Thomson Jess - My rice bowl: deliciously improbable Korean recipes from an unlikely American chef

I was born , not Rachel Yang. But during the summer between high school and college, when I was eighteen, my mother, younger sister, and I sat around the kitchen table in Westchester County with a book of American baby names. Rachel, we decided, would replace the butchered Americanization of Yang Chung Hwa. It was the ninth most popular baby name in 1996, so it felt safe: Id change my name to Rachel. I could be one of them. Nevermind that Koreans typically have a hard time pronouncing Rs and Ls. With an American name and a degree from Brown University, I would surely have a nice cubicle in one of those high-rises in a big cityeither in Korea or in America. It didnt really matter where.

Twenty years later, I am now a chef, a restaurateur, a wife, and a mom to two young boys. I always knew I was the marrying kind, and I always knew I wanted children. But I didnt just decide to become a chef in the same way. That part was an accident. I didnt expect to work in some of New Yorks best restaurants, fall in love with a Midwestern cook in the kitchen, move to Seattle, and open four restaurants. And I surprised everyoneespecially myselfby winding up as a Korean chef who doesnt cook Korean food.

But thats exactly what happened. Today, with my husband Seif Chirchi (and with the occasional help of our young boys, Pike and Rye), we run four restaurants: Joule, Revel, and Trove in Seattle, Washington; and Revelry in Portland, Oregon. It works first and foremost because Seif and I are an unbeatable team. It works because we have the kind of dedicated, hardworking, creative staff that help us carry out the challenges we set forth but also challenge us in return. And finally, it works because our food is very uniquedifferent from any other food, yet always reminding our customers of their very favorite things.

I am Korean, but this book is not about how to make Koreas traditional rice bowl, bibimbap. As youll learn in the pages that follow, I learned how to cook Korean food well after I had classical French training and modern American fine-dining experience under my belt. At our restaurants, we create food that is an improbable combination of all those things. Its food without boundaries, made with ingredients from all over the globe, created within a relatively rigid framework built from our understandings of how flavor works. Seif and I love that by pushing away norms about what foods go with what weve been able to change peoples expectations. With this book, were hoping to bring some of our unusual flavors into your kitchen. The food youll find in the recipes that follow isnt Korean food. Korea is our starting point, but as anyone who has walked into our restaurants looking for traditional bibimbap can tell you, we do not run Korean restaurants. But our version of Korean-inspired food is itself akin to that rice bowl. Underneath everything, theres a dependable backdropmy Korean heritage, made up of my childhood and distant food memories that are engrained in me. Its topped off with a mosaic of flavors seasoned with my cooking experience, informed by Japan, China, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia, and India (just to name a few)the way America is.

This is the authentic food of a Korean immigrant who tried everything she could to become an American but only became one when she realized that her cultureamong manyis what makes America so delicious today. Cook it as written or make it yours. Enjoy every bite.

*however you want

When you flip through this book for the first time, youll notice that, while it has undeniable Korean influences, you wont find traditional Korean staples like bibimbap or bulgogi. Youll also notice that I dont tend to use Korean words for foods. My tendency to give ingredients and my dishes American names reflects my own way of making them more understandable. Often, American chefs who specialize in specific cuisines try to advocate for authenticity, but Im already Korean. Im as authentic as it gets, I guess. Also, because Korean words are often very difficult to read and pronounceeven though they are becoming more mainstream, most Korean foods wind up sounding garbled in American EnglishI find it most accurate to use my own English descriptions for foods. Since Im frequently inventing concepts that are riffs on American or European favorites, it would be totally incorrect to use a more Korean name anyway.

No matter what theyre called, chances are the recipes that follow will contain combinations that seem a little improbable. Jump in. We think youll find that, while the recipes could be novel to you, most of them taste familiar because the concepts we use to combine flavorsbalancing sweet, salty, bitter, and sourare usually quite homey and comforting. Below are a few tips that might help you along the way.