Chef Edward Lee is a celebrated American chef with Korean roots, known for his fusion of Southern cuisine with Asian influences. He recently made it to the finale of Netflix’s Korean wild cooking competition program Culinary Class Wars, despite having sworn off cooking competition shows. He couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get closer to his heritage.
Lee first gained recognition as a contestant on the television show Top Chef and his feature on the Emmy-nominated The Mind of a Chef. A nine-time James Beard Award nominee, Lee is the chef/owner of 610 Magnolia and Nami in Louisville, as well as culinary director of two Succotash Prime restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area (for which he’s won Michelin’s Bib Gourmand distinction). He lives in Louisville and D.C.
Lee’s a great writer, and his cookbooks reflect his culinary philosophy and personal approach: Bourbon Land, Smoke & Pickles, and Buttermilk Graffiti emphasize the importance of community, culture, and the stories behind food around the world.
Before his cooking demonstration at Bourbon & Beyond 2024, a Kentucky music, whiskey, and food festival, we chatted with Lee about bourbon, finding the great places in a new city, and how two cultures’ food came together at a soul food restaurant in Louisville.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve talked to you a couple of times, and I don’t know how I had not read Buttermilk Graffiti [a 2018 travelogue about searching for distinctive foods all around America]. Since you wrote the book, have you been to any new off-the-beaten-path places?
I recently spent some time in Seoul, Korea [while doing the Netflix show]. During our off days, I got to roam around and visit all these little back alleys of restaurants. It was fascinating. There are so many great restaurants that I was able to research and investigate. This changed the way I look at Korean food.
How do you find the really good local places when you travel?
In every city, there’s always a good dive bar. There’s always a great local joint. You have to ask the locals to find those places. It’s a great way to learn about the city because you really have to interact with locals to get that kind of information.
If you’re in the South, there’s always a gas station somewhere that’s serving really good fried chicken.
Have you ever discovered any standout ingredients in your travels that you brought back to your kitchens?
Oh my God, all the time. In Korea I tasted this tangerine vinegar. It was so powerful and so delicious. I brought back a bottle and we tasted it, and it’s like, “Well, I’m not going to import vinegar from Korea.” We tried to make our own version of it with fruits available here.
The inspiration [from travel discoveries] is key. My chefs get excited about that. We get together and figure out how to keep our restaurant on the cutting edge. It’s hard to do that, especially for 610 Magnolia, which is 22 years old now.
I think we do a good job of always being curious, staying informed, and just always looking out to see what’s new out there.
Tell me about your book Bourbon Land.
The book’s not me as an expert lecturing you about bourbon. After 20 years, you think you know everything about bourbon. But in the year and a half of intense research that I did, I realized how little I actually do know.
There are not many bourbon cookbooks out there. I wanted to show that the flavor of bourbon when you cook with it is way more versatile than just barbecue sauce and bourbon balls.
I also wanted to put a stamp on the fact that you can make bourbon anywhere in the U.S., but real bourbon was invented in Kentucky — the entire spirit and the philosophy, the whole culture around bourbon is really the culture of Kentucky. Celebrating that whole thing was important to me.
© Amy Harris
Do you have a favorite bourbon?
I don’t drink the same bourbon twice. My job is to keep discovering new bourbons and then find out where bourbon is going. So, if I go to a bar, I’m always trying a different bourbon.
Why do you come to Bourbon & Beyond to do your cooking demos?
Obviously, everyone’s here for music, but we just try to bring some really lighthearted fun, some interesting demos, and great personalities on stage. I think it breaks up the day a bit so people can talk about good food, eat good food, and interact with chefs on a different level. It’s different from seeing a chef inside a restaurant.
Do you have favorite Bourbon & Beyond memories?
Last year, my so-called friends who are chefs decided to do an impromptu karaoke for me after my demo. We got the whole audience to sing “Shallow,” which I thought was really funny. It was nothing that I wanted to do in front of 300 people, but there it was.
What’s your current favorite karaoke song?
“Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton. I don’t think I do it very well, but I try.
What’s a favorite food memory?
When I arrived in Kentucky 22 years ago, [after] living in New York my entire life, I went to the West End to a soul food restaurant. For the first time, I had home-cooked Southern food. It reminded me so much of home cooking and Korean food.
It obviously had different spices and a different vocabulary and different presentations. But the feeling that it evoked was so similar: The long, slow braised vegetables and the rich broths and the way that you felt the love.
Did that similarity surprise you?
I would never have imagined that Korean food would have anything to do with Southern food, because they are totally different cultures. It hit me at that moment that food can bring cultures together.
Every culture has home cooking. Every culture has comfort food. Every culture has a grandmother that wants to preserve history and tradition, feeds a family with very little and is usually very frugal and very humble and just makes good food.
It made me realize you have to visit these little mom and pop places. Not everything is about going to Michelin-star restaurants. That’s where the art is, but sometimes that’s not where the soul is.
When can we see you on TV next?
I’m on the Netflix competition show. It’s all in Korean with subtitles. The English translation is Culinary Class Wars.
But you’ve said you won’t compete any more.
Everyone’s going to get mad at me because I’ve turned down so many opportunities to compete, because I’m older and I just don’t do that anymore.
But when this show asked me, it’s just different because it’s in Korea. It’s the first Korean competition cooking show. It’s a massive budget show. It’s the biggest thing they’ve invested in.
It just felt different for me. It was a way to connect to my heritage. I hadn’t been to Korea. I’ve never lived there so I’m very removed from it, even though I’m Korean and I cook a bit of Korean food.
It’s the way the opportunity came up to spend some time there and live there. I said yes even though I vowed never to compete again.
Did you enjoy it?
I did. You know, I’m no spring chicken anymore. It’s tough to compete in those situations. I tried to speak Korean, which is the worst thing in the world, but I tried. I had fun and it’s on Netflix and you can see it.
You may also enjoy reading:
- 7 Things I Learned by Drinking a Lot of WhistlePig Rye
- At Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, Dining in Gustatory Purgatory
Read more from Amy on her website: The Travel Addict
