Judy Joo is a chef, entrepreneur, and TV personality who left Wall Street to follow her passion for food. A graduate of Columbia and the French Culinary Institute, she trained in world-renowned kitchens and went on to become an Iron Chef and the founder of Seoul Bird, a fast-casual Korean fried chicken concept.
Judy was also a recent guest on Forktales, where she talked about using her engineering and finance background to run restaurants, breaking barriers in male-dominated industries, and redefining what authenticity means in Korean cuisine.
HOW DID YOUR ENGINEERING AND FINANCE BACKGROUND HELP IN RUNNING RESTAURANTS?
“Restaurants is all ops. Ops are key, particularly if you’re doing what I’m doing, which is in the fast casual, quick serve space. It’s all about honing and hammering down your operations… I’m constantly using my engineering degree everywhere. And then business and finance. Thank God I can speak that language also because a restaurant is a business at the end of the day.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE A WOMAN IN MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRIES LIKE ENGINEERING, FINANCE AND PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS?
“I was the only female working in the entire building. There weren’t a lot of girls in the engineering school. Then I went into finance. Not only finance, but the trading floor. I go into kitchens. I’m a glutton for punishment again. But if I want to be in these industries where I am the one and only minority, the one and only female, you know what? I don’t care. I’m going to do it.”
HOW DO YOU DEFINE AUTHENTICITY IN KOREAN CUISINE AT SEOUL BIRD?
“The word authentic is such a loaded question. I always believe that today’s invention is tomorrow’s tradition. I just say, as long as the DNA is there — the taste of gochujang, roasted sesame, garlic — it’s authentic. Korean-American cuisine is its own thing too. I think it’s fun to change up food and challenge the world.”
TELL US ABOUT YOUR GO-TO ORDER AT SOULBIRD.
“The Soulbird Signature Sandwich. A Korean fried chicken tender battered in our special signature batter, coated in our sauce, sandwiched in a toasted brioche roll with lettuce, tomato and Kewpie mayonnaise. It is soul-satisfying — S-E-O-U-L satisfying.”
