'Sundae revived my life'

Korean sausage restaurant CEO releases book on her journey

By Yun Suh-young

Yook Kyung-hee, CEO of Heestory Food and owner of Sundaesilrok

On Monday evening, a restaurant in a corner of Daehakno, the college district of Seoul, was packed with guests, who were not there to buy food but to congratulate Yook Kyung-hee, CEO of Heestory Food and owner of Sundaesilrok, of her recent publication.

Yook published a book, "Sundaesilrok," which means “Record of Sundae” (Korean sausage), late February to record her 42-month journey to explore sundae nationwide and worldwide.

"Why such a fuss with the publication of a book?" one might ask, but it was proof of how well Yook maintains her relationships. So many people wanted to congratulate her, not just because of the book but because they were really happy for her.

Yook was a CEO who had gone through many hardships with her previous restaurants but who is now a successful CEO running nine different restaurants. She began her career as a restaurateur with a Korean food restaurant called "Namdo Story" but experienced many failures along the way.

"Years ago I had even thought about taking my own life when driving across the Hannam Bridge on my way home. Feeling I should never be driving across the river again, I moved my shop to northern Seoul the next day. My sundae business sailed smoothly until I was kicked out of the building due to soaring rent," said Yook.

"After twists and turns, I acquired a dwindling sundae shop which I was determined to revive. While wondering how I should run the business, I discovered an old book called Sieuijeonseo written in 1877 and read about doyaji sundae which I immediately thought was what I wanted to recreate.

"I wanted to create regional sundae with tradition and authenticity. So I called it 'shundae' the old way with the determination to inherit the tradition."

Her discovery led to a newfound passion for learning and she studied day and night about the dish. Sundae revived her reason for living.

Despite her hopes and dreams, however, the business didn't go as well as she had expected.

"We were in the middle of Daehakno but young people didn't come to eat. I asked them why and they answered sundae smelled bad and they thought of it as street food. So I decided to create healthy sundae that young people would like. This became the 'sundae steak' which became popular after being featured on TV," Yook said.

On Monday, she personally demonstrated how to make sundae, in front of the audience. It was the 1877 sundae from the old record 'Sieuijeonseo' which became their signature dish. Also present at the event was Italian charcutier Giacomo Augusto Ferretti who flew from Italy's Toscana region to demonstrate the Italian style blood sausage, biroldo and buristo. The salami master from Osteria Il Maialetto of the 70 year tradition was one of Yook's new connections from her three-and-a-half year journey across the world on her sundae discovery.

"I researched over 40,000 pages from various publications and met over 1,000 people during my 260,000 kilometer journey. In my book, I recorded all the different sundaes that I've discovered worldwide and studied. This book was six years in the making. I hope you enjoy discovering sundae as I did," she said.