in the beginning. But once I started going to school, I didn’t look back. Fortunately, I had amazing mentors.
