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Kim So-hee, owner and chef of top Vienna restaurant Kim kocht. /Courtesy of Seoul Food Festival
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One of the most fashionable restaurants in Vienna, where even the Austrian prime minister had better book three months in advance for dinner, is called simply Kim kocht. The owner is a 43-year-old Korean woman named Kim So-hee, who originally went to Austria in 1983 to study fashion. After graduating from university, she worked in the fashion industry for seven years, but felt fashion was not her calling. ¡°People who run restaurants never starve,¡± her mother used to say, being a restaurateur herself.
So Kim hired a chef from Korea and opened a Japanese restaurant in Vienna in 1996, but that partnership was short-lived and she decided to become a cook herself. She bought boxes of salmon and practiced making sushi and sashimi every night. ¡°I am the kind of person who never gives up until I¡¯ve accomplished something,¡± she says. In 2001, she was ready to proclaim it in her restaurant¡¯s name: Kim kocht (Kim cooks).
Her food may look western, but it is Korean in essence. She recently showcased her own recipe for sea bream sashimi and salad with herbal dough flakes in Knock Knock, a restaurant in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul. Half the dish was filled with sea bream sashimi and the other half with salad, and she put dough flakes on the top. ¡°It might look European, but if you use Korean ingredients, it¡¯s Korean food,¡± she says.
It has certainly captivated Vienna, not only for delicious food but also for health-conscious recipes. ¡°I use a lot of medicinal herbs and not much meat. But I feel like I have a magical ability to see the physical constitution of each person. For example I recommend sour and acid dishes to people who seem to have liver problems,¡± she said.
One problem with Korean food is that it can seem fiddly. ¡°Making bibimbap (an assortment of vegetables and rice served with hot red pepper sauce) requires so much busy work, and I feel like my fingers will break,¡± Kim said. ¡°If people don¡¯t eat Korean food, it¡¯s not just because it¡¯s spicy. There are Austrians who love extremely hot and spicy food, too. It¡¯s just that they don¡¯t know much about Korean food and how you eat it. That is why we need to explain,¡± she said.
After introducing Korean food to Austria, Kim now aims to introduce Austrian wine to Korea. ¡°It¡¯s a pity that so little is known about Austrian wine, which is of very high quality,¡± she says.
She has commissioned leading Austrian sommelier Willi Balanjuk to develop ¡°Asian Cuvée,¡± a wine specially made to suit Korean food. Kim and Balanjuk are also personally an item: they got married earlier this month. ¡°I¡¯ve known him for years,¡± she says. ¡°I told him I would save him before he turns 50. Two weeks later, he proposed.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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