Celebrity chef Edward Lee, known for renowned restaurants like Succotash and winning second place on international Netflix hit Cultural Class Wars, walks through a seven-course meal at his newest project. As anon-profit, fine dining Korean restaurant focused on sustainability, Shia transforms traditional Korean techniques and ingredients in each course, like a first bite loaded with ssamjang, Asian pear, perilla leaf, and oyster, and pollock roe. Lee and his team start with a thorough day of prep.
First, Lee breaks down a fatty cut of hamachi that will stand up to bold fermented flavors in a crudo dish. That fish is cured for a few hours in a metal tray covered in a muslin wrap instead of plastic, which is part of the restaurant’s commitment to being plastic-free. Everything at the restaurant is powered by clean energy and they are also researching ways to reduce waste at Shia. Lee wants to help these sustainable project grow out of his kitchen, asking “is plastic free the new organic vegetable?” The crudo is topped with a special roasted gamtae seaweed, which is hand-harvested in southern Korea and delicately pressed into sheets. The smoky seaweed is chopped just before service and is the last ingredient placed on top of the thinly cut yellowtail with pickled vegetables and kimchi juice foam.
Executive chef Chaelin Lin starts the next dish, mugwort noodles that use the aromatic plant that is very culturally significant to Korea. A slightly bitter mugwort dough is rested in an air-tight metal container before being rolled out, pulled through a pasta machine, and thinly cut by Lin. The cooked noodles are tossed in soy sauce before being plated on top of creamy uni and topped with an aerated black sesame and soft tofu sauce, plus pickled cucumber and Hackleback caviar.
Executive chef Max Chuvalas preps a black garlic puree and a rice dish filled with Job’s tears seeds and foraged Korean herbs that will both be served with a duck dish. A whole Rohan duck is broken down for the dish, the carcass and wings will be used for stock and rendered fat is used in an accompanying sauce. The duck breasts are dried for 12 hours, covered in brown sugar and salt. At dinner service the next day, the rice is baked in a stone bowl with gingko nuts, while the duck gets a slow sear and is coated with a sauce made of hot mustard paste, housemade ssammjang, and local honey before being cooked through in the oven.
“It really does feel good spending a night not surrounded by plastics,” says Lee, as he talks about the coasters and menus made in-house and how the kitchen utilizes glass and metal instead of plastic containers. “If by doing this research we can convince a thousand restaurants to go 15 percent plastic free… that’s the goal of this. Not only is it delicious food, but it makes you feel better.”
Watch the latest episode of Mise en Place to see how Lee and the team at Shia are making inventive Korean dishes in a completely plastic-free restaurant.
