Michelin Korea star chef’s lifelong service leads to top Michelin award
The Shilla Seoul’s chef Kim Seong-il’s 28 years of servitude finally pays off
By Yun Suh-young
It was 28 years ago that chef Kim Seong-il joined The Shilla Seoul as a new employee. At the time, right before the 1988 Olympics was held in Seoul, hotels were busy recruiting new staff in their restaurants to cater to the influx of foreign guests. That’s when chef Kim, now the chief of the culinary team of The Shilla Seoul’s Korean restaurant La Yeon, joined.
”I sent applications to several hotels at the time and was called in for interviews by many of them. But the dates were all at the same time, on the same day. I guess hotels purposefully did that to compete. So I was mulling over which interview to attend and my parents told me to go to Shilla because it’s part of the Samsung Group. That’s how I ended up here,” said Kim during an interview with The Korea Times.
”My parents were so proud of me working here. Before they passed away, they told me to stay as long as I could at this hotel. That was their will. I plan to live up to that wish.”
Since then Kim has worked at the same place for 28 years, putting in steady and ceaseless effort into his dishes. Those efforts were honoured by Michelin on Nov. 7, with three shining stars as a symbol of excellence.Kim’s dream wasn’t to become a chef originally. He wanted to become a policeman or a soldier. But it didn’t work out as he had hoped. So, when his aunt from Australia invited him to live there, he was ready to leave. He acquired a certificate for Korean cuisine only to get an immigrant visa. But again, life didn’t work out as planned. His mother became seriously ill and his family told him off for only thinking about himself and his dreams so he decided to stay. That’s when he started looking for local jobs and applied to hotels.
”To chefs, the Michelin award is a huge honour. I would like to attribute the stars to the entire culinary team as well as other teams that collaborate with us such as the purchasing team, food and beverage team, planning, marketing and communications teams,” said Kim.