692: What Breaking 2 Million on Social Really Feels Like with Hannah Taylor

0:00This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. Resi is a digital platform that connects restaurants to restaurant lovers by elevating dining experiences, providing original industry content, and helping to fill some of the country's most exciting dining rooms. Because restaurants have always been more than just places to eat. The amazing world of restaurants is just a few taps away in the Resi app and at resi.com.

0:31The kitchen is kind of my domain. It's almost like my fitting room or my dressing room, you know, so it's my time and I enjoy it like a kid playing. And I don't take it serious. What happens happens. If I burn something, I burn something. If I don't, I don't. I have fun. This is Taste. I'm your host, Matt Rodbar.

1:21that, Mina Park and Kwang E of Baru in Los Angeles take the resi questionnaire. It's impossible to understate the devotion fans have for this restaurant, whether it was the strip mall original, the pop-up, and even the too-long years Baru didn't exist. This latest iteration is a rebirth of Kwang and Mina's vision of fermentation-driven Korean cuisine. I hope you enjoy this episode.

1:50Kwong Go and Mina Park, welcome to This Is Taste. You're taking the resi questionnaire. Are you ready? We are ready. I love this so much. The favorite thing you've ever cooked? I can say like pork belly. It was the first time I ever used the sous vide and then know about the sous vide. It was super tender. Your favorite meal from childhood? I can say my mom's food, especially specifically denjangjigae, which is fermented soybean stew. And then I want to say jjapagetti, which is instant ramen with pink sausage, which is fish cake kind of sausage. Slice, put in the egg and then pan fry. And then another thing is juljuri sausage.

2:36It's a little bit different one. I think, I'm not sure about the English kind of version, but that was my favorite. Kuang loved to eat in childhood. My favorite food was also made by my mom. It's bachuk. It's a red bean porridge, and it had little round pieces of sticky rice balls. A kitchen tool or equipment you couldn't live without? Definitely a knife. So my first brand knife, which I have been using like more than almost 15 years, so which is chef's knife yeah that that knife has some stories yeah uh mine's also a knife but mine's a very cheap uh not that cheap but a victorian ox tomato knife i use it every single day so this is like the serrated yes the serrated one so i use it we eat a lot of fruit everything yeah yeah okay this is a really good one what five culinary items would you bring on a desert island Okay, so knife and solar panel.

3:37And then one rice cooker, which is nowadays rice cooker do everything. And then some kind of mixing bowl. And just in case, some pot. And a pot. You're very practical. The solar panel is a very smart one. What about you, Mina? What are your five items for the desert item? Similar. I would bring my tomato knife. I would bring kitchen scissors because we're Korean. And then also the rice cooker, ideally Cuckoo brand, because he set up the solar panels. Hopefully we're stranded together. Packets of seeds to grow some of the things that may not be on the island. So you're Team Cuckoo. Oh, we're definitely Team Cuckoo.

4:19Team Cuckoo all the way. I love this. Your favorite cookbook. Mirazul, which is Mauro Colagreco. Yeah, love that one. My staples are any of the Odolengi cookbooks. Just reminds me of London and those recipes really work. Love that sentiment. I fully agree. They're like some of the most bench tested. Yeah. The foolproof. So we'll have like entire dinner parties for years we've been cooking out. You guys have time for dinner parties? Oh, no. I mean, not now. Not now. But in my memory, I used to have dinner parties. Before restaurant industry. Yeah, exactly. But the beauty of a restaurant is that you're throwing a dinner party every night.

4:58Every night. Yeah, that's how it feels when I'm out there. So, yeah, that's the feeling we were trying to give people when they come in. What was it like when you started throwing dinner parties professionally as a couple? As a couple, it was very stressful, actually, because it was just amazing that all of these people who we didn't know would come, pay money, good money for our food. And then there's so many moving pieces with the restaurant. So pretty different, but incredible when it's flowing and you see people laughing and enjoying. What is your favorite drink of choice? I don't drink that much alcohol, so I want to say Coke Zero.

