With over a decade of culinary experience under her belt, Chef Chun has made a name for herself in the San Francisco pop-up dinner scene.
Chef Haejin Chun has carved out a niche in San Francisco’s culinary scene. Renowned for her work in both the male-dominated culinary and cannabis industries, her success is a testament to her passion and determination. Known for her outspokenness and unwavering drive, Chun is a formidable presence in the kitchen.
“A lot of the time in the cannabis industry and the culinary world, there’s a lot of ego driven menus and flexing …I just don’t care about any of that,” Chun said. To her, food is an ephemeral vessel, bringing her community to the same table.
While strong personalities are not exclusive to the culinary world, there is no denying that many young chefs have to fight for their spot in the kitchen. As a first-generation Korean American, Chun makes sure to extinguish any egos by giving credit to the real masters of the kitchen.
“I pride myself in the fact that even the men are intimidated to just come say any bullshit because I shut it down so quickly. Now I just [say]: ‘Look, you’re an amazing chef. You have your own story. You have your own thing. But if you don’t know that the best chef or cook in the world is a hunched over auntie or grandma in an alley in the middle of nowhere, you don’t know shit about food.’ And that shuts them up 100% of the time.”
Chun believes that food should serve a deeper purpose beyond pleasure. This view motivates her to work tirelessly, often for 16-hour days, to create dishes that are truly special. Only once she has given the meal every last bit of her spirit, does she feel satisfied.
In Her Kitchen
Whether cooking for herself or loved ones, Chun always comes back to her favorite Korean dishes. For herself, kimchi and a fried egg with a runny yolk on top of a bowl of rice comes together in a pinch. Though she admits that she has recently grown to dislike cooking for herself, she can always rely on this recipe from her childhood.
However, if she is hosting, spicy tofu soup is the go to dish. Before moving to the Bay Area, she would frequently order from local spots around Los Angeles. But now, without such restaurants near her, she had to learn how to make the rich soup. Chun says that she now makes the dish at least once a week and it is easily one of her partner’s favorites.
“I’m really big on things that have a lot of depth of flavor that take a long time, like six, seven, eight hour stews. Those are kind of my heavy hitters, things that you can’t take shortcuts from. So when I do cook for people, it truly is a labor of love.”
While Chun feels blessed to now be surrounded by amazing quality produce year-round, she does wish there was better access to higher quality spices from the motherland. Modifying recipes to work with available ingredients is often the best most immigrants can do, according to Chun. This sense of going with the flow permeates her way of cooking.
“I love making sauces because it truly is a mad scientist moment to the fullest.. Just all intuition, all creativity, all pivoting, all adjustments. There is no plan. You just kind of see where you end up, and I always surprise myself. It truly is like a balancing act. One drop of lemon too much, and you have to recalibrate. It’s constantly playing this recalibration game, and it’s honestly fun for me.”
Chun says if she were to work in a Michelin kitchen, she would definitely want to be the saucier.
High Times Cookbook & De-Stigmatization of Cannabis
In November, the High Times Let’s Get Baked cookbook will have been out for a year. The book features the collaborative efforts of Chun and Jamie Evans, the multi-hyphenate cannabis professional known as The Herb Somm. Chun expressed her happiness around the project’s team, from the publishing staff to the prop stylists and photographers, all being women. She insisted that this was no coincidence either, and emphasized that there were some times where she had to push to ensure this. Needless to say, her pushing paid off to a beautifully designed book full of fun cannabis-infused recipes.
“I’m just proud of the whole entire book because I am truly like an Asian cook: I don’t measure and I don’t weigh out things. It’s all very bruja in the kitchen– tasting and smelling as I go.” Chun explains that she struggled with perfectly measuring each ingredient and checking over her process to make sure that the recipes made sense to somebody who had never made the dish before.
For this same reason, she faced trouble when creating baked dessert recipes. According to her, a lot of the recipes in the book are left open-ended and avoid getting too heavy on science-based baking. Funny enough, her favorite recipe in the book, which she has made many times, is the black sesame blondies. One tip from Chun is to pair the blondie with a scoop of coconut ice cream for a fire combination.
Despite the challenges she faced while working on the book, Chun found the overall experience of being involved in the project and seeing her work published to be incredibly affirming as a woman in cannabis.
Recently, she had gifted the cookbook to her grandmother. Chun wrote a note and signed the book on a page that was covered with marijuana leaves. When looking at the note, her grandmother pointed at a nearby leaf and said “temacho,” which means marijuana in Korean. This surprised Chun at the time, but she explained that it made sense since hemp was used in traditional Chinese medicine and was a part of their lives.
“For me, that was validation that we were reclaiming this for our ancestors who did use cannabis in birth ceremonies, tribal rituals, and death ceremonies.”
While there is definitely still a stigma to cannabis use among Korean immigrants, there is an undeniable growing movement towards acceptance of the plant for its healing properties.
Big Bad Wolf & Communal Alchemy
Cooking was not initially in the stars for Chun when she moved to Paris to live her post-graduate artist fantasy. Though between glasses of wine on her apartment’s terrace, she soon fell in love with their culture of good food and even better company to boot.
“I just love bringing people together, and I feel like food is the ultimate universal language,” Chun explained.
During these two years in Paris, she began hosting dinners for friends at her apartment. So when Chun returned to San Francisco amidst the pop-up dinner boom, it was a no-brainer. She just needed to host one dinner to see if she could pull it off. Big Bad Wolf will be celebrating its ninth year this October.
Although Chun has created impressive curated menus in the past, she prefers the freedom of working without a fixed menu. She has playfully mentioned that the ingredients she finds at the farmers market on the day of the dinner can influence the final menu.
“I want to be at the farmer’s market and think, ‘these tomatoes are inspiring me right now and I need to go turn this into something,’” Chun admitted with a laugh.
While many pop-up dinners pride themselves on their over-the-top prix fixe menus, Chun’s dinners have a more laissez faire approach. However, don’t let the relaxed atmosphere fool you; the food served at BBW dinners is highly lauded. With tickets consistently selling out, it is clear the trust Chun’s community has in her ability to deliver a memorable experience. By prioritizing community building and an unconstrained menu, Chun is able to focus on her new mission of bringing women together.
For the last six years, Chun has been hosting women’s dinners to provide a safe haven for them to celebrate and grow together as a community. “I’ve seen so many women literally blossom from being part of this community: being more confident, feeling like they’re part of something bigger, sharing stories, unlearning things together.”
Chun reminisced about a dinner she had hosted where one of the attendees had brought along her 70 year old mother. According to the woman’s mother, she had never felt such true sisterhood as she did at the dinner. Chun further explained that in the past women learned to view each other as competition, rather than a potential collaborator.
“I’m very intentional with protecting the energy of this community and being the leader to set the tone right. Because when I come with respect and care and sincerity and vulnerability: it really sets the tone for the rest of the evening.” Chun mentioned that she has been to women’s events where the vibes were off, and she refuses to allow such for even a moment in her dining room.
Looking to the future, she has considered hosting a cannabis women’s wellness retreat, potentially with classes and activities to partake in. This retreat would have a similar “come as you are, do as you please” spirit as the BBW dinners where cannabis products may be provided, but their use is up to each attendee. She wants everyone to be able to create their own experience, whatever that may look like to them.
There is no denying that wherever Chun’s path may lead, her pack is sure to follow.