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The owners of Ye Won, Hae Sung Lee (left) and his wife, Jane Lee (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Chap Chae, stir-fried potato noodles with vegetables (Photo by Jay Paul)
Would you consider a 72-hour workweek deceleration? What if you spent those six 12-hour days in a steamy kitchen stuffing pumpkins with short ribs or dicing pounds of Asian pears for a bulgogi marinade? Oh, and the lone host/server/manager running the place? She’s your spouse.
Sound idyllic? It does to Chef Hae Sung Lee and his wife, Jane, Ye Won’s owners. The Lees think of their South Side restaurant as life in the slow lane when compared to the 300-cover dinner spot they left in Boston.
The Lees moved to Chesterfield in May 2016, after the death of Chef Lee’s father. That life event left Hae Sung contemplating his exit plan from 30 years of professional cooking at places like The Kunjip in Manhattan. The answer? Hit cruise control. Buy a restaurant in Virginia.
Upon the advice of a friend, the Lees purchased an existing Korean restaurant, Ye Won, in Chesterfield. They kept the name but gussied up the menu, adding dishes like 36-hour bone broth threaded with sweet potato noodles, a rich, cloudy soup that’s the color of a snow-heavy sky.
Lee began annexing the menu seasonally, showcasing family dishes that accented the naturally sauced Korean cuisine he was schooled in three decades ago. He began fermenting kimchee in house. Jane hung pictures of her husband’s culinary career and filled an étagère with sculptural teapots. But there’s more to their choice of location than calmer lunches. Ye Won offers the Lees the chance to chase a Zen-like passion — cooking and serving to their elders home-style food such as chap chae, thin noodles known as birthday noodles because their length symbolizes long life.
Chesterfield’s small, aging Korean community drew them to the area. Pleasing older diners helps Lee fill the void left by the loss of his father, and it makes the couple feel closer to his mother, who lives in Korea. When I ask Lee how he is able to work so many laborious days, mostly with his wife, he smiles seriously and replies through her, “It is part of our Christian faith, to be kind. To respect all people. That’s what is important to both of us.”
Watching Jane instruct a table of novice diners on how to eat banchan, side dishes central to a Korean meal, it’s clear they’re accomplishing this goal deliciously.
