After Parasite and Netflix’s Minju Kim, Cho Hee-sook is the first Korean to win Asia’s best female chef – continuing 2020’s Korean awards wave

Mar 24 , 2020

Cho Hee-sook, first Korean to be awarded Asia’s best female chef from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Photo: @hansikgonggan/Instagram

Asia’s new hottest chef on why Korean food is so much more than barbecue, kimchi and bibimbap – and why she wants to retire to ‘read books and organise my notes’

The year 2020 has proved to be the moment that South Korea’s creatives collectively steal the spotlight – spearheaded by the movie Parasite winning best picture at the Oscars, one of four trophies director Bong Joon-ho took home from Hollywood’s biggest night. He’s been followed by fashion designer Minju Kim winning the first series of Neflix’s reality TV series Next in Fashion – and now, Cho Hee-sook winning Asia’s best female chef award from Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Chef Cho, a respected authority on traditional Korean cuisine and chef-owner of Hansikgonggan in Seoul, is the first female Korean chef to take the honour – a milestone for the country’s culinary industry. “The best female chef award celebrates female chefs whose dedication, skills and creativity set new standards in gastronomic excellence,” says William Drew, director of content at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Cho has spent most of her career sharing her in-depth knowledge of Korean cooking with young chefs, ensuring her country’s unique culinary traditions and recipes are passed on to future generations.

Celebrated chef Kang Min-goo of restaurant Mingles in Seoul says Cho is one of his most influential mentors who has “spent her life developing Korean cuisine”.

Cho started her professional career as a middle schoolteacher. Not long after, however, fate took her into the kitchen. She worked in the kitchens of Seoul’s premium hotels before being appointed executive chef at the South Korean embassy in Washington. After her return, she focused on culinary research and has taught university students.

Cho receives her award on Tuesday (March 24) through a live-streamed presentation ceremony, as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic – initially, the ceremony was to be held offline in Japan’s Saga Prefecture.