The primary dish Bomee Ki and Woongchul Park created collectively was an unconventional model of a traditional French tarte Tatin, made with daikon as a substitute of the normal apple. The husband-and-wife crew have been collaborating on menu gadgets since they conceived Sollip, a Korean-inspired fashionable European restaurant that opened in London in 2020. Park is answerable for the savory dishes whereas Ki handles the pastries and desserts, however they usually share concepts.
“I used to be like, ‘Hey, darling, I wish to make a tarte Tatin, however a savory model,’” Park tells Observer in late July. “We began desirous about what sort of ingredient we may use. We selected both daikon or Korean cabbage. We tried each of them, and daikon was the winner.”
“It turned our signature dish,” Ki provides. “In Korea, daikon is likely one of the most well-known and widespread greens.”
“It’s completely different now,” Park notes of the dish. “It’s extra refined. However it began as a easy concept.”
Sollip combines the couple’s South Korean influences with their conventional French culinary coaching and a shared curiosity in native British components. Park grew up in Cheonan-si, not removed from Seoul, whereas Ki hails from Gwangju. The couple met in London in 2009 whereas attending Le Cordon Bleu, though their preliminary encounter was transient. “A buddy launched us,” Park says. “Nothing occurred on the time.”
After ending his course at Le Cordon Bleu, Park returned to South Korea to work at Milieu, a French restaurant on Jeju Island. He had been following Ki’s private weblog, the place she posted images of her pastry work, and instantly considered her when Milieu wanted a pastry chef.
“She wasn’t working on the time, so she fortunately stated sure, and he or she got here all the way down to our restaurant to assist us develop the pastry menu,” Park says. “That’s how we began it.”
Ki, smiling, provides, “He began it.”
The couple married in 2013 and shortly determined to return to London, with particular person stints at eating places like The Ledbury, Koffmann’s and The Arts Membership. They went again to South Korea a couple of years later, however couldn’t shake their love for the British metropolis. “After I was in highschool, I used to get pleasure from watching Jamie Oliver’s present,” Ki says. “He’s very enticing, and I like that accent. On the time, I assumed, ‘Perhaps at some point I wish to go to the U.Ok.’”
Extra significantly, she noticed London as a spot that embraced completely different cultures. “We felt there was house right here to specific our story by way of meals without having to over-explain,” Ki notes. “That openness gave us the boldness to be delicate and private in our strategy.”
In 2019, Ki and Park, who have been by then mother and father to 2 younger kids, determined to take the leap and transfer to London completely, with the objective of opening their very own restaurant. Beforehand, Park had imagined himself as a head chef in another person’s kitchen. However he realized that having your individual restaurant requires youth and energy, which he now had in his early 30s. He didn’t wish to delay the dream. “I used to be like, ‘If we’re too late, we couldn’t do it as a result of bodily,’” he says. “Why wait till we’re 40 years previous or 50 years previous to pursue that dream? What’s the purpose? That was the second I began desirous about transferring again to London.”
Park traveled to the U.Ok. on his personal in June 2019 with two objectives: discovering a spot to reside and discovering a restaurant website. He gave himself three months to do each. He walked 1000’s of steps every day exploring completely different neighborhoods, and finally discovered an intimate restaurant house in Bermondsey, not removed from London Bridge Station. “Typically it’s really higher to know nothing,” he says. “When somebody would ask me what sort of property we have been searching for, I solely knew money-wise and size-wise. In any other case, I used to be very open-minded.”
The household formally moved to London within the fall of 2019. They spent the next months designing the restaurant house, creating the menu and making a marketing strategy, usually sleeping solely two or three hours an evening. The inside aesthetic was necessary, even when funds constraints didn’t enable Ki to appreciate her imaginative and prescient straight away.
“We wished the house to replicate the identical values as our meals—calm, simplicity and a connection to nature,” she explains. “Slightly than taking a standard or ornamental strategy, we drew inspiration from the Korean idea of yeo-baek—the great thing about empty house.” The hope, for Ki, is that visitors really feel “each heat and calm once they enter, not by way of grand gestures however by way of quiet thoughtfulness and a way of ease.”
