#edward kwon

[greatwonu]

soonyoung moodboard !!

[greatwonu]

soonyoung yellow moodboard aesthetic 🍥

[edwardkwonsoonyoung-blog]

IT’S OUR 10:10 HOSHI’S DAY!!! WOOHOOO!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our beloved choreographer Soonyoung whose energy we cannot leave out! Stay healthy and bubbly! Also, we hope you’ll be forever happy with your husband Seokmin!

[goodkimchi]

Chef Edward Kwon's quest to globalize Korean food

Korean food is one of the world's hottest cuisines right now. The man behind much of its success shares his motivation.

[hallyuandthephilippines]

I loved this cooking show in Arirang.

Korean Chef Edward Kwon starts his series 'Edventure in Asia' in the Philippines wherein he tries various Filipino dishes, especially our national dish 'Adobo'. Watch until the end as he creates a fusion dish by mixing Korean and Filipino cuisine. 

[eastmeetswesttennessee]

Edward Kwon's Lab XXIV {A Review}

Phil and I have already reviewed an Edward Kwon spot called The Mixed One {find the review here} so we were excited to try another of his restaurants.  This place is far more upscale and it was strange to have a good view of the kitchen with many grown men fawning over your meal with the utmost attention to detail.

We had a seven course tasting menu.  

And it goes...a little something...like this...

{Pea Puree Appetizer with choice of bread}

Sweet and salty.  I watched a little girl devour hers so that's a pretty good affirmation to the taste of this soup.

Each course came with its own explanation card.  I couldn't decide if I liked it or thought it was a pretentious ploy to get us to care more.

{Crab wrapped in gelatin with Argan Oil} 

I did not think I would like this.  I thought the gelatin would taste like slime and I would pick through to find the crab and leave the rest alone.  However, it was divine.  Soft but firm gelatin, creamy, salty, warm everything else and lots of flavor.  

{Root Vegetable Salad}

This is the type of dish I often scoff at when I see pictures of them.  Too little food, veggies cut in weird shapes, indescribable ingredients...the salad tasted nice though.  The carrots were very sweet, the tiny mushrooms were adorable and the dressing was perfectly rich and salty. 

{Lobster with Cous Cous}

This was my second least favorite course.  The lobster was "slow cooked," our waiter informed us, and you could tell.  It was almost chewy.  The foam was either too salty or too heavily seasoned another way and it affected the taste of the cous cous.  It looks beautiful, but the taste did not match its beauty.

{Truffle mushroom soup with bacon and caramelized onions}

I know you won't believe this, but this was BY FAR the best thing on the menu.  This was the creamiest, most balanced and delicious soup I may have ever eaten.  The bacon and caramelized onions only triumphed together in a three way win with the mushroom cream.  Oh my god, it was unbelievable.  

The super cute chef {that I was apparently ignoring to check my phone--rude} pouring the soup over the bacon and onions.

{Pineapple Sherbet made with liquid nitrogen}

And here is where the real gastronomy comes into play.  Another adorable chef came over and literally made ice cream before our very eyes with some pineapple juice, seasoning of some kind, and liquid nitrogen.  It was a sweet surprise in the middle of our savory meal.

{Sous vide Tenderloin with vegetables}

Melt in my mouth steak cooked to perfection.  Need I go on?

{Dessert-No Card}

Dessert looked like a work of art and tasted like bitter disappointment.  I have no idea what 50% of what I was eating actually was.  The green tea ice cream somewhere in the middle wasn't bad but that's the best compliment I can bestow on this trainwreck of a dessert.  

Perhaps it takes a finer palate than mine to appreciate a nearly tasteless, sugarless dessert such as this. The bits of cake were not sweet, the almonds were not roasted, the cranberries were kind of confusing for this type of dessert.  Nothing settled right in my head or in my mouth.  

{Tea and more {better} dessert followed}

And this is the end, folks.

  Now the restaurant itself.  The decor needs some help.  Pretentious doesn't begin to cover it with the faux diamonds laid on the table to the faux GIANT diamond napkin rings to the ugly color scheme.  The place was trying much too hard.  If it were toned down, the food would really shine but I felt like it was constantly competing for attention with the abhorant decoration.

