Food blogger enthusiastic about Seoul culinary scene

By Sam Paterson

American-born Joe McPherson is one of the most well-known foreigners on the Seoul culinary scene. His blog, ZenKimchi, was one of the original Korean-food-focused blogs in English, beginning in 2004 and continuing through to the present, an impressive run for any blog.

McPherson has since established himself as an expert on both Korean and Western food, running a popular Korean food tour service for travelers, working with celebrity chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, and releasing a Kindle ebook, a Seoul restaurant guide consistently ranked near the top of Seoul travel guides on Amazon.

In early 2016, he opened McPherson’s BBQ Pub with a Korean business partner, featuring a menu from his native Alabama: smoked BBQ pulled pork, whole smoked BBQ chicken, and “Chickasaw” fries topped with pulled pork, sour cream, onion and jalapenos.

The restaurant was one of only a handful in Seoul serving authentic American South-style barbeque and featured its own on-site smoker. Some of the recipes, McPherson says, had been in his family a long time.

In mid-April 2016, only a month and a half after the restaurant opened its doors, McPherson got into a disagreement with his Korean business partner, who McPherson says refused to sign a partnership agreement.

McPherson had designed the menu himself, along with many of the other chores involved with opening a restaurant, but his partner’s demands meant he would have no more control over what dishes could be served.

McPherson quit outright, and the restaurant closed its doors for good a short time later, after only a few months in business. It was by no means an unusual life cycle for a restaurant in Seoul, but was devastating for McPherson, who likes to point out that many foreign restaurants in Korea ― especially hyper-specialized ones focused on regional cuisines that require hard-to-obtain ingredients and unusual cooking styles ― are “passion projects” for their owners, demanding time and energy above and beyond what profits the niches they serve can provide.

“It was like losing a limb,” says McPherson. As a well-known writer about Korean food, he also says he was expecting “a lot of jeering about being stupid enough to go into (the restaurant business) before anything had been signed”.

Instead, the opposite happened― a flurry of messages from others who’d had similar issues, and some business propositions from people who’d heard he was a free agent. One was from Susumu Yonaguni, a Japanese chef whose three OKitchen fine dining restaurants and meticulous, artistic approach to food are well-known among Seoul foodies.

Yonaguni suggested that McPherson take over his burger restaurant near the Cheonggyechon Stream, and McPherson agreed, bringing some of the recipes he’d developed for his first restaurant.

“We make our onion rings with soju,” says McPherson, “it makes them lighter and crispier.” He has replaced the smoked BBQ chicken from the pub with whole chickens, and plans to resurrect the pulled pork.

He warns foreigners considering opening restaurants to “get everything signed upfront.”

“You need someone with experience in the restaurant industry here,” he said. The restaurant scene in Seoul has changed since he started writing about it in 2004.

“It’s way more international, the variety and the quality of what one can find in Seoul has increased dramatically. (In the future) I expect to see a lot more cultures being represented while Seoul itself becomes more recognized as a world class restaurant city.”

Sam Paterson is an English teacher in Seoul. He is from New Zealand. Contact him at sam.m.paterson@gmail.com.