As Sollip was about to debut in early 2020, the pandemic hit. It wasn’t till August 29, 2020, that the restaurant may really open. They started with à la carte choices, however the U.Ok. quickly went into lockdown for a second after which a 3rd time. By the next spring, Ki and Park have been lastly capable of current their unique imaginative and prescient: a considerate tasting menu showcasing fashionable European methods with Korean inspiration (Sollip’s four-course lunch presently runs £78, whereas the seven-course dinner is £152).
The main focus at Sollip isn’t overtly Korean. As an alternative, the inclusion of components like kimchi, gochujang and daikon is only a pure extension of Ki and Park. “Our identification is Korean, even when we now have expertise and schooling in French methods,” Ki says. “We love our international locations and we all know our sturdy level is Korea, however we don’t attempt to make each single second have a Korean affect.”
“You’ve your individual information out of your life expertise after which your chef experiences, after which you will have your meals reminiscences,” Park provides. “In order a chef, your meals is coming from all of that.”
The present menu’s standout dish is handmade Korean noodles, made out of chestnut flour sourced in Italy and a sourdough fermentation created from scorched rice. It’s introduced elegantly in a bowl with perilla seed oil. It’s an uncommon dish to search out in a one-Michelin-starred restaurant in England, however one which feels singular in the easiest way doable. Sollip used to serve a bread course, however the cooks ultimately swapped it out.
“In Korea, both you eat rice or noodles,” he says. “We tried completely different noodle recipes, however we wished to go so simple as doable. That’s how we landed on perilla seed oil, which is one in all my favourite components in Korea. However we are able to’t get it right here in London, so we get it straight from my mother. She sends us two containers each single month. It prices quite a bit!”
The candy dishes usually embody a standard French madeleine, which Ki augments with flavors like basil. She describes her strategy to dessert as “rooted in restraint,” and says she hopes to go away the visitor with a memorable impression. “I care deeply about readability in each taste and kind, so I usually focus extra on what to take away than what so as to add,” she says. “Every aspect will need to have a motive to be there and really feel important. I’m going by way of many checks and tastings till I really feel completely assured.”
Certainly one of her favorites is the black ache perdu, which usually seems on the menu in the course of the wintertime. She makes use of seoritae, a sort of Korean black bean, to create ice cream and presents it alongside caramelized pecans, burnt vanilla and charcoal brioche. “I’ve all the time beloved ache perdu and wished to reinterpret it by way of a Korean lens,” she says. “It’s comforting however exact—one thing that seems like Sollip.”
The general expertise of Sollip displays the mixed intentions of each cooks. Every focuses on completely different facets of the restaurant, however the duo all the time work as a crew, particularly on the subject of balancing dwelling life with work.
“Whereas our obligations are divided, we share ideas on nearly each element and make selections collectively,” Park says. “We additionally rely closely on one another’s suggestions on the subject of the menu and sometimes develop concepts facet by facet. [And] when one in all us feels worn out or begins to lose momentum, the opposite steps in with assist or a push.”
“We share the identical values and course, however we’re very completely different in character,” Ki provides. “That distinction really works in our favor [because] he’s instinctive and daring, whereas I’m extra detail-driven and reflective. From the start, we have been clear about one factor: to reduce the challenges of working as a pair and maximize the strengths.”
They all the time depart their feelings at dwelling and by no means convey them into the kitchen, a rule they’ve adopted since day one. “It’d sound too good to be true, however I genuinely discover working with him simple,” Ki says.
It’s usually felt like an uphill battle for the couple, from the challenges posed by the pandemic, to employees shortages as soon as they have been capable of open, to elevating younger kids away from the assistance of their mother and father. And it nonetheless is a wrestle, due to rising prices of dwelling. However risking every part has been worthwhile. Sollip earned its first Michelin star in 2022 and has discovered success as each an area favourite and a restaurant that Korean guests hunt down when eating in London. “Korean folks have cheered us [on] quite a bit and so they hold saying, ‘We’re very pleased with you,’” Park says. “It makes us pleased, however humble on the identical time.”
On the finish of August, Sollip will rejoice its fifth birthday—a milestone Ki wasn’t positive they might attain. She calls it “deeply emotional,” particularly as she and Park have mirrored on their journey to get right here.
“I really feel much more affection for Sollip now than I did within the early days,” she says. “It’s a house formed by all of the individuals who have handed by way of it, each employees and visitors. And I really feel the identical about London. This love naturally results in eager to do higher and to create an area the place each our visitors and our crew can really feel fulfilled.”