It was also a bit too heavily staffed for the time of day and it made me feel awkward with that many people waiting on me.  I can push in my own chair, thank you.  Yes, my napkin does go on my lap but I'm more than capable of doing it myself, my good sir.  It was just uncomfortable at times.  

A quarter way through the meal I relaxed and let them wait on me the way they were trained so it became more comfortable but there was still an over-the-top-ness that I could have done without.  However, I know why they do these things.  Yuppie Koreans eat this pretentious western style garbage up.  

It's easy to compare the two restaurants because they are both owned and operated by the same famous chef.  However, I won't.  They are both on different pages with food.  Not different levels, but different concepts and ideas.  Judging only the food I would give the restaurant a near perfect score on most of the dishes.  The downsides would be the look of the restaurant and the slow cooked lobster.  I honestly never expect much out of Korean desserts, so I'm not surprised it wasn't my taste. So I don't weigh that one in my decision.

If you are in Korea and want to try upscale gastronomic food, this is your restaurant.

Address LAB XXIV, 100-14, Cheongdam Bldg., Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea Direction 200 meters from Exit 2 of Apgujeong Rodeo Station on Bundang Line. In the alley of Prada. Phone number 02-511-4523

[siximpossiblethingsinkorea]

The Mixed One...Seoul

I posted this blog on the Food Geek's website in March but since they are removed now, and I took so much time to create this one, I reposted on my personal blog...I hope you enjoy!

I recently moved to Seoul to be closer to awesome food.  :) Really it was for a better job but the perks of food in Seoul would be enough to get me to move up here.  Where there was a handful of restaurants around my apartment building in Daejeon there are literally a hundred restaurants right outside my door in Gangnam.  

Yesterday, however, my friend Phil and I traveled just a bit further north to Hannamdong to visit a restaurant owned by a renowned Korean chef, Edward Kwon. According to Phil, he worked in the UAE in a high class hotel and was once asked by Madonna to be a personal chef.  To quote Will Ferrel, he’s “kind of a big deal.”  

Phil was my Edward Kwon expert yesterday and took care of all the ordering and translating.  Our five course meal took about two hours…amazing doesn’t begin to describe it.  It is Western-Korean fusion and it is beautiful.  It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.  There was not one thing that I put in my mouth that I had ambivalent feelings toward, I loved every bite.  Even by the end, I was so full but I kept right on shoving food in because I didn’t want to leave a single thing behind.

Diet starts Monday! 

First Course: Breakfast by way of scrambled eggs with polenta and French toast with cinnamon whipped cream. 

With a side of mocha bread…yes, that’s right….mocha bread and corn soup that tasted like dessert it was so thick and sweet. 

Second Course: Salad three ways with chicken, pork and seafood skewers with dipping sauces.  I loved this presentation and felt like I was eating an incredibly special meal when I saw it.  

Third Course: Side dishes included stir fried mung beans, french fries and “the most expensive kimchi I’ve ever eaten,”~Phil.  This was served with roast chicken with garlic sauce.

Fourth Course: This is the course where Korean fusion foods were more obvious.  We feasted on LA Galbi, steamed pork with bacon and garlic sauce, frozen sweet and spicy cuttlefish salad, and barbecue chicken with apple matchsticks, grilled onions, and garlic mayo sauce.  

Fifth Course: At this point I am beyond full.  But, this was the main course and the “highlight” of the meal.  We had a choice of salmon or sirloin steak with mushrooms, garlic chips and caramelized onion sauce, so, of course, we had the steak.  

Dessert Course: This is what I would call the real highlight of the meal because I am the biggest sucker for sweets in the world.  When the tray came I thought we would be able to choose a couple of the samples.  But they were all ours…ALL…OURS. There was pumpkin and soybean ice cream, creme brulee, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate cake, walnut pie, lemon cake, etc… wondrous!

And the best part of the day.  The very thoughtful and kind manager who took the time to explain all of our meal to us and answer all of Phil’s many questions, brought me a free box of beautiful chocolates—just because.  Phil explained over and over they were just for me, she doesn’t do that for everyone, because he thought she liked how nice I was. Haha…whatever the reason I was so grateful and slightly embarrassed   She was too too kind.  But, my embarrassment subsided when I ate them because they were too too good.  

