Chef Peter Serpico was born in Seoul and grew up in Maryland.
At least not in the sense that it includes elaborate recipes with five sub-recipes and long lists of ingredients.
Every page is an embodiment of Serpicos belief that the best Korean food is Korean home cooking.
Simply Recipes / Neal Santos
Korean home cooking is not what Serpico grew up with.
It was only once he was established as a chef that Serpico immersed himself in Korean food.
What does it mean to be American?
What does a family look like?
I wanted everything to be as real as they can be.
We didnt rent a studio space.
The studio was my living room and my kitchen.
My daughter was involved every day, because she was doing school via Zoom.
Im really trying to involve her in Korean food.
I wanted to confirm the cookbook was home cooking, and not what a chef would call home cooking.
I wanted to make acookingbook, not a