Award-winning chef Invoice Kim, one of many architects who helped set up Chicago as a world-class meals vacation spot, immigrated to america from Seoul, South Korea, in 1977, on the age of seven.
“When my household moved to the states, I used to be excited, but additionally scared,” Kim says about that point. “I missed Korea, particularly throughout Chuseok, our harvest pageant. Again dwelling, it was a time for household, meals and remembering our ancestors. In our new dwelling, every part felt totally different. Nobody knew about Chuseok.”
Virtually half a century later, a bunch of Korean cooks are hoping to vary that.
The three-day Korean vacation is well known on the eighth month of the lunar calendar through the full moon; this yr, Chuseok begins on Monday. The big day is marked by charye, or memorial providers, the place homage is paid to ancestors. Meals and wine are left as choices throughout these ceremonies, and folks spend the times making ready meals with their households. Festivities undergo the night time, with individuals staying up late to want upon the moon when it’s at its brightest. Chuseok is usually oversimplified as “Korean Thanksgiving.”
“Your entire nation will cease what it’s doing to prepare for Chuseok,” says Andy Lim, govt chef at trendy Korean restaurant Perilla in West City. “Rising up, we by no means celebrated it right here in America, however yearly that it occurred, so long as I can keep in mind, my mother would discuss it. She would speak in regards to the video games they performed, the meals they ready and staying up all night time along with her siblings and cousins.”
The separation of households attributable to immigration and comparatively small Korean communities in cities like Chicago translated into Chuseok being a reminiscence for a lot of Korean Individuals, slightly than a continued custom.
Andy Lim, govt chef of Perilla restaurant in West City, says he didn’t have a good time Chuseok rising up. “Your entire nation will cease what it’s doing to prepare for Chuseok,” he says. “Rising up, we by no means celebrated it right here in America, however yearly that it occurred, so long as I can keep in mind, my mother would discuss it. She would speak in regards to the video games they performed, the meals they ready, and staying up all night time along with her siblings and cousins.”
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“However I didn’t wish to overlook,” says Kim. “So we cooked what we may. I instructed my buddies in regards to the which means of the vacation, about honoring those that got here earlier than us and being grateful for what we’ve got. We shared meals, reminiscences and laughter. It wasn’t precisely like dwelling, however it felt heat and proper. I spotted Chuseok doesn’t stay in a single place. It lives in our hearts. And by sharing it, I introduced a bit of Korea to my new dwelling.”
This yr, that very same dedication to sharing Chuseok traditions is taking form on a bigger scale.
Lim, alongside Chris Jung, govt chef of Maxwells Buying and selling in West Loop and a 2025 James Beard Award finalist for Greatest Chef Nice Lakes, have teamed up with different Korean cooks within the metropolis to host the inaugural Chuseok celebration at Jung’s restaurant on Sunday. The 200-person occasion is bought out and set to function bites from the duo, in addition to from Jennifer Kim of Proxi, the West Loop restaurant specializing in coastal Asian delicacies; Min Lee and Hans Hwang from Mister Tiger, a Korean consolation meals restaurant in West City; and cocktails from Christina Chae of cocktail bars Golden Years and Moonflower in West City and Portage Park respectively.
A few of the most conventional meals loved through the vacation embody songpyeon, pillowy half-moon–formed rice truffles stuffed with substances reminiscent of sweetened crimson bean paste, toasted sesame seeds and mung beans; japchae, chewy glass noodles stir-fried with greens in a savory sauce; in addition to jeon (additionally known as jon or chun), savory pancakes of batter-fried greens, meats and seafood.
All might be served at Maxwells Buying and selling in celebration of the Korean vacation — the primary of its sort amongst Chicago’s high cooks.
“We don’t have that very same reminiscence Chef Kim has of celebrating Chuseok again in Korea,” says Jung. “For us, it’s nearly like we’re rediscovering our heritage.”
Alongside the standard meals, Chae will serve a boozy model of hwachae, a watermelon milk fruit punch made with tequila, and ssanghwa, a conventional Korean natural tea, combined with scotch.
