Season Of The Sun

It took him a few years to be comfortable in his own skin, and now Meta’s chef Sun Kim is not about to let anything change that – not even the pressures of maintaining his restaurant’s Michelin star rating.

- Koh Yuen Lin

South Korean-born Sun Kim earnestly tells the story of the latchkey kid who, through necessity, discovered that he really enjoyed cooking. It was this passion that sustained him when he was enduring harsh treatment at the bottom of the pecking order in restaurant kitchens – be it at the tonkatsu shop in Seoul where he interned during school holidays as an 18-year-old, or at the renowned Tetsuya’s in Sydney, Australia.

He had fallen in love with the restaurant after reading chef Tetsuya Wakuda’s cookbook, and learnt English in six months so that he could apply to Le Cordon Bleu Sydney and get himself one step closer to the restaurant. When he did not get a response after sending more than 20 job applications, he started to loiter at its entrance, hoping to pass his resume to staff.

Eventually, in 2012, Kim scored himself an interview and a cooking test at Tetsuya’s – during which he was asked to cook a piece of duck breast that he did not realise was cured. He was convinced that he had botched his only chance and was devastated, but that fear was unfounded. He would later become the person whom Wakuda took along while on the road for promotions and guest chef stints. Kim was seconded to Waku Ghin, Singapore when it opened in 2010. After five years working with his internationally acclaimed mentor, he decided to return to South Korea.