Sexy Seoul chefs pose for pin-up calendar
The 2019 Seoul Sexy Chef Calendar shows (from left) Cha Du-ri of Just BLT; Robbie Nguyen, Philip Abowd and Bobby Kim of Southside Parlor; and Chuck Chun of California Kitchen & Craft Pub. / Courtesy of Joe McPherson
Sexy Seoul chefs pose for pin-up calendar
By Jon Dunbar
It's 2019, which means time to open up a new calendar. Twelve months of Seoul chefs in pinup poses sounds like the unlikeliest of calendars, but it's printed and ready.
Based on a poll in the
, owners of 12 restaurants, bars and food producers were selected to pose. This includes Linus Kim of Linus' Bama Style Barbecue, Wendell Louie of Mix & Malt and Pussyfoot Saloon and Becca Baldwin of Lumi Kombucha.
According to calendar co-producer Dan Suh, the idea for the calendar came from a conversation between himself and The Sool Company co-founder Julia Mellor. They thought up a calendar that could benefit three parties: for a charity, for the participating businesses and for the calendar buyer.
, which provides mentoring and scholarships for college-bound Korean orphans, was chosen as the charity.
“The charity will benefit as all the profits will go towards Oak Tree Project,” said Suh, who runs
. “The participating businesses get to raise awareness and show themselves in a different light. And the calendar buyer gets a unique calendar that's fun and even has reward coupons to spend.”
Joe McPherson, another calendar co-producer, traces inspiration to an even earlier stage: “It started when a couple of Italian restaurant owners, who are notorious rivals, were trying to make hunky photos of themselves for their Facebook profiles,” said McPherson, best known for his blog
and his tour company offering
and
Tours.
While sexy firefighter calendars are produced around the world, including here in Seoul, McPherson could only find one prior sexy chef calendar, produced in the American Midwest.
“There are some trailblazing chefs that have become legendary, but you still don't see them outside the kitchen,” McPherson said. “We wanted to show them in a different light with a sense of humor and glamour.”
Suh and McPherson, both moderators for Restaurant Buzz Seoul, teamed up on the calendar, with Suh handling the business side and McPherson working on putting together a production team and getting the funds for the project.
“Flowerbomb,” the director of burlesque troupe
, served as creative director. She showered them with ideas for concepts for the 12 calendar pages, which included homages to classic retro pin-up model poses.
“Each concept was built by getting to know each model and picking iconic references from pin-up history that best complimented what the model wanted to portray,” Flowerbomb said. “This process did take days but it was so worth it. Many of these models had never modeled before so it was also very important to me to make each of them feel comfortable baring a bit of their cheeky side.”
Photographers
served as photographers, and Corey Lajeunesse donated studio space for photo shoots. Groove Magazine helped with layout and printing.
“It took a good lot of cajoling, begging, and making false promises to get participation,” McPherson said. “Many models were nervous. Some of them thought they had to be in the nude, and I assured them that was not going to happen. It did get them out of their comfort zones, but they had fun doing it, though some of those sexy poses are painful.”
“That's the thing about pinup modeling,” Flowerbomb added. “The poses are very unnatural but very aesthetically pleasing. There really is no beauty without pain... and I kind of really like that!”
Calendars will be available on Jan. 4 at participating restaurants: Pocket, Tom's Pizza, Morococo Cafe, Just BLT, Southside Parlor, Mix & Malt, Pussyfoot Saloon, Linus' Bama Style Barbecue, California Kitchen & Craft Pub, Ryan Smokehouse and The Workshop.
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