Chae met Jung and Lim ultimately yr’s Jean Banchet Awards. She says they handled her like an equal, and from there, the group bonded over the now-defunct Chicago Korean Competition.
“It was all Korean distributors, Korean meals, Korean drinks, snacks and desserts,” says Chae in regards to the pageant held in Albany Park that ended just a few years in the past. “And there have been plenty of Korean brick-and-mortar [stores] that surrounded the pageant. It was humorous that all of us keep in mind this one factor that isn’t a factor anymore. So we stated, ‘Why don’t we attempt to get one thing like that going once more?’ That is our intro to working collectively and possibly doing one thing larger sooner or later.”
Lim credit the worldwide curiosity in Korean tradition — pushed largely by Ok-pop — as creating the correct circumstances to carry a Chuseok occasion to life now.
“It’s a shock to my dad and mom to see how huge the affect of Korea has turn out to be globally,” Lim says. “It’s mind-boggling as a result of I keep in mind rising up and getting tormented about my meals and my tradition, and now it’s being embraced into the mainstream. It’s slightly bittersweet.”
Altering attitudes towards Korean tradition additionally impressed a extra private motivation behind the occasion.
“Occupied with our dad and mom whereas discussing the potential for this occasion was a giant a part of it,” Lim says. “We needed to go to our dad and mom and say, ‘Hey, come see what we’ve accomplished. Come see that we created this occasion so you may have a good time once more, to be able to keep in mind.’”
The group hopes this staff effort will function a catalyst for constructing a stronger neighborhood rooted in Korean tradition — the sort Kim absolutely longed for when he arrived within the U.S., nearly 48 years in the past.
Within the intro to Kim’s 2018 cookbook “Korean BBQ,” one of many first American cookbooks to deal with Korean delicacies, he wrote: “In America, I used to be an alien: nobody appeared like me. I used to be depressing, and I simply needed to return dwelling … a yr later, when extra Korean immigrants got here to our faculty, I used to be the one serving to them get acclimated and guiding them by life in America.”
Kim has constructed a profession outlined by this type of management.
“Invoice is such an essential determine for my era and the long run era of Korean American people, as a result of we had no illustration,” Lim says. “We had nobody that appeared like us and will information us and present us that our meals and our tradition mattered. Kim was a pioneer, and he nonetheless is so monumental in ensuring that we’ve got a platform to share our story. It’s such an honor to even share this tradition with somebody like him. We actually needed him to be part of this, however he’s going to be out of city.”
Whereas Kim isn’t taking part on this inaugural occasion, the gathering of award-winning Korean cooks celebrating the vacation highlights his plain impression on the neighborhood. Chuseok turning into extra mainstream is proof that Kim has helped usher in a brand new period, one the place a brand new wave of Korean cooks and mixologists are getting into their energy and asking their friends and allies to hitch them.
Correction: This story has been up to date to say the Chuseok occasion at Maxwells Buying and selling is on Sunday.
Conventional Korean meals served throughout Chuseok
Listed here are some conventional dishes served through the harvest vacation.
Bo ssam: This conventional dish is just not holiday-specific, however it’s typically served throughout Chuseok and is private to each household. It’s a dish that chef Chris Jung and his household eat and serve on the vacation, and it is going to be served on the cooks’ Chuseok occasion.
Fruits: Asian pears and apples are featured prominently through the harvest vacation and are good presents for hosts.
Galbi-jjim: Sluggish-cooked beef quick ribs with veggies are served with a candy and savory sauce with a nutty profile.
Kimchi: Extensively thought of the nationwide dish of Korea, kimchi — napa cabbage that’s salted, seasoned with chili pepper and fermented — is served at just about each meal.
Japchae: Chewy glass noodles are stir-fried with greens and meat in a savory sauce.
Jeon: Additionally known as jon or chun, these savory pancakes consisting of batter-fried greens, meats and seafood are one other vacation staple.
Songpyeon: These pillowy half-moon–formed rice truffles — stuffed with substances reminiscent of sweetened crimson bean paste, toasted sesame seeds and mung beans — are a signature merchandise on households’ tables for the vacation.
