Every person has his own idol. A person to admire and worship; and mine happens to be my father. Be it my aspiration to become like him or my inheritance of his genes; he is one person who has influenced me all throughout my life. He was the first person who punctured the need in to use my taste buds to the utmost capacity, constantly talking about food and the need for right temperature. Hospitality being his forte was thoroughly graved in me as he was the first person to introduce me to it. He was a businessman and thus, he not only got to travel and meet people from different cultures, but had the diverse experience to meet and eat different cuisines as well. As he interacted with a lot of people from various backgrounds, the importance of feeling comfortable and making others comfortable came naturally to him which according to me is the first and most important thing to remember when we talk about hospitality.
I, who was lucky, heard about his vivid experiences and this increased my interest in food and hospitality. Being a man of humility and honor, my father always respected hard work and asked me to appreciate food and the person who cooked it no matter where he was from- be it a vendor from the street. He believed that food regardless from where is honorable. He often invited people to our summer house for business purposes. Although the main agenda was meetings and business, he made sure that each and every person present there was comfortable enough and never felt left out or out of place. Such was his hospitality! The services that he provided were nothing less than any good restaurant and his warmth and smile attracted guests voluntarily for participation. He made sure that everybody in his presence felt the excitement and he was a great host. Today, I have one year of work experience. I have worked with some of the large corporations in Korea and United States. Through this work experience, I have begun to think about my future and foodservice and hospitality is what I have on my mind. I can proudly say that it is due to my father that I can think and taste food and hospitality as I type this and he is one person who has influenced me and my thinking the most!
Future career goals
‘Work is worship’- this is my quote for life. And I enjoy and love to work in the kitchen. My goal in life is to be a leader. I want to have a restaurant of my own. With my education from CIA and my work experience in the kitchen, I want to be a realistic leader with logical and practical ideas to run my restaurant. I do have good amount of knowledge regarding the consequences when the owner of the restaurant lacks the knowledge of food. He loses control not only of his kitchen, in turn loses his customers and his business as well. After graduating from the university, my theories indeed were absolutely correct through this personal experience of mine.
To be a better leader the owner has to know his kitchen well- especially his food. This not only gives him an upper hand but makes him confident which in turn pleases his customers and increases his business as well. This is thus a well woven chain where all the links have to be tightly bound at all times. My ultimate goal is to open a restaurant in the farm which I have inherited from my beloved father. My father- who put a great deal of hard work and effort to build and maintain this farm, my father from whom I first learnt about food, passed away and has left me this farm. I feel it is my duty and responsibility to foster this inheritance. As I love food and would like to continue the tradition of meeting people, a restaurant in the farm according to me is my dream and my final goal!
