20 Questions with Nōksu’s Dae Kim
In the Resy Questionnaire, we play a game of 20 questions with the industry folks behind some of our favorite restaurants. What’s your most memorable restaurant experience? Your favorite food movie? What restaurant would you want to time-travel for?
In this edition, we spoke to Dae Kim, the talented chef behind New York’s Nōksu, the intimate tasting counter tucked inside a subway station in Koreatown.
The Resy Questionnaire
1. Favorite thing you’ve ever cooked?
I love to cook poultry. I like birds, especially chicken; cooking chicken is different from cooking a piece of beef or pork. It’s also extremely versatile; you can poach, steam, fry, sear, or roast it. If I want to get really technical, I can make roulade. There are just so many ways to play around with it.
2. Kitchen tool or equipment you couldn’t live without?
Spoons. I have a passion for collecting small antique teaspoons — I use them to cook, plate, and taste.
3. What culinary items would you bring on a desert island?
Salt, sugar, a knife, a cutting board, and a pan. Without salt, I can’t season the food. I need little sugar to balance things out. A knife, a cutting board, and a pan to cook with are essential. With those, I can prepare whatever I find on the island.
4. What’s your favorite place to get a slice in New York?
On a regular day, $1 pizza is fine. For late night, it’s Joe’s Pizza. If I’m feeling fancy, I head to Lucali.
5. Favorite cookbook?
There are too many to choose from! My all-time favorites are: Thomas Keller’s “The French Laundry Cookbook,” Corey Lee’s “Benu,” Alain Ducasse’s “Grand Livre de Cuisine,” and Jean-Louis Palladin’s “Jean-Louis, Cooking with the Seasons.”
6. Your drink of choice?
I like wine and beer. For wine, it’s Riesling and Montrachet Grand Cru and all of the old Domaine de la Romanée-Conti vintages. When it comes to beer, I’m a Bud Light guy.
7. Favorite food movie?
“A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt.”
8. Your ideal dinner party guests, dead or alive?
I would love to feed [food writer] Josh Ozersky. I’m a big fan of his articles and videos and the way he described how things taste. He truly loved and understood this industry.
9. What restaurant industry person do you admire the most and why?
The porters behind the scenes are the backbone of the restaurant. Usually, either chefs or front-of-house staff get the most attention, but without porters, I don’t think any restaurant would survive. They do the most hard and unwanted job without any questions. Truly, I admire them.
10. The greatest restaurant experience of your life so far?
After long hours of working tough and hard days, nothing beats eating General Tso’s chicken at midnight after work. It’s still probably the best thing ever to happen.
11. Your greatest professional achievement?
I can’t honestly answer this. I’m not even close to achieving my goals yet.
12. What single dish best describes your personality?
The dish that encapsulates who I am is an omelet. I’m always scrambling around in different ways. Just like with an omelet, you have to scramble and control the heat of the cook to determine the final product.
13. If you could go back in time, which restaurant would you dine at?
I would go to Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.
14. Your favorite meal from childhood?
Chef Boyardee ravioli or Spam.
15. If you weren’t a chef, what other profession do you think you’d take up?
I think I’d be an entomologist. I love watching butterflies and beetles. In the future, I want to collect butterflies and display them.
16. What do you wish you did better? What do you do well?
I truly want to be a better person than I was yesterday; it is really hard to become 1% better than yesterday. Being a cook or chef is a very intense job. As a person, if I’m not ready, I think it’s really hard to push the boundaries.
17. If you could eat through a city for a day, where would you go?
Bangkok or Copenhagen.
18. The one thing you can’t resist splurging on when you go out?
I don’t really splurge when I go out.
19. What do you value most in restaurants?
As a chef, I truly value teamwork and every member of the team, from the dishwasher on up.
20. It’s your last meal on earth, what are you eating?
Good bread and butter with a little Maldon salt.