5:40Oh, yeah. Every day. Coke Zero over diet. Over diet, zero. Yeah. I do drink alcohol. I like to try anytime I'm somewhere that serves Korean soul or alcohol. So a makgeolli or anything like that, I'll try. Have you dabbled in making your own? We, I have started trying to explore that. So that's something we're doing for Baru. I love that. Your favorite food movie? It's called 음식nam��, which is Eat, Drink, and Man, Woman, or Woman and Man. Yeah, from Ang Lee. from Ang Lee it was 1993 or 4 that's a classic food movie yeah my favorite is actually Okja he told me it's not a food movie but I feel like it impacted me the most in terms of how I eat so and we love Bong Joon-ho do you know Bong?

6:41oh not yet but that's a dream to cook for him cook for Bong we will love to have him in anytime I think we love his philosophy and all of the sort of his social justice kind of threads in his movies. And I think they would get along really well. Okay, a big one for you all. Your favorite taco in Los Angeles? Marisco's Jalisco. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was a classic. We actually got married at the county clerk's office that was closest to Marisco's Jalisco. And we went there right afterwards. I love that. Oh, cool. Just after it was signed up. Yeah, we went to East LA and we said, oh, that's closest to our favorite taco.

7:22That says a lot when it's that meal after. And Raul is so nice. We've been able to tell him that story. Okay, this is really fun. List four industry people, living or dead, who you would love to cook with or have over for a dinner party. Right. I want to say Hwang Hyesung, which is the late, kind of last person who's kind of inherited royal cuisine. kind of she's the last one but she's passed away and another is Im Ji-ho which is I think before Noma he's really well known about yin and yang five way elements and foraging and pre-medicine cooking yeah they call him the wandering chef the wandering chef yeah exactly and then Lunar Recipe yeah and then who you've met I'm sure yeah I kind of start so yeah you'll get a chance in LA when they come next year yeah sure that's my parents yeah they run a restaurant yourself for me so I think he thinks about who he wants to cook for I think about who I would want to have at a dinner party so it's more like who do I think would be fun to talk to I would love to have Virgilio Martinez I would love to hear from him also Bruno Verjue in Paris I think he would be hilarious I've heard he's really interesting a former writer Ligaya Michan I think she would be very cool too I know you've met her one more Kwong Kwong's there you gotta have him by your side I love that big one which restaurant industry person do you admire the most?

9:08I want to I mean I admire whoever kind of contribute to the society who is, I mean, everyone knows now, Jose Andres. And then another person maybe, not many people know about which is Daniel Giusti who's a former head chef and then now basically he's contributing to kind of elementary and then public school. Yeah. So, helping like bring sort of good food into public schools in the US which as parents of a public school kid is very necessary. And then definitely Alice Waters too. Oh, you. How about you, Mina? Yeah. I have to say, I also agree, like, you know, just Jose Andres, what he's been able to do, his impact on the world.

9:57And yeah, Dan. Dan Goose. Yeah. Former guest on the show. Yeah. Got a great episode with him. Exactly. Yeah. That was a great episode. It was a great episode Liza did with him. Yeah. We have some more. You're doing the resi question. You're really, really killing it here. I love it. What's been the greatest restaurant experience in your life so far? So again, like the first time I did, it really makes a big difference. So it was a Noma because it's really different than any other restaurant. So that's why it's really wow. For me, it was Yoo Bo's Kitchen in Cheongdu. I went there maybe 2016. It's been a while.

10:38But, you know, I had a lot of spicy food before that were Sichuanese. But his take and his elegance, it was really mind-blowing. I've never been to Chengdu. Yeah. I really want to go back soon. Yeah. You should just organize a big trip. Be fun. I've heard of you both. Yeah. That's a great call. Yeah. What is your greatest professional achievement? Basically, first Baru was that because I was really, really nothing. It's kind of just no reputation at all, but the first kind of baru, like, achievement, to me was a really big thing. And then, yes. Kind of set the foundation for everything we could do.

