Chef Edward Kwon previously worked at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay and helmed the prestigious kitchens of Burj Al Arab in the United Arab Emirates, often called the world’s only “seven star hotel.” In 2009, he returned home to Seoul, Korea, and opened Eddy’s Café, The Spice, Lab XXIV and The Mixed One, in relatively quick succession. We met on September 29 at the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival “Streets of Asia” event, and Kwon shared several culinary insights.

You were saying there are misconceptions about Korean cuisine?

Korean cuisine, a lot of people think is only barbecue, which is like galbi and bulgogi, but nowadays a lot of people are getting to know about Korean food. I would like to say there are lots of varieties. Korea has more than 5000 years history, which basically, you only see two or three types of food. I’d love to talk to who knows about the food, to invite them to Korea to taste a lot of different types of food. There are a lot of vegetarian dishes, vegan dishes, all good for the diet.

Can you imagine opening a Korean restaurant at some point?

Basically, as I said before, I’m French trained. Nowadays, I’m promoting the country. World Gourmet Summit was just announced three months ago, and now I’ve traveled to Hawaii for the Hawaii Food & Wine festival, and it’s a pleasure to serve Korean food to a lot of customers here. I’d love to open a Korean restaurant, but not a clash. The younger generation, they want to see something different. I’d want to make it more Korean bar style, more comfort food, but very unique taste in the dishes. I plan to open one restaurant, hopefully next year, or the year after next year in Hawaii, and not even only Hawaii, hopefully the States as well.

In Los Angeles?

I’d love to open in Los Angeles. As you know, Los Angeles has a huge Koreatown. Half a million Korean people live there, and I have a lot of friends in Los Angeles as well. Basically, I’m not sure quite when it’s going to be, but I’m trying to expand and have more different styles of cuisine, and in the United States as well. Hopefully I can someday have a restaurant in Los Angeles.

What’s the biggest challenge in having multiple restaurants?

I’m sure in Los Angeles, with celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck, and Nobu started in Beverly Hills as well, the only problem is to manage the restaurants. Chefs who have four or five restaurants, you might manage, but if you have all of the world, your body’s only one. You can’t spread it out over the world to like 20. Basically you need to have well trained your staff and make sure they know and understand your cooking style, your philosophy of food and make sure they exactly follow your directions. Otherwise, some people might have a bad experience once they come into my restaurant, especially if I have Los Angeles in my growing restaurants. I’m very sure they have very high expectations, or they want a different experience, but once they come in, they say, “Oh, it’s not the real thing.” Or maybe more bad, and I will lose my name, and also my reputation in the market as well. That’s why I’m not expanding too fast, making sure all the staffs are well trained, then I can settle.

What do you look for when you’re hiring somebody to work in one of your kitchens?

Basically the passion, and then effort as well. Nowadays, maybe in the United States, or Korea as well, two days a week they take a day off and maybe work eight hours, but to be honest with you, a chef’s job cannot work only eight hours a day, because if you have so much passion, you have to really want to achieve something. I always talk with my chefs. You need to invest more time, then you will get more, you will learn more, you will earn more as well. Like bang-bang, 9 – 6, now you work for a government organization. Basically you need to put more hours and more effort into your job. Basically, you need to spend more time. I say, if you want to exceed your life and have success in your life, then don’t be scared to invest more time.

What was your very first night like working in a restaurant kitchen, and where was it?

It was in Korea. Now I’ve worked in a kitchen for 20 years at the moment, and I still basically work 16, 18 hours per day.

What about night #1 in the kitchen?

I don’t want to say the bad things, but when I was working at an executive chef in China, and it was the second day, we got an order of steak. They were using a wok, and they cooked the steak in the wok. I was shocked. I screamed and yelled at everybody, and just say, “Stop it.” Then I tell my customer, “Give me five more minutes. I want to make sure we cook things right for you.” I think it’s kind of culture shock. It was one of the difficult things to get to accept.

Who’s the person that you’ve never cooked for before that you’d most like to cook for?

I don’t want celebrities or anything. I don’t want to say that. Any people who wants to have my food is welcome to be my customer. Some people might say, “Oh, I served to certain celebrities, or top officials.” …Some people think they are king. I’m sorry, I don’t want to serve you. You respect us, I respect you. If you respect me, I’ll put my knees on the floor, it will be no problem. Anything that I can do for you, but if you don’t respect the restaurant, if you don’t respect the employees, if you don’t respect the food, you’re not my guest. This is what I believe.