 French-trained chef Rachel Yang talks about how she infuses Korean flavor in her dishes in an interview with The Korea Times. / Korea Times Photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
Staff Reporter
For Seattle-based chef Rachel Yang, the beloved ``tteok,'' or rice cake deserves more than just a curious interest from Westerners. Rice cakes, a staple in many Asian countries, is relatively unfamiliar elsewhere.
Yang, who owns acclaimed restaurant Joule in Seattle, recently showed how rice cakes can be worked into ``foreign'' dishes with delicious results.
She presented dishes like rice cakes in oxtail ragu at last weekend's Seoul International Rice Cake Fair, where she was the special guest invited by the Institute of Traditional Korean Food.
``Westerners don't have rice cakes, and for them, there's nothing like the texture of the rice cakes. It's hard for them to understand why Asians love it so much. That's why it's fun for me to come out here and make some Western dishes using rice cakes. … Rice cakes have great texture, and you can add it to anything and it picks up the different flavors. You can use it for anything,'' she told The Korea Times at the Tteok Cafe, downtown Seoul, Monday.
Using the rice cakes in foreign cuisine can be a good way to introduce it to foreigners. ``For foreigners, it was like, `what did you do to the rice cakes?' But for foreigners, its good to understand rice cakes from a different perspective. They think it is strange and traditional, but they can see it can be very friendly and can be adapted to their culture,'' she said.
Yang has successfully infused Korean flavors into the French dishes she serves at Joule, a restaurant that she runs with her husband and fellow chef Seif Chirchi.
Yang grew up in Seoul, but her parents sent her to New York to study when she was only 15. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in Urban Studies and Visual Arts, Yang realized she didn't know what to do with her life. ``I wanted to wipe everything clean and start from the bottom. I really loved cooking and I never thought I'd be a cook myself, but I said, why not,'' she said.
After taking a one-year course at the Institute of Culinary Education, Yang began earning her culinary stripes at high-end French restaurants like Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, Thomas Keller's Per Se and DB Bistro Moderne in New York City. Incidentally, she met her future husband while they were working at Ducasse's restaurant.
Being a woman and Asian, Yang had to work harder to prove that she was as good a chef as her male colleagues. ``Working at these reputable restaurants, you learn so much. There's a reason why those chefs are sought after because they understand the standards of the cooking, not just putting out the food, but its about making everyone happy from the service to the food,'' she said.
Moving to Seattle, Yang and her husband worked as opening chefs at Coupage in 2006. Last year, the couple decided to open a restaurant, Joule, which offers modern Korean-French-American dishes.
Joule attracted rave reviews, including Innovation Award by Seattle Weekly 2009, and selected as the best new restaurant by Seattle Metropolitan magazine 2008.
``I learned how to cook in French restaurants but my palette is attuned to different flavors in Korea and Asia, so it was natural to combine everything. People only know barbecue and kimchi, and so to bring the different flavors of Korean food to American people, they get really surprised.... I'm not making anything new. I'm just combining different things, in a more accessible way,'' she said.
Joule's menu has unusual East-meets-West dishes like whole mackerel and smoked tomato puttanesca with daikon salad; spicy beef soup, leeks, daikon and creme fraiche; and wild boar spare ribs with spicy Korean BBQ glaze. But don't describe the dishes as ``fusion.''
``It gets branded as `fusion' when people don't know how to categorize it, but really cooking in America means really cooking with all different flavors. America is a big melting pot. Everyone has their own thing,'' she said.
Korean food has been growing in popularity in the U.S., something that Yang is particularly happy about. However, the government's efforts to promote Korean cuisine and push for more Korean restaurants abroad may seem a little bit heavy handed
``To force a culture or food on other countries, it's not something you can do. It has to happen naturally. The government support is great, but people need to tackle this is all different levels, bring the food to the people,'' she said.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
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