847: Korean Soup University with Clara Lee and Eddo Kim of Queens

Clara Lee (0:08)

And so I think right now with so many people using different types of tin fish, it's just a good opportunity to sort of blend tin fish that you like, the one that you have in your pantry, with the kimchi that you may have stored at the back of your fridge for months.

Matt Rodbard (0:26)

This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

Clara Lee and Eddo Kim are the co-founders of Queen's, the San Francisco Korean American food company that started as a delivery-only deli in 2018, became a beloved Inner Sunset super-et, and now makes gochujang, tenjan, and gochugaru from Northern California-grown ingredients. Their debut cookbook is Korean Soups, Recipes for Soups and Stews That Nourish, Restore, and Delight. I absolutely love it. Today in the show, Clara and Eddo join me to talk about guk vs. tang and what closing a storefront taught them about building a brand. I hope you enjoy this episode.

Eddo Kim and Clara Lee, welcome to This Is TASTE. It's so great to see you guys. Great to see you, Matt. Your book is amazing. Like, Korean Soups, what a title, it says it all. But there's like so many directions you could have gone in with it. And I think it's so comprehensive. It's like fun to read, has a clear visual identity.

I'm a huge fan. I have some favorite recipes we'll go over. But congratulations.

Eddo Kim (1:40)

Thank you so much.

Matt Rodbard (1:42)

So you're in New York right now. Where have you been dining out? I'll start with you, Eddo.

Eddo Kim (1:46)

Yes, we got in last week and we've been staying with Clara's parents up in Rockland County. And so we haven't gone into this. This is the first day in the city. So we have a few spots in mind. We're going to, I think we're going to check out Lay.

And then also if our, you know, our stomachs can handle it, we'll go to Via Corota.

Matt Rodbard (2:01)

Yeah.

Eddo Kim (2:02)

But this past weekend, we went up to Upstate Dove's Diner. Our friend Emma, she opened up this wonderful diner up there. And it was, everything was like delicious, perfect.

Clara Lee (2:14)

Yeah.

Matt Rodbard (2:14)

Yeah.

Clara Lee (2:15)

It was, I mean, it was perfect. It was really, yeah, perfection. She, she's been a close friend of ours from San Francisco, and she just has such a great food palette and sense of, you know, style and aesthetics. And, and, and so that's been really great. But yeah, we're excited to check out Lay.

Matt Rodbard (2:33)

So take me back to the origins of Queens. You know, you write in the book, how you really had a freestyle approach to the service. And I agree, you know, you invited us in graciously to photograph for Korea World, our book, Dookie and I's book. And I, I love, I loved it. I love that, that visit. I'm sad it's not there. Clara, tell me about that, the restaurant that kind of inspired this book in some ways.

Clara Lee (2:58)

Yeah, we, we kind of started with the idea of having a grocery and a deli. We really wanted to put something in the community in San Francisco at the time that, you know, wasn't necessarily there. And we wanted to sort of share our knowledge of Korean food, Korean cooking techniques, but especially ingredients. And so we had this idea of a grocery and a deli. And we had this beautiful place in mind in the sunset, and it was this cute kind of long corridor looking space. And initially, we were selling everything from fresh produce to small batch products that we had brought in from Korea.

Producers that were from family farms and fishers and ranchers that were working in really small, sort of remote areas. And we wanted to introduce those ingredients to the community in San Francisco. So that eventually evolved because of COVID into a big pivot where it became more and more of our in-house products. So we kind of created a whole separate line of frozen food, sauces, condiments, different kimchis. And I think as that started to pick up, we thought of, why don't we maybe do a cafe? And so when you came to the spot, that kind of arm started. And so, yeah, it kind of gradually grew and grew and grew. And eventually, I think we both realized that it had evolved into something that was a bit different than what we originally had thought of.

And that was great, but I think we really fell in love with the idea of kind of the product line and the opportunity to be able to share sort of kind of our expertise and our knowledge about the different core fundamental ingredients and kind of how to rethink that in a different lens that is separate from just importing. And so we kind of thought of how might we be able to make our own products, you know.