11:18I got to go to the first iteration, and I got to see your genius just in its earliest phases as a chef. And just seeing a unique style of service and deep creativity with fermentation. I just, I was like, this is my kind of restaurant. That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. Yourself? Thank you. I feel like because, you know, we are products of, I'm a product of Asian tiger parents. I feel like we haven't kind of gotten there yet. We have a lot of big plans. And so, you know, what's the greatest? We're still working on it. Fair. I like that answer. Really smart answer. What single dish describes your personality?

11:58I want to say just currently I'm working on the kind of one new dish for Baru, which I want to call chapaguri, which is kind of my interpretation about chapaguri. So chapaguri, kind of you may know, which is in the Parasite movie, which is our favorite director. So basically, chapagetti part, actually I'm using the black bean sauce and then kind of the marinade, seltos, which is kind of seasoned. and then guri part. So basically it's a local kind of line called halibut and then just make a lot of seaweed, milk, and then also we are using kind of Korean alcohol and then make something similar to beret blanc sauce and then kind of sauce with the beret blanc and the halibut and then serve together.

12:52Yeah, so we call it jjappaguri because the original idea was actually I'm making the noodle part, but noodle is not there yet. Yeah, the noodle part's essential for that dish. So that's why instead of noodle, now before completing the noodle perfection, just serving the seasonal like salthus with black bean sauce. Instead of noodles, salthus. I like that. It's very clever. Yes. Yourself? I guess it's probably more like the fried rice that I would make at home for my kids. so it's a Korean style like you know very I hope meticulously minced vegetables but very basic but like whatever is in season but carrots etc a little bit of Korean sausage for our son I love that dish it sounds amazing I'm like really and chicken powder a little bit of chicken powder chicken powder?

13:43yes oh yeah for Asian cooking yeah you need a little chicken powder let's go there so it's not MSG it's not There is MSG in there. There's MSG in there, but it's called chicken powder. Yeah, it's like Norse chicken powder. So when I would take cooking classes in Thailand or wherever, they always add chicken powder. Very, very, very interesting. We got to come back to that. If you could go back in time, which restaurant would you want to dine at? I want to go to Im Ji-ho, who I want to cook for, previous question. So the reason I want to go is he's really a pioneer of freezing. And also he kind of combined the cooking and then oriental medicine.

14:32And he's also really put five elements and in and yang philosophy into the cooking. For me, the restaurant I would love to go to that's close is Momofuku Seobo in Sydney. everybody I used to live in Hong Kong and you know people we go to Australia often and people would come back and talk about this restaurant people who hated most restaurants that they went to so it seems to be you know just this beautiful restaurant that I never got a chance but he's opened a new restaurant actually the chef yeah well Paul Carmichael opened a restaurant in New York yeah Bar Kabawa so I can't wait to try that yeah what is your wish for the restaurant industry?

15:14just more humane and and contributing more for social and justice equality, which we also try. I mean, yes. So for someone like Jose Andria, Daniel Augusti, yes. And then more humane. And then also get paid a little bit more for people. How do we do that, though? How do we get people paid more? That's really difficult. So in that case, actually, the best way is basically who owns, who invested, they need to get paid a little bit less, but it's kind of the question about communism and then capitalism. So that part, I think it's really dangerous to talk about this one in the States. But yeah, so that's why another maybe we can think about is corporation style, but I'm not sure it's going to be really working because of ownership mind is really necessary.

16:13so it's a really difficult question you did a really nice job of bringing up multiple ideas there and I don't expect you this is rapid fire thank you for sharing that for the industry I think what we would like to see is a little bit more equality and respect for the essential workers in our industry so we try to have more equality between back of house pay and front of house pay But, you know, right now, as we can see, there's so much that can be done to support people in the restaurant industry, farm workers, everybody who supports what we do. What do you do well? I can say maybe psychology, philosophy, and then also which is the same.

17:01Like, maybe you can explain. It's like kind of fortune telling based on the Oriental philosophy, which has like a few thousand of the history. So maybe four column of the pillar. It's all based on five elements and then yin and yang kind of theory. I'm really into now, actually. Other than cooking, that's kind of what I'm kind of have interest in. Also kind of a little bit of finance. I try to learn a little bit. Yeah, you're good at finance. You figured it out. Yeah, so. It's good. Yourself, Mina? What do I do well? I don't know. I like spending time with people. So anything that involves talking with people, I think I like to hear from people.

