What represents beauty for you?

I find so much beauty in nature. It is what inspires me the most. From grand landscapes and colours of sunsets to little wildflowers and seashells- shapes, colours, geometry, symmetry, and patterns, I’m mesmerised by all these created organically by nature. Nature is alive, moving, and constantly going through the cycle of life and death through the changing seasons, which makes it an infinite source of beauty.

How did your passion for cooking start?

I believe I always had a passion for food and cooking. I remember making a cookbook for my summer vacation project when I was in elementary school and taking baking classes for my extracurricular activities in middle school. My interest for the culinary arts however, really kicked in during my university days in Japan. Tokyo was the perfect playground for food exploration. I travelled around to discover new flavours through various dishes and cuisines, learn about the local ingredients, and get creative inspiration by venturing to Michelin restaurants whenever I could. I took a semester off to go to wine school and take cooking classes. These latter years fuelled my passion for expressing myself through food, using all of my five senses. Food and table life have always been represented by art.

Which artist of the past or present do you like most and that inspires you?

If I have to pick one, it would be Claude Monet. His love of nature, food, flowers, and his passion for art, I love everything about Monet and his work. Impressionism resonates with me a lot. The fact that it was influenced by nature, how most of the paintings capture transience, the changing of light and the season, and that it’s about the feeling and mood to evoke emotions. These are the things that inspire me the most and correspond to what I aim to achieve as well.

To which culinary element of the different countries where you grew up are you more attached to?

Up until today, I’ve lived in Korea, Japan, the US, France, and Switzerland. I can’t pick one as each country has influenced me and is still influencing me in its own way. But I think that what they all have in common is the simplicity in their cuisine – e.g., seasonal, fresh ingredients simply prepared. I love that. I think this common thread makes it easier to relate to and connect with each country’s culture.

Share with us the stages of your creativity: from cooking and wine pairing, to displaying a set, to photography. What is your creative goal? What do you want to arouse in your public?

I aim to tell visual stories through food, to evoke positive emotions and a sense of joy. In the past few years, I have been working on the theme of nature nostalgia – an attempt to bring back happy memories of interacting with nature each of us has from childhood. For instance, collecting seashells on the beach, playing with daisies, picking cherries from the trees. I love it when this resonates with my audience, taps into their memories and brings comfort and warm feelings.

When it comes to the different stages of the creative output; I typically start with a story I want to tell. This Spring, for example, I did a series on cherry blossoms. These flowers last for only about two weeks in Spring. Watching them bloom and fall in such a short amount of time is known to evoke a sense of ‘monono aware’: the joy and pathos of feeling the transient, passing, and impermanent nature of life. Once I have my theme and the feeling I wish to arouse, I do more research and study the characteristics of the subject and I look into how I can visualise it through food. Ultimately, I have created ‘cherry blossom’ soba noodles, rice paper chips, and meringues. In terms of the display set or table setting, it depends. Sometimes I try to keep it very minimal to highlight the food itself without any visual distractions. Other times I create a scene that adds a layer to the story. By the time I pick up the camera, I already have an image of the final output in mind. I also get new ideas on the spot and improvise as I go, sometimes bringing in another media such as video.

You have created a special recipe and pictures for Orlando. Could you tell us what has inspired you?

Both the time of issue of this edition of Orlando and its Pandora’s box theme made me think of the season’s first snow. There is something special and magical about that moment. In Korea, there is a superstition that if you are to see the first snowfall of the season with someone you like, love will blossom. Outside the country, the first snow remains special as it brings back nostalgic memories of a happy and carefree childhood for a lot of people. Much like the first bloom of Spring, which generates hope and excitement, so does the first snow in Winter, lighting up the dark and grey days. So, I wanted to create a recipe that could encapsulate this magical moment. I decided to create snowflakes meringues – light, airy, fragile, and melting in your mouth just like those snowflakes that you tried to catch with your tongue when you were a child, and serve with double cream, just like a Swiss classic “Meringues double crème”, a sweet treat from the ultimate winter wonderland.

What do you research à la table, as an experience?

I love stories experienced through a mix of the five senses. Kaiseki, a traditional Japanese multi-course dinner, is a good example of this. It is an expression of nature’s beauty and of the changing seasons. It transports you to a different time and place through the dishes, allowing you to fully experience the season. The tableware, a variety of dishes with unique colours, shapes, and textures are used to enhance the experience. Wood and earthenware appear on the table in autumn and winter to give more warm feelings while porcelain and glass will be on the table in spring and summer for the opposite, a light, refreshing, and cool feeling. It’s the ultimate ‘art de la table’, that immerses you completely in the dining experience.