Susan Kim has seen a lot of things in her life and career, but one thing has stood the test of time: Food connects people.
Susan Kim has seen a lot of things in her life and career, but one thing has stood the test of time: Food connects people.
“Food is a way to break down the wall between people, between strangers,” Kim said.
Through multiple career changes, at least two retirements, and now teaching a community education class on Korean cooking at Utah Valley University, Kim’s life has proven that fact over and over.
Kim originally immigrated with her husband from South Korea to Hawaii in the 1980s. They pursued education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii and later co-owned a grocery store and restaurant with a friend.
Kim said at first she hated cooking because she associated it with watching her mother spend most of the day in the kitchen, and she didn’t want that life for herself. “Somehow, whether I liked it or not, I got involved in the food business,” she said.
One memorable learning experience involved a customer asking for a grilled cheese sandwich, which she had never made before. Several burned slices later, Kim resolved to learn American culture through American food.
After Kim and her husband moved to Utah in the 1990s, they opened a sandwich shop called Towne Express in the former ZCMI Center in downtown Salt Lake City, where the City Creek Center mall now stands. Their shop was well known for its sandwiches, soups, pastries, and customized orders for returning customers.
“We just became like friends,” Kim said of her customers. “If there’s no food, there’s no connections.”
Years later, Kim and family took over a Korean grocery store in Murray, Utah, called Seoul Market, which was originally founded in the late 1980s. Kim’s philosophy there was to make sure the store was “a happy place,” always providing giveaways and treats to customers to reward them for shopping.
“People, when they step in the store, I just want their smiles, smiling faces,” Kim said. “In order to do that, I had to know what they really need.”
When Orolmaa Anand, Community Education Program Manager at UVU, was looking for an instructor to teach a class on making kimchi (a Korean vegetable side dish popular for its gut health benefits), she reached out to the Korean American Federation of Utah for a recommendation. When they suggested Susan Kim, Anand realized she already knew who she was, from shopping at Seoul Market.
Kim has been teaching the class for a couple of years now, and it always fills up quickly. Anand helped identify a space to rent in Springville with appropriate kitchen facilities, and Kim always brings far more food than she needs to teach, so students can go home with extra.
In the class, students explore the bold flavors of Korean cuisine, including bulgogi and galbi (marinated and grilled Korean barbecue), sizzled hot-stone bibimbap, Korea’s staple kimchi and colorful banchan, fresh kimbap, Korean fried chicken, and tteokbokki, a popular spicy Korean street food.
“Even for Koreans, learning Korean food is not easy,” Kim said. “American food is very precise, like a science, you know, very precise measuring. But Korean food is not. So even with the same recipe, different people [cooking it] will taste different.”
Students have described Kim as an “ajumma,” a Korean word for a middle-aged woman that is sometimes used to mean “aunt.”
“I loved Susan’s experience,” student Kelsey Morales said. “I felt like I was learning from a pro and my grandmother.”
On vacation this summer, Kim journeyed to Spain to travel along one of the pilgrimage routes of the Camino de Santiago. While walking, she came across a mother and daughter sitting on a bench. Kim was surprised to find out the family was from Utah. On top of that, the mother had taught English in Korea many years ago. When Kim told them about her cooking class, they both registered immediately.
Kim said she sees moments like that as part of her philosophy of giving back to the people around her.
“When I became an American citizen, I asked myself, ‘What can you do for this society I belong to? What can I contribute?’” Kim said. “So maybe this cooking class is one of my contributions.”
Learn more about Kim's latest cooking class: https://www.campusce.net/uvu/course/course.aspx?C=3641&pc=6&mc=0&sc=0