17:49And so, I don't know if that's a skill. Okay, on the flip side, what don't you do well? Basically, I'm very introvert. So kind of like what she said. that one I'm not that good at and then I want to kind of improve my kind of social skill like people skill I think one of the things that we talk about a lot is you know getting away from this sort of one man show or two man show kind of mindset of running a restaurant and trying to focus on the things that you know that we need to do only we can do and And yeah, I tried to get rid of all the extra noise because there's a lot of noise. Yeah, yeah.

18:36Really smart. It's hard. Well, with marketing restaurant, you need like a person, right? Right, and we don't. And we're, oh, that's another thing we're terrible at is self-promotion, I think. We both don't really like it, but. If you could eat through a city in one day, where would you go? Seoul, my parents' home. Yeah. Yourself? I really want to go to Lima. We've never been. And yeah, just eat around there. The one thing you can't resist splurging on when you're dining out? Usually I want to say just seasonal or chap special. Yeah. I need an aperitif to start usually. So I would recommend either sparkling something or yeah.

19:25Do you have your grower champagne? I mean, like kink. Do you love that stuff? I mean, I love, yeah, just like any kind of champagne, whatever the house recommends. Yeah, I love that. What do you value most in restaurants? So again, like humanity. And basically it's like a similar, like Danny Mayer talk about it. So inner customer. So our team, which I actually learn from, also Mina learn from, actually from this team because when I opened my own restaurant, it was no team. So I think it's really important to have a really good team and then also treat them well, communication with each other, and then really kind of make it family.

20:16So that's why people, humanity, something that is kind of really important. Smart. Mina? I guess I would answer the question a little bit differently. so if it was about what do we look for when we go to restaurants like what do we like about them sure I like that we can go there we always talk about whether or not a restaurant has jeongseong do you know that term jeongseong yeah jeongseong it's kind of you can say there's no English word but it's the meticulous attention to detail that comes out of love so it's like if you think about traditionally like a Korean mom cooking it's like that attention to detail but they do it and you can feel the love in the food so when we go to restaurants That's kind of what we look for and what we hope we can do at our own restaurants.

21:00It's quite intangible. Yes. Because like I would say most restaurants have like a process in place and they have, they're meticulous in some ways. Yes, definitely. But to say it's elevated, what do you look for? It's about kind of the care. And you can tell that somebody has really done it out of love and sort of positive energy, I guess. It's very intangible and maybe objective also. But at the same time, I feel like, you know, you go to this, you know, our Sundae place in K-Town. You feel it tastes different to us. That, you know, food made with Jungseung tastes different. Last one. It's your last meal on earth.

21:38Same. What are you eating? So my mom's 된장찌개. Yeah. That's my favorite. We started there and we ended there for you. Exactly. For me, every year, Kuang makes me this crazy spread for my birthday. So that would be my final meal, something like that, that Kuang made. Give us a little bit of what that was. I mean, I feel like he will find the best fish and then do some sashimi because he knows I love it, but a little Korean style. with sauces. He'll make some noodles or just anything using the best ingredients he can find. But it's, you know, seven dishes that he's made in the middle of his workday for my birthday.

22:25That's love. Yeah. Kwongo and Mina Park, thank you so much for joining us to taste. Thanks so much for having us, Matt. It was great.

22:37Hi there. It's Matt, co-host of the show. We are currently running a This Is Taste listener survey, and we'd love to hear from you. Do you have a guest request? A restaurant you wish we'd visit to talk about on Three Things? What about a lesser-known cookbook author who deserves a spot in our studio chair? You can let us know by clicking the link in our show notes to complete the survey. It will only take a couple minutes, I swear, and will help us continue to make the best show possible. That's the This Is Taste listener survey, link in our show notes. From February 20th to March 7th, dive into Canada's biggest culinary festival, Montreal en Lumière, an exclusive partnership with the McCord Stewart Museum and its exhibition, On the Menu Montreal, a restaurant story.

