Maze Mondays have been a thing since last fall. The one-night collaboration dinners pair Bar Maze chef Ki Chung and his crew with local guest chefs, with tickets often selling out in minutes. The first, with The Pig & the Lady’s Kristene Moon, sold out in 20 minutes. Last month’s, with Hyun Kim of O’Kim’s Korean Kitchen, filled up in an hour. And next Monday’s izakaya-style dinner with Sooper Secret Izakaya’s Ricky Goings sold out in 30 minutes.
What makes this upcoming one different is that Goings doesn’t have a restaurant or regular gig. Sooper Secret is a James Beard Award-nominated pop-up whose dishes feel like a quirky kaiseki and whose prix-fixe menus (which also sell out) cost $185. At Maze Monday, for what may be the first time, Goings is offering his food à la carte—alongside Michelin-starred Chung, who’s leaning into his Korean heritage for the May 26 event with a lobster tteokbokki and kimbap.
If you couldn’t snag a ticket, Goings is already talking about reprising something similar. “It’s really cool how we come from two completely different backgrounds, but when me and him start to think of ideas, it just clicks,” he says. “I don’t think it’s gonna be prix fixe. If we’re gonna break away from our norm, then we should break away from our norm, you know? We might do a fast food pop-up next. Nothing set in stone yet.”
The two culinary luminaries are polar opposites. Chung filled his resume with two- and three-Michelin starred restaurants (The French Laundry, Manresa, Benu, The Fat Duck, Jean-Georges) before he rose to chef de cuisine at Michelin-starred Aubergine in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. His demeanor is as polished as Goings’ is off-the-wall. The Sooper Secret chef started out at izakayas in Japan and worked at He‘eia Kea Pier General Store and Deli, Sushi ii, Pai Honolulu and Butcher & Bird. Both are James Beard Award semifinalists.
Chung and his partners, Justin Park and Tom Park (no relation) of Bar Leather Apron, started the series as “a good way for the team to see a different style of working and someone else’s philosophy of food,” says Chung. “A lot of cooks on the Mainland, they go around staging at different restaurants just to learn. This is my way of doing that for my chefs, but instead, other chefs come to work with us.”
At Hana Kitchens in Downtown, Goings’ pop-ups max out at 14 diners because he works solo, cooking and plating everything himself. The prix-fixe changes every time but always includes his signature foie gras peanut butter and jelly sandwich (“It’s Nutter Butter cookie butter and strawberry jam with little bit of umeboshi and a big piece of foie gras torchon in the middle. Kind of like an Uncrustable,” he says) and uni waffles…