Two Korean American chefs turn into entrepreneurs

Angela Lee, left, and Cecilia Lee, co-owners of Roasted Sesame Kitchen, a fast-casual bibimbap restaurant in Los Angeles, pose in this file photo. / Courtesy of Roasted Sesame Kitchen

By Kim Ji-soo

In the City of Angels — or Los Angeles which is estimated to have the largest Korean diaspora population in the U.S. — two Korean-American women have gone out on their own to open a restaurant serving bibimbap, a Korean rice dish with mixed vegetables. The two are Cecilia Hae-jin Lee and Angela Bong-ah Lee, who opened Roasted Sesame Kitchen in East Hollywood, California.

Cecilia, CEO and co-owner, is a veteran food writer with books such as "Eating Korean" and "Quick and Easy Korean Cooking." She is a restaurant reviewer, regular contributor and photographer for the Los Angeles Times' Daily Dish. Angela, COO and co-owner, is a doctoral candidate of traditional Chinese medicine at Emperor's College in Santa Monica, and has over 10 years of working on food issues in both New York City and Los Angeles. She also graduated with a degree in Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health from New York University. The two joined hands to found a casual Korean restaurant in East Hollywood.

At Roasted Sesame Kitchen, the menu is fun to browse. A customer can choose a base of white rice, brown rice or even lettuce if you want a salad bowl. Then they can choose a protein — beef, chicken, spicy pork and/or tofu. One can get one, a combination or all of them. Then the customer can choose from toppings including spinach, mung bean sprouts, zucchini, kale, lettuce, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, bell peppers, green opinions, carrots and namul, or seasoned vegetables. For sauce, it is either sesame soy sauce or the spicy gochujang sauce. Each month also features a special topping. The Korea Times asked the two women over email why they chose bibimbap when large Korean franchises are already in the business and other matters.

Q: How did you first settle on bibimbap among Korean recipes?

Cecilia Lee: I had an idea to start a build-your-own bibimbap restaurant about six years ago. At that time, I heard CJ Foods would be starting a restaurant called Bibigo with a similar concept, so I thought there was no way I could compete, so I didn't pursue the idea at that time. However, my passion for Korean food and idea to have a Korean restaurant in America's fast-casual food space would not leave me. After I met Angela, I felt like I finally had a partner I could trust to move my idea forward. I think bibimbap is one of the best ways to introduce Korean cuisine to those who've never tried it.

Angela Lee: When Cecilia suggested that I be a partner for a fast casual restaurant, I thought it was a great idea. Bibimbap in my opinion is one of the traditional foods that has not been changed since coming to America. We kept the flavors traditional, but added California options such as kale. As a community nutritionist for over nine years, it was very important to me that customers get options — providing options is a great way to introduce new flavors, especially different vegetables and vegetable preparations.

Q: How did you arrive at such a combination?

Cecilia: In the year that we were working out the details for the company, we also spent that time taste-testing our recipes and ingredients. Some of the recipes are from my cookbooks and ideas I had developed in the past 17 years as a Korean food writer. Others, we created with feedback from family and friends. We're still trying to improve our recipes for better taste.

Angela: As part of the California landscape, we try to provide our basic menu with seasonal options.

Q: Do you feel that there is more awareness about Korean food in general so that you would foresee success with Roasted Sesame Kitchen?

Cecilia: When I started as a food writer, most people hadn't heard of Korean food. In fact, the reason I started writing about Korean food was because no one had written about kimchi in the Los Angeles Times before. Almost 20 years later, the culinary landscape has changed, not only in L.A., but all over the world. Still we are in a largely Latino neighborhood and every day there is someone who has never tried Korean food before.

Angela: Since moving here from New Jersey, I noticed that chefs such as Roy Choi, Edward Lee and Chris Oh began to introduce Korean flavors outside the popular barbecue foods. With the help of these chefs, I believe that Korean food will be part of the evolving culinary landscape. I also appreciate that Korean foods have not changed much from the traditions. I also work in a group that teaches low-income families preservation skills where we introduced kimchi as a Korean staple and showed participants how to make kimchi using salted shrimp.

Q: Who are your rivals?

Cecilia: I like to keep an eye on the competition. (But) I don't think of the other Korean restaurants as competition, per se. I think there is plenty of room in the American food space for more Korean food purveyors. The execution of your ideas is more important than the idea. Besides, we're doing something very different with Roasted Sesame Kitchen, in that we are in a lower-income neighborhood where there are no Korean restaurants...But I just want to feed everyone delicious and healthy food.

Angela: To me, every restaurant is competition. But I think three things differentiate us: freshness, traditional flavors and customization.

Q: For Cecilia, what changes have you embodied as you turn from a food writer into as food entrepreneur?

Cecilia: It has been an exciting and interesting shift for me from spending a lot of time alone in front of a computer to spending every day with my staff and customers. I have always enjoyed the company of people, and I love the direct and immediate responses I get from feeding people. I love to see the joy in people's faces and the empty bowls after they've filled their bellies with our food.

Q: For Angela, you are also studying Oriental acupuncture and medicine for deeper understanding of how fresh foods leads to a healthy body and mind?

Angela: My grandparents owned a grocery store and my parents have always owned a restaurant. I went to NYU with the hopes of bringing dietary standards to the Korean community. It was very challenging to see my grandparents struggle, eating foods without Korean flavors because of their health restrictions. After working a couple of years in a clinical setting, I moved to community nutrition where I was able to teach all ages healthy eating for a healthy body and mind. As a traditional Chinese medicine student now, I am able to combine my experience as a nutritionist, restaurateur and believe that a happy body is a happy mind which I hope translates into the food that we provide at the Roasted Sesame Kitchen.

As for their future plans, the two said that they would like to open more restaurants in other locations in the L.A. area where there are no Korean restaurants such as the Westside, the Valleys and Orange City. Long term, they would like to expand to New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Paris and London. In the meanwhile, they want to see their maiden unit in East Hollywood become successful.