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25:26Terms and conditions apply. Hannah Taylor, welcome to This Is Taste. Wonderful to meet you. Thank you. Nice to meet you. I love your book. We were just chatting off mic about how you clearly spent so much time thinking about these stories and sharing these stories. What made you want to write a book? To write a book, really. All of this was very unexpected. Let me start there. It was very unexpected to have all of this go on. But the second it started rolling, I was like, this would be really cool to write a book, you know, and share these recipes with everyone. Yeah. And so that's what we did.

26:05We started working on it. Yeah. And unlike a TikTok video or social video in general, a book is kind of forever? It's wonderful. I didn't really realize how sentimental and beautiful until I got my own. But everyone that writes a book, they have to be truly just mesmerized by it because it's beautiful when you actually write one and you spend all that time. And for me, this one, it's got a collection of everything in it. So my grandmother, James, my mama, me. And so it's funny, Matt. I told somebody yesterday, I said, thinking about it now, I wish I wouldn't have wrote a book so close to my heart because it's going to make me cry every time I talk about it.

26:58But it's truly that for me. This book is just heart. It's my heart in a book for the world to see. It's very vulnerable. I love that you can acknowledge that for this book because a lot of folks who are new to food, new to this profession, find that they need to maybe to be someone else, maybe be a caricature or be what everyone else wants them to be. The fact that you can have empathy and realize that this is real self-reflection, that's a rarity. Quit, Matt, before you make me cry. All right. Well, we'll definitely, you know, emotion in the studio is always nice and you're a genuine person. So we're going to talk about the books and some recipes.

27:49I want to ask you first, you drove up here from Georgia up to New York City, first date, first time in New York. What's the road trip like? What's the food like on the road? You got your kids with you? I'm almost scared to admit this, but I kind of swore off McDonald's, you know, for health reasons. But on the road, I'm a big breakfast person. I like eggs. I like sausage. I like bacon. I like a hearty, big breakfast. Biscuits. The McGriddle got me on this trip. McDonald's McGriddle. Can you believe it? I can. We're a pro-McDonald's podcast. Like if you listen to the show. Well, it got me. You're in a safe space.

28:31Yeah. Like I love McDonald's. It got me. I went this past weekend. Yeah. The McGriddles all the way. And then you put like you take the top one off and you put a hash brown. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. Smart move. Yeah. I mean, the hash browns at McDonald's are elite. An elite food. And, you know, it's crazy. I just wore them off. And I've been eating it every morning except for this morning because, you know, it's busy. But I'm kind of craving it right now. Well, we have a few McDonald's in New York. We'll have to get me one. For our listeners who don't know you, who maybe have seen your videos but don't know you personally, let's hear a little bit about your cooking style.

29:09How do you describe it? Crazy. Crazy is good in the kitchen sometimes. You know, I honestly, Matt, I get in there and I just see what shakes out. I don't really. I mean, I plan what we're eating and I plan what we're doing. you know, as far as food, but I get in there and I just feel it. You know, if I feel like doing this or that or this and that, I'll do it. But the kitchen at home is really my time. I don't get too much time away from my children and James and, you know, because I'm mom and they always need me. So the kitchen is kind of my domain. It's almost like my feeding room or my dressing room you know so it's my time and i enjoy it like a kid playing and i don't take it serious what happens happens if i burn something i burn something if i don't i don't i have fun we and we see that in the in the videos the the fun and the joy really shines through and we i think you're you're underselling your abilities though perhaps for our listeners you don't know probably because you because you know you you're you're a professional photographer Yeah.

30:20You grew up in a household that, from the book, you wrote about how the gathering, you know, the social element of gathering was maybe more important than the food. Absolutely. But you clearly have chops. Like, you can cook. Where did that come from? I don't know, Matt. Honestly, paying attention to my grandmothers, I was mesmerized by them because they cooked like me. They always put music on. You know, and they would get in there and dance a little bit and throw flour around. One of my fondest memories of my granny, she had this bar. And I can remember being like little bitty. And I would sit on the edge of a bar watching her cook.