WASHINGTON — Succotash Prime Culinary Director Edward Lee has won plenty of awards, including nine James Beard Award nominations, but on Wednesday night he'll reach a new level in his career, when he presents the state dinner at the White House during South Korean president Yoon Suk-Yeol's visit.
"She was very proud, probably in fact the proudest she's been of me in the last twenty years. It means a lot to her, where she's an immigrant, I'm a child of an immigrant," Lee explained, "we struggled a lot in this country and we've also had these incredible opportunities in this country so it kind of this dinner for us is bringing it full circle and to be able to give back and see this whole thing through, it's really an honor for me, it's really special."
Lee only got word about a month ago via e-mail that he was asked to be the guest chef for the esteemed dinner, but he says he put his heart and soul into creating the menu.
"I'm always trying to bridge this gap between what is Korean and what is American and part of my food that I've been doing for the past twenty years is exploring that intersection of American and global and Korean and Asian," said Lee, "so to be able to that on this stage in front of all these people, it sort of validates everything I've been doing my whole career."
So, what's on the menu?
A Maryland crab cake with a deconstructed Korean-style slaw, braised short ribs and a deconstructed banana split with caramel sauce made from doenjang, a Korean fermented soybean paste.
Lee hopes that this meal will tell the story of his family's journey in America.
"South Korea and America has had a really long standing friendship and alliance and part of that history is why I'm in this country in the first place and why my parents came here versus any other country so to be able to tell the story of that collaboration through food is really important for me," he said.
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