Junghyun Park of Atomix and Atoboy: the Korean chef changing New York’s perception of his country’s cuisine
- Park started married life in the Big Apple, and stayed there, with wife Ellia looking after front of house
- He had long known he wanted to be a chef, even if the United States was not where he imagined he’d end up
When did you know you wanted to be a chef? “When I was around 14 or 15. The reason I went to Kyung Hee University [in Seoul, South Korea], which is well known for hospitality, is because it’s not easy for Asian parents to understand sending their son to cooking school, even if it is the top school. So I got a degree in food science, but they also teach restaurant management, hotel management, franchise and nutrition.”
How did you get interested in cooking? “Both my parents worked, so I had to prepare food myself. I would take rice from the rice cooker, banchan [side dishes] from the refrigerator and heat up soup. Sometimes I’d prepare food for my older brother. I thought working in a restaurant would be interesting.
“My parents never said no, but they worried that it would be a tough job and that it would be hard to make money. The reputation of a chef wasn’t as high as it is today. Some chefs have television shows now and are very popular, but 10 or 15 years ago it wasn’t like that.”
What did you learn overseas? “When I was at university, in 2007, I went to Finland as an exchange student, to study restaurant management for six months, and then to London for my internship. I started working at The Ledbury [Australian chef Brett Graham’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Notting Hill] and it changed my idea of food.
“Before, I had thought about going to The Culinary Institute of America [in New York], but after working with Graham, I changed my mind. He helped me understand what exactly food, cooking and the restaurant business are about. After university, I moved to Australia to work for three years, which was stressful and physically hard. In 2010, I travelled in Southeast Asia for six months and that helped me narrow down what I really wanted to do.”
What was it like moving to New York? “I had been to Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, but not America. When Jung-sik opened his New York restaurant [in 2011], I wanted to join the team. I went there in 2012. It was an exciting moment because just two days before moving to New York, Jeongeun [Ellia] and I got married.
“This was our new home, a new period of our lives. We went to the same college, so we’ve known each other for 15 years now. We thought we would stay in New York for two years, then go back to Korea and open a restaurant. But there are more opportunities in New York, so we changed our minds and opened a restaurant there [Atoboy in 2016, followed by Atomix last year].
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“My wife looks after front of house, wine, and is the general manager. It’s not easy. Everything is new for us, including learning about the laws and regulations governing a restaurant. We also had to look for a business partner to finance us.”
Tell us about Atoboy and Atomix. “Atoboy is a casual-style Korean restaurant where we elevate the banchan as the main dish. You can choose three banchan plus rice. So it’s like a banchan-tapas-Korean restaurant.
“In the United States, not many people know about Korean cuisine – they think it’s Korean barbecue or spicy food, so we want to spread the word. After two years we felt the audience was ready for fine dining. So we opened Atomix, which has a tasting menu.”
What is it like being partners in life and work? “I don’t need to worry about the quality of the service. Ellia always thinks about how to make the service better, and I can worry about the food. We stay together all the time, thinking of how to make our restaurant better, our lives better. That’s been the key to our success for the past three years.”
Junghyung Park was in Hong Kong for a four-hands collaboration with chef Vicky Lau at Tate Dining Room and Bar, in Sheung Wan.
