I recently learned about Feastly through attending one of their pop-up brunch/workshop and was lucky enough to partner with them to host this year’s Workshops. I wish I can do this more often but I had to get pretty realistic about how much work I can handle juggling between my full-time job and family. Working with Feastly’s team really helped me to get the word out. I was ready to host another workshop open to public. Meaning, my guests are no longer just my friends but I wanted to meet people who had the same interest as me in cooking Korean food and try out recipes that I’ve been working on. It’s been so much fun meeting people, cooking and feasting together.

On Saturday, May 16, all of us gathered around at the kitchen studio in Berkeley to cook up some yummy Korean food! We prepped all of our fresh ingredients, we cooked in groups of two, had a demo and feasted our way through the workshop. Here are some more details in picture to show how it went.

Here is me looking pretty serious there (not at all serious, actually ^^) as I was preparing before guests started showing up. Here is the menu that I had come up with for the workshop.

It took no time for everyone to get working in the kitchen. I was very impressed to see how everyone was working together in this small kitchen. We spent first 30 min of class prepping all the ingredients and although it seem bit hectic from my point of view, I think that’s probably a real scene behind any professional kitchen. Chefs & cooks sweat around in the kitchen to get everything right and be able to get the dish out on a timely manner. That’s exactly what we were doing and I felt that we were all working as a team. Great job everyone!

After prepping the ingredients, we took a short break. I did a short demo on ‘How to Make Fluffy Rolled Eggs’. I love showing these egg technique demos at the workshop because they are so practical and I think most people find cooking eggs as something easy to add to their meal. We also talked little bit about making perfect poached egg but didn’t have enough time to actually show a demo so we will have to save that one for the next workshop!

It meant the world to me that both of my sisters, spot two ladies in stripes (Samantha, Sunnie) was there to support. They were working with the guests to walk them through prepping and cooking each dish. We grew up watching our mom and grandma cooking in the kitchen and all of us really enjoy cooking and sharing ideas. I think we learned from very early age that cooking is love and kitchen is where your family’s happiness should start. I truly believe that we connected better as family because most of our memorable family time was spent sharing at our dinner table.

Here are our guests getting their hands into prepping every dish. We did have a written recipe to follow but in the end I don’t even think we needed them. Everyone seem like they were using their cooking senses, season to taste and even making the dishes beautifully presented. Awesome job! The second half of the class was mostly cooking and plating the dish. Every dish was served warm and timely. We did it! Here is how each dishes turned out.

Buckwheat Noodle Salad with Crab Meat

(This recipe is adapted from one of Banchan Workshop #1 guest)

Three Colors Namul Veggies (Thrown into big bowl of Bibimbap)

served as a la cart Bibimbap with Fried Quail Eggs.

Korean Chicken Taco with Radish Kimchi Slaw and Aioli

Korean Meatballs served with Seasoned Rice Balls

Sanjeok Kkochi (Korean Beef Skewers with Asparagus, King Mushrooms and Rice Cake)

After working hard in the kitchen, it was time for us to feast together. THE BEST PART!

Almond Petite Fours, Sujunga (Traditional Korean Cinammon Drink) was served as a dessert and I packed some Monaka (thin rice crakers filled with chestnut cream or red bean) for the guests to take home. It didn’t feel complete sending the guests without some sweets. ^^

The final results were above and beyond. Everything turned out what I had imagined, actually even better! Thanks to all of our guests who came out to cook and feast together, Feastly for helping me to plan the event and coordinating, my lovely sisters Samantha and Sunnie, my cousin Julee for their on-going army of support, Marla for letting us use her kitchen and last but not least, Lisa for shooting the event and documenting it. I cannot thank you enough for the amount of love and support that you guys have given me. I hope we can do more and share great times cooking with friends and bring that happiness back to our own family’s table.

For those of you who were not able to attend this time, I’ll be hosting another one this year with Feastly on September 26 in San Francisco. You can Sign Up here to be on the mailing list to get informed about the date/time and menu. We will be cooking up some Korean Street Food! 

For everyone else, I have updated latest recipe book that contains all the dishes above and from our previous workshops. You can download the lastest PDF recipe book here! 

Hope you get to try them at home and enjoy them! Bring on more Banchan!