Chef Sung Park offers NY's rare French-Korean cuisine

By Yun Suh-young

Chef Sung Park

New York is a place with a myriad of choices. On the food scene, that means it offers a diverse range of cuisines for foodies, and for chefs, plenty of opportunities to experiment with the market.

Many of the Korean chefs who are active in New York are second or third generation Korean-Americans and they pursue Korean cuisine cooked fusion-style to cater to the American market. Only a handful of Korean chefs cook other types of cuisine _ such as French.

Chef Sung Park, who has a small restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, is one of the few exceptions. His restaurant, Bistro Petit, is a tiny place which can be easily overlooked when walking down the street. At the 14-seat restaurant, Park cooks his own unique French-Korean cuisine, which is mostly French with touches of Korean elements.

"It's basically French cuisine. The reason people say it's French-Korean is because of the Korean touches I add to the dishes. But visibly, the Korean element is minimal," said Park.

"Yet, the dishes are inspired by my Korean background. All of my dishes have a story. Each of the dishes on the menu is reminiscent of my memories in life."

Chef Park is not a second or third generation Korean-American. He was born and raised in Korea and relocated to the United States in his late 20s. He worked in the fashion retail business at a young age. He didn't go to college and started working immediately. Park said, "When I was young, I was not a good kid." But he knew how to make money. Despite his success in business though, there was something in his heart that was longing to pursue another dream.

He loved food and cooking, possibly because of his family background _ his grandmother and mother were both restaurateurs. Somewhere in his heart, he had a passion and longing for food. His potential blossomed only years later. He got a job at a small Italian restaurant in Queens, New York. There, the owner chef advised him to get proper education and training because he had talent. Park enrolled at the Art Institute of NYC's Culinary Arts department and worked and studied at the same time. Later, he worked as chef de partie at the famous Jean-Georges' restaurant and as sous chef under chef Didier Virot.

Twenty years had passed since he moved to the U.S. and it's been nine years since he last visited his home country. During those years, he established his own restaurant, got married to an Israeli woman, and had a child.

"I had no time to go back. Time flew by. I was so busy with settling this restaurant which I started five years ago. So many nights I spent sleepless, but even though it's tiring, it's exciting and fun. I love cooking which keeps me going," said the chef.

Some of his dishes include oyster pancakes, truffle ttuck and cheese (similar to tteokbokki), kimchi bouillabaisse inspired by the Korean kimchi jjigae (soup), and boeuf bourguignon a la Coreenne (Korean beef bourguignon) which is inspired by the Korean galbijjim (beef stew). Other popular dishes include pan seared foie gras and farro mushroom risotto.

"The foie gras is unlike any other foie gras. After tasting my first foie gras at a French restaurant during a trip to Shanghai, I was so blown away that I decided this is the cuisine I wanted to cook. I had to cook foie gras like this and I wanted to do it better. I wanted to cook the best foie gras that no one had tasted," he said. "That's why I cook French cuisine."