At night, a Korean-American doctor turns into a restaurant chef. This is the story of the Red Room, a restaurant in Los Angeles Koreatown where red lights stand out as dusk falls.
On May 27, the LA Times reported on the life of chef Yoon Kyu Sung, who is in charge of cooking at the pop-up restaurant in Koreatown. Sung is a family medicine doctor who works at urgent care in the Los Angeles area.
“Sung, a physician, works at Red Room from Thursdays to weekends,” the article said, adding that he is currently a chef at restaurants Chimmelier and Hanchic.
Red Room is currently operating as a pop-up at the coffee shop MCO in Koreatown. It is open Thursday through Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to midnight.
Sung reportedly developed his own recipes while he was in residency at Stanford University and continued to spend time in the kitchen after work. Red Room’s potato pancake was inspired by his childhood in Seoul.
Red Room serves a variety of wines and craft beers, as well as a selection of Korean dishes created by Chef Sung.
“I thought about how to bring Korean barbecue to a wine bar in a way that would be more familiar,” Sung told the LA Times. “The bulgogi burger was inspired by the fast food burgers my mom used to buy for me when I was growing up in Korea.”
Sung is currently sharing his life as a doctor and chef on Instagram @cookingwithyoon.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
