I’m a rooster. And I’m a Gemini. They say rooster women marry late, spend money well, and work hard. I think check, check, check! Other Geminis I know are Naomi Campbell, the Olsen twins, Marilyn Monroe… all these wild women. So I guess I am in that category too. But right now I’m more into MBTI.

I’m a water rat and a crab. I’m a Cancer for Western. I relate more to the crab side because I tend to be homey, and my studio is like my shell. I’m always in the studio, working on things.

Fourth-generation Japanese American. I was born in East Los Angeles. My parents and most of my grandparents were born in the US.

I am Korean, but my mom was born and raised in Japan. She married my dad and moved to Korea. So I still have a lot of family living in Japan.

I don’t know if my family was superstitious, but there’s a Japanese term called bocchi. It’s effectively karma. It’s the idea that if you do something stupid or bad to someone else, it’s going to come back to you worse.
I still believe in that for sure. It’s like, don’t mock somebody with a cane, otherwise, you’re gonna break your leg!

I don’t think I really had much, but because we’re Korean, we had to eat red bean porridge on certain days. I think when it comes to food, there were certain things that we practiced as a family. Like eating Tteokgguk or eating seaweed soup on birthdays. It’s almost like if you don’t, then you didn’t have a real birthday. But these days, I have to wash my hair in the mornings. If I don’t and leave the house, I feel like the whole day will be ruined.

Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with several. But the most important one that I have talked about, is when I was very young, a very important curator came to my studio. A group of older artists and I pitched her a project, and she just turned us down flat. We were walking out of the studio after and she called me to the side. She points at the group of artists who were my mentors at the time, and whispers, “That generation of artists learned to pull things apart, and deconstruct things. You have a gift of putting things back together.” She said, “ What the world needs is you putting things back together. Call me later when you’ve established that part of your career.” That was a pivotal experience because I had learned from a generation of artists of color who were fighting for civil rights in a very specific way and dismantling old systems of power.In the wake of that work, she was alluding to me that my gift is to assemble new systems of power.

What started me on this path is my passion for restaurants, cooking, and entertaining people. I love everything about it. The determining moment I think is probably now, now that I can meet a more corporate side of myself. I realized later that management can also be creative and fun and that leadership is about being there for my team and upholding a positive vision.On behalf of my father, I feel responsible for carrying on the company’s history. My role is still very creative in thinking about long-term outcomes and what meaningful growth can look like. Meaningful, not only in the sense of profit, but actually creating a product that is purposeful and changing how people think. I want to create communities that bridge misunderstandings and stereotypes, bringing together those who were once divided by them.

The biggest memory I have is making kimchi with my mom every year. It was just so fun. On those days, so many ladies would come to our house. Everyone would be making kimchi, and I would braise the pork and eat it with fresh kimchi.

Growing up we were not well off, so my dad worked a lot including the weekends. But on Sundays, he was there and he cooked us breakfast.

Because my family was running a ceramic atelier, and there weren’t many restaurants around, it meant we had to host a lot of dinners at home. My mom who is very giving, was always cooking. She’s very sensitive when it comes to nurturing and caring for people, so she will make sure that the meals don’t overlap, and was constantly making something. Still now when I think about cooking, it’s to make someone happy. My go-to meal is a meal of balance. Lots of banchan, some rice, some protein and soup.

Breakfast, like poached eggs on the weekends. So I guess it’s like a little family tradition in that way. I say poached eggs because they require you to be present, otherwise they’ll get over-poached. It excites me to prepare them because the dish forces attention and forces everyone to be there and present at the same time.

The first drink I ever had was peppermint schnapps. I was a street kid and my friends would drink peppermint schnapps, but now I can’t even smell it. It’s horrible. That was my first drink but now I drink different things like tequila, sake, and soju.

I had too much alcohol, I forget. I started drinking when I was in high school when I was in Japan. So it was a lot of Kamikaze and Long Island Iced Teas.

I draw inspiration from everywhere. I’ve tried to fill my entire studio with things that inspire me. Things that inspire me now, things that will inspire me in the future, things that have inspired me in the past. I’ve also had great mentors in my life, too, leaders that have given me structure in certain ways, but, meandering has always been the best form of my inspiration.

This can come off dark but my inspiration is death these days. I think it comes from being around my mom and dad who talk about death a lot. I question the different ways of dying healthy and dying happy. This inspires me, because I think I’m a little further along in figuring out how to die happy, then how to die healthy. I’m so inspired by people who are very disciplined about their health because I realize I’m not as much.

All my collaborators are dream collaborators - the way partnerships come to the studio is an organic process that comes from the energy we put out and the center of gravity we create in exploring our core concerns. I don’t set out to work with anyone but I’m open to working with everyone with aligned values and expertise from which we can create unique projects that could only happen because of art.

Old Rip Van Winkle!

My favorite restaurant is n/naka - Chef Niki and Chef Carole are amazing artists who have been constant inspirations to me.

Benu in San Francisco.