In Chef's Choice, the Naperville Sun asks local chefs to share their culinary background and experiences and talk about a featured dish found on their menu.
This week, we speak with Youree Yu, 38, owner of Kogii Kogii Express at 1763 Freedom Drive, whose culinary experiences include working in her parents' Korean restaurant in Sydney, Australia, for seven years and at Sydney's Intercontinental Hotel, where she cooked and provided catering services. Yu also owns another Korean barbecue restaurant in Deerfield that opened in 2015.
Q: Why did you end up in the same business as your parents?
Yu: Why? Because I like to eat and I like cooking. My mom always cooked and she liked Korean cooking.
Q: For people who aren't familiar with the cuisine, what are some of the basic components of Korean cooking?
Yu: Bibimbap is probably the most famous (dish). It has rice and vegetables and meat and eggs, and it makes a complete dinner. Korean cooking has the basic parts of rice, kimchi or napa cabbage, and bean paste soup. Those are some of the basics. The food can be spicy depending on peoples' taste. We use Korean chili paste and soy sauce.
Q: What's your most favorite thing of all to eat?
Yu: I like bibimbap. It's probably my favorite.
Q: What about something American that you've had many times?
Yu: I like hamburgers.
Q: Really? Do you have to have cheese on it or certain toppings?
Yu: I like everything on it. Onions, tomatoes, lettuce, mushrooms – everything. I like that it can be a whole meal.
Q: What do you find interesting about American cooking?
Yu: There are big portions and I feel cheese is used a lot.
Q: What about the proteins we have in America. There are beef and pork and chicken and lamb and bison and the list goes on.
Yu: I think that's good. It offers a lot of variety.
Q: Tell us about the meal you and your husband had for your first date
Yu: I had pasta at Maggiano's.
Q: No way! What did your husband have?
Yu: He had spaghetti and meatballs and I had pasta with lobster.
Q: What food do you absolutely hate?
Yu: I don't like hot dogs.
Q: Why is that?
Yu: (They're) kind of salty and I don't like processed food. I feel like it's not healthy food.
Q: Have you ever gone to a butcher shop and bought a freshly made hot dog?
Yu: I had a vegetarian hot dog once in Hawaii. It was good, but I can't eat something like that regularly.
Q: What's something you hated as a kid that you now like?
Yu: I would say nuts. Today I eat peanuts and walnuts, and I never liked them before. My tastes changed because I'm always looking for healthy food and I tried them in some dishes and liked them. It's a good match.
Q: How much cooking do you do at home? Do you cook Korean all the time?
Yu: My husband doesn't eat Korean every day so I also cook American dishes.
Q: Give me an example.
Yu: I make pancakes and sandwiches. My daughter is three and likes macaroni and cheese.
Q: Do you make that from out of the box?
Yu: No, I make the cheese sauce fresh.
Q: What's the best part of running this business and what's the worst?
Yu: When I first opened this business in Naperville, a lot of people didn't know about Korean food but now they do. My customers are now pretty educated. What I don't like is I hired a lot of high school- and college-age kids and they are all going back to class soon so I'll have to get some new people.
Q: Tell us about the dish you've made for us today.
Yu: This is our bulkogii bibimbap that includes marinated rib eye, carrots, cabbage, spinach, mushrooms, and bean sprouts. It's served on a stone platter that gives you crispy rice underneath.
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