I grew up in a family of restaurateurs. My mother and grandmother both owned restaurants over the nearly forty years of my life. Though “full-time job” doesn’t begin to describe the work that goes into it, they loved what they did and were proud to build their own paths in a notoriously difficult industry.
Armed with recipes refined through generations, an unmatched work ethic and dreams of a better future, my mom left her home country of South Korea and was off to the States with her new U.S. airman husband and her baby boy. It took years of two incomes — including a twenty-year military career for my dad and masterful saving while she raised her two children — but the day came she they could finally open her first restaurant. She had a good location right outside of a military base in small-town Mississippi, and everyone loved my mom’s food. Beyond that, people loved her story. The challenges she overcame, from learning English and starting her life over in a foreign country to the military sending us across the country every few years for the next twenty with her two kids: The guests were amazed at her journey and were proud to experience such a rich history through the food she served. She went on to open a second, quick-service restaurant.
I am inspired every day by what my mom accomplished with so little, and I am so proud to tell her story…