Susan Chung brings Korean food to the Cap Center
The Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord has announced its next Culinary Artist-In-Residence. Her name is Susan Chung, and she specializes in kimbap, a Korean street food.
Chef Chung explained that kimbap is traditionally a rice dish for Koreans on the go: “Kim’ is seaweed and ‘bap’ is rice. It’s a finger food. It’s not just like eating sushi with chopsticks and all that. It’s very different from sushi actually.”
Born in Korea, Chung was adopted by American parents and grew up in western Massachusetts. It wasn’t until she met her now-husband, Hyun, in college that she was introduced to traditional Korean food. When she moved to California to study design, Hyun went with her.
“That’s when I started experiencing a lot with different Korean foods,” she said. “There’s a huge Korean community in Los Angeles, Koreatown. I was exposed to a lot of the authentic food. My husband, who grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil — his parents are Korean and everything — has been surrounded around it for his whole life. So I was able to, in my 20s, start to kind of experiment with it, and so now, 25 years later, I’ve had a lot of practice.”
“We’re excited to have Sue joining us,” Salvatore Prizio, the executive director of the Capitol Center, said in a telephone interview. “We’re thrilled to be working with her. And she’s going to be moving in a couple of weeks just to get, you know, used to the spaces and start with some soft opening events and things like that before we officially kick it off with a ribbon cutting and stuff in September.”
As the Capitol Center’s Culinary Artist-In-Residence, Chung will be able to use the Center’s two commercial kitchens for a year, while she gets her business, Sue’s Kimbap House, established. In addition, her food will be sold at CCA and Bank of NH Stage concession stands throughout her residency. She will also be able to use the facilities to do catering work. At the same time, she will be able to learn how to run a restaurant.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for anybody new to Concord to have a chance to basically experiment with any new food,” she said. “It’s very low risk, but it’s getting [my food] out there.”
The Capitol Center’s Culinary Artist-In-Residence program started two and a half years ago. “We started it shortly after I arrived at the CCA,” Prizio said. “Post-pandemic, both of our commercial kitchens were essentially sitting dormant, and running a food service business while trying to to run a nonprofit organization is quite a tall lift.” So the Capitol Center decided to host a fellowship to give an opportunity to some of Concord’s talented cooks who need help starting a restaurant.
Last year’s Culinary Artist-In-Residence was Somali Chef Batula Mohammed, who started Batula’s Kitchen (find her at facebook.com/BatulosKitchen).
“Betulo was able to save up enough money,” Prizio said, “through not only the stuff she was doing with us but also these catering gigs, that she was able to buy her own food truck. So now she has a food truck and she’s booked all summer, which is great for her. Our first [fellowship] out of the gate was a success story.”
Chung feels like the timing of her Culinary Artist-In-Residence position was excellent. She thinks New Hampshire eaters are ready to accept Korean food in a major way. She points to the success of Trader Joe’s frozen kimbap as a good omen.
“It did so well that Costco has its own version as well,” she said. “Frozen kimbap, compared to fresh homemade kimbap is completely different, of course, but at least it got people thinking about it. And then, with the K-dramas and K-pop, and people being more exposed to Korean culture in general, people are more willing to give Korean food a try.”
Susan Chung will officially start her Culinary Artist residency program and open Sue’s Kimbap House at the BNH Stage (16 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) on Thursday, Sept. 5.