Chef Edward Lee believes that meals, when at its very best, tells a tale. The meal he has deliberate for subsequent week’s state dinner on the White House speaks to the deep connection between the United States and South Korea. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been invited for a state seek advice from via President Joe Biden, which incorporates a glitzy state dinner. The White House reached out to Lee, a Korean American chef and restaurateur to assist with the meal. In an interview with the Associated Press, Lee mentioned his thought for the dinner: “Korean food and American food can merge together and create this beautiful hybrid that is unique and delicious.” According to Lee, any iconic American meals, when spiked with a “little Korean flavor or Korean spice,” will nonetheless be acquainted, however it is going to simply be other and distinctive.
“When food is at its best, it tells a story,” mentioned Lee. President Yoon’s seek advice from will mark 70 years of U.S.-South Korea family members. The determination to recruit Lee to be the visitor chef revives a convention that Michelle Obama steadily used when she organized state dinners as first woman. Jill Biden selected Lee as a result of his Korean-influenced American delicacies. After dinner, Broadway stars Norm Lewis, Lea Salonga, and Jessica Vosk will entertain visitors with solo, duet, and trio performances.
The revel in running with White House govt chef Cristeta Comerford and her team of workers was once nerve-wracking for Lee. He just lately spent two days on the White House checking out recipes and plating foods, providing tastes to first woman Jill Biden and her team of workers, who’re accountable for the dinner and who helped increase the menu. He could not say what is at the menu, as main points shall be launched via the White House on Monday.
Lee set to work in eating places when he was once 14 years outdated. Though he attended culinary faculty after commencement from New York University, he dropped out after per week. He opened a cafe in decrease Manhattan, which folded after the terrorist assaults of September 11, 2001. He took a destroy to trip the United States and scratch more than a few pieces off of his bucket record. During this time, he fell in love with Louisville and its Southern tradition, the place he discovered his culinary voice. He has one eating place, 610 Magnolia, in Louisville, and is weeks clear of opening every other. He lives part-time in Washington, D.C., the place he’s a culinary director for a 3rd eating place, Succotash. He received a James Beard Award for his ebook, Buttermilk Graffiti.
Lee says that Southerners and Koreans are alike in how they devour – giant tables, a lot of meals, facet dishes, grazing, and barbeque. Different spices, flavors, and strategies, he mentioned, “but the philosophy is the same, the sensation is the same.”