The meal was a bit expensive for an every week kind of thing.  But, look at it!  The service was wonderful, every staff member was pleasant and informative and those who could, spoke English to help me.  The manager, again, was so nice and gracious.  It was worth every penny…a true food geek wonderland.  

[setokityan]

Grooming young stars

Edward Kwon hopes Yes Chef! Season 2 will see the birth of a new generation of talented chefs.

South Korean celebrity chef Edward Kwon (centre) on the set of Yes Chef! Season 2.

By SETO KIT YAN  [email protected] 

EDWARD Kwon is a man on a mission and the South Korean celebrity chef is not coy about it.

Sitting down for a casual lunch with Malaysian friends, Kwon looked no different from a college student in his plain coloured T-shirt, jeans and sneakers ensemble with his short-cropped hair ungelled.

Yet, when he related his vision for his fellow kitchen mates, his eyes sparkled with the conviction of a man driven by a dream that was close to realisation.

Kwon is determined to elevate the profile of a chef from a cook slaving in the kitchen to a glamorous celebrity good enough to represent the country. “Chefs can be sex symbols, too. And, they can also have fans screaming their name as well.” Coming from a man who enjoys god-like status in his home country, Kwon must know what he is talking about.

The former chef of Dubai’s seven-star Burj Al-Arab candidly reveals how he has endeavoured to put his chefs on the covers of magazines.

Laughing, he described how he had his boys pose for pictures, carrying a huge tuna on their backs while their shirts fall open to show off their sculpted abs.

“As you can imagine, the ladies simply went crazy over that, and the response was amazing. They would visit the restaurant just to see the boys.

“That is why in my future restaurants, the chefs will come out of the kitchen to serve their dishes and communicate directly with their diners as that is exactly what the customers want.”

The affable chef also did not hide the fact that people would tell him to his face that he became famous due to his good looks and that no one would have paid him any attention if he weren’t as handsome. “Well, yes, I agree with them. So, I tell my chefs the same. It’s not enough to be able to cook well. You have to look good while doing it.

“And, they have asked me this: ‘Are we supposed to be chefs or entertainers?’ I tell them very frankly: Both. You have to be both. That’s just the way it is.”

And yet, even that isn’t enough, says Kwon, who feels they should aim to be celebrity chefs and acquire the skills required for the job. “They have to know how to run a restaurant and be able to deal with the media as well as entertain fans. Yes, there is a lot to be done and they must be prepared to work hard and long hours.”

It takes time, effort and money, and Kwon is aware of that. So, to help his chefs maintain their sculpted physiques, Kwon says he is more than happy to pay them to go to the gym. “In Korea, there is a huge amount of pressure to look good; so much so that surgery is an easy option for many,” quipped Kwon, who maintains that he is “all natural”.

If you take your eyes off his face long enough, you will see that there are numerous visible scars on Kwon’s limbs, a result of cuts, burns and scalds from working in many a busy kitchen. Every single one of them tells a story that Kwon is happy to share. The deepest scar came about when he pulled a container from a shelf and a knife fell from above stabbing him in the arm.

Apart from the recently concluded EdVentures In Asia on Li, Kwon has also featured in other programmes like Edward’s Live Kitchen, Challenge Star Chefs and Yes Chef!.

“Yes Chef! was a big hit in South Korea. I hope Malaysians will love the second season, too,” he enthused.

As someone who has put in the hours to achieve his success, Kwon is also a staunch believer in tough love, which he dishes out in copious amounts on the show.

“People need to be pushed to achieve their full potential. I remember this fellow who didn’t even know how to cook when he first started. After a good talking to, he went back and did his own research and homework.

“He came back later and surprised everyone by winning the challenge. He was that good. All he needed was that extra bit of motivation.”

Kwon has been scouting locations for the perfect spot to open a restaurant in Malaysia and hopes to find a like-minded local partner to work with. Apart from that, he has also launched his own line of kitchenware – EK Cookward – here last month, making Malaysia the first country outside of his native South Korea, to sell the products.

Yes Chef! Season 2 airs on Li (Astro Ch 728) at 9pm on Tuesdays.

source: thestaronline; story also in > The Star > Star2 > TV > page 19 > on Tuesday 16 October 2012.)

story link: http://ecentral.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/10/16/tvnradio/12165072&sec=tvnradio

isnap video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTXi-hhfHvM