Chef-celeb Austin Kang had no idea he would be cooking on cable TV.
Up until February, he was far away from the limelight, three years deep into working in the kitchen, first at a Mexican fusion restaurant then at a French establishment, racking up experience in the hopes of one day running his own joint.
Then, with his friends’ support and advice, Kang auditioned for cable food channel Olive’s “MasterChef Korea Season 4.”
“I didn’t feel I was ready for it,” said the 25-year-old chef who remembered how reluctant he was to compete on the Korean edition of the globally popular cooking competition. “My friends kept pushing me,” he added.
When he qualified, he told his boss not to worry because he was pretty sure he would be eliminated from the show soon and so could keep working at the restaurant.
That was not at all how it played out.
Over the following months, Kang kept qualifying for the next round, until he found himself competing in the semifinals as one of five remaining contestants.
While he did not take away top honors, within a week after the last episode aired, the “MasterChef Korea Season 4” semifinalist signed onto a modeling agency.
“Chefs nowadays aren’t just cooking,” Kang said. “They’re doing multiple things.”
That is exactly what Kang aims to do, become a cooking and modeling multihyphenate.
To date, Kang, who signed on with CJeS Model Edition, has modeled for a Calvin Klein presentation in Seoul, shot a commercial and is keeping fit while planning for an upcoming pop-up dinner.
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Austin Kang, a semifinalist in MasterChef Korea Season 4, takes a break at Coffee M Works in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, during an interview with The Korea Herald on Tuesday. (Yoon Byung-chan/The Korea Herald) |
“I work out every day,” said the fitness buff, who was recently featured in Men’s Health Korea. “I swam for 11 years and played water polo for five.”
For his next act, Kang is gearing up to helm a pop-up dinner, slated for July 23 at a restaurant in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul.
Kang plans to serve a six-to-seven-course dinner that will feature “all seafood, no cream” along with a tart for dessert.
Further details on the pop-up will be posted next week on the site PICNIC (picnicpop.co).
Why a pop-up? Kang admits that he is still searching for his own culinary identity.
“I don’t think I’m ready to open a restaurant right now,” he confessed. “I don’t know what kind of food I want to do. That’s why I’m doing this pop-up.”
Only three years into his culinary career, the Los Angeles native studied hotel and restaurant management before taking a job at an IT company.
“I came to Korea to do a project for six months,” said Kang, explaining how he first arrived in Seoul on a business trip for the IT company that he was then working for.
Once here, he decided to stay. He quit his job and after a two-month hiatus started working at Coreanos Kitchen, a Mexican fusion restaurant, which since then has become a successful multiple outlet chain.
“I always wanted a restaurant,” Kang explained when asked why he turned to cooking.
Fast-forward three years and Kang is now on the cusp of making it big, both as a chef and as a celebrity. But he is not letting it all go to his head.
“I want to have a small restaurant, a 24- or 30-seater, with just one other person and me in the kitchen,” he said of where he sees himself 10 years from now.
By Jean Oh (
oh_jean@heraldcorp.com)
