Tell us something about your hometown and why you chose to move to New York.
I was born and raised in Seoul, Korea – a city which has now been revived, phoenix-like, from the rubble of the Korean War. Throughout the 1980s, however, an extended period of political turmoil and civil unrest prompted me to apply to a Master’s Program at New York University. And since I made the move, I’ve started a family, found success helping close to a thousand children through art, and I’ve never looked back.
Name two of your favorite dishes, one from your own tradition/culture and another from a tradition/culture different from yours.
I enjoy home-style Korean cooked meals, especially Korean Ox Tail soup simmered with cloves of garlic, a touch of ginger, freshly crushed peppercorn and sliced green onions. It’s very high in glucosamine so it’s great for the joints and served best on cold winter mornings.
And because some of my closest friends are Italian (and great chefs), I’ve come to also love home-cooked Rigatoni Bolognese with chopped carrots and celery, sweet onions, and fresh parsley.
Food, Art and Migration why do you think these three words go so well together
Perhaps because they all concern processes (and histories) of collective distillation and dissemination in cultural and phenomenological spheres.
