Korean-American Judge of 'Iron Chef' Sees Kitchen as Science Lab

"Iron Chef UK" judge Judy Joo, who lives in London and specializes in French cuisine, is nothing if not eclectic and multi-talented -- a vibrant personality who seems able to excel at whatever she puts her mind to and who is now helping spread Korean cuisine across the British capital.

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Since October, the Korean-American has become a regular fixture on the weekly TV cooking show, where she assesses the skills of competing chefs, after formerly serving as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and majoring in engineering at Columbia University.

But for her day job, the veteran cook works as the executive chef for The Playboy Club London. There, she conjures up French recipes to add to its standard fare of classic American dishes, following previous stints at famous British restaurants including The Fat Duck and Maze.

At The Playboy Club, she also uses Korean ingredients and serves Korean side dishes such as kimchi, japchae (mixed dish of boiled bean threads, stir-fried vegetables and shredded meat) and bossam (boiled pork eaten with a salty sauce and wrapped in greens).

"I have been influenced by various factors in my cooking. For me, it's natural to cook in various ways. British people hardly know about Korean food. But our restaurant keeps introducing [it] to Londoners", said Joo.

Joo was born in New Jersey to Korean immigrant parents. Raised by her father, who was a doctor, and her chemist mother, she dreamed of becoming a scientist when she was young and attended Columbia University in New York. However, she was soon swayed by the spoils on offer at the city's financial center.

"While I was studying in New York, particularly in Manhattan, I was greatly affected by Wall Street. Most of my college friends entered Wall Street as if it was a trend. As I also did internships at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before I graduated, I naturally migrated into the financial industry", she said.

This soon led to financial success as a power player at the global financial firm Morgan Stanley, but not happiness or the kind of job satisfaction she was seeking. After five years, she left the company in pursuit of her dream. But instead of ending up in a science lab, she found her way into the kitchen as a chef -- performing alchemy of a culinary rather than chemical kind.

"I liked science, but I was also interested in cooking when I was a child. I think cooking and science have many things in common", she said. "A kitchen is a kind of lab, and chefs also experiment and study like scientists".

As such, she plays with each ingredient to see how it works, calculates the best temperature for cooking and analyzes the components of ingredients to find new ways of putting them to use. Her experimental fusion dishes may reflect her original desire to become a scientist.

Now she cannot think of any other career that would give her such joy. Cooking has become the main dish of her life, she said.