KANG HAN
1990.09.03 OWNER AND HEAD CHEF OF WOL
먹고 나면 아주 조금이라도 행복해지는 요리를 만들자
[ 달팽이 식당 中 ]
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closed.
by the time han lands in incheon, eight plates have cracked and three glasses have shattered. he knows it would’ve broken his sister’s heart, the way it always would whenever he’d bring souvenirs and visit, so he tries to remain thankful for even the smallest of victories. at least she wouldn’t have to cry over broken china anymore. she would never need to cry again.
the restaurant is small. long, wooden tables, an open kitchen along the back. there are dried flowers in the corner and the blue-green tiles behind the stove range look even softer in the evening.
i want it to look like rinco’s restaurant.
the film? but why? you won’t even be able to fit twenty people in here—
because the food she made was magic, han. she didn’t need a fancy menu or michelin stars. all she needed was one table and one guest. her food could heal.
the film had fed: a lonely, abandoned divorcee. a teenage girl, pining after her first love. a widow who had been unable to take off her mourning gown for over twenty years. each of them had been fed and, as his sister had explained, healed. there, in rinco’s kitchen, with its single table, no menu on the wall. just a guest with a hopeless hunger and a meal cooked just for them.
their wishes came true, after eating there. i know it’s fiction and i know my restaurant isn’t magic but — isn’t that the dream, han? i just want… i just want someone to eat my food and if, somehow or some way, it makes them even the smallest bit happier then i think i’ve done a good job, yeah? i just want to be able to cook something and make someone happy. that’s all.
han pours himself a glass of soju at his sister’s favorite table and wonders, alone, what dish would heal him now.
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open.
@wolrestaurant
wol is back open for business. we thank all of our loyal patrons for the patience, love, and understanding shown over this last month. chef kang sol will be missed, but her dream will live on. let us eat and be happy.
1,201 likes | 27 comments
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bare bones.
kang han, one of the youngest korean chefs to ever receive a michelin star, abandons what could’ve been a budding legacy in the food capital of the world. thousands of miles away, his sister passes and leaves behind her “one-table, open-kitchen” concept restaurant in mapo-gu to his name.
han’s love for food had started with his sister. when he had been drowning in academia and parental expectations, it had been sol who had helped him discover his food dream. it had been sol who had encouraged him to become a chef. / isn’t it only fitting, then, that he keep her restaurant open and carry out the rest of her dream, too?
sol had cooked to heal. han prays to do the same.
(to cook or to heal? both, really. both, always.)
let us eat and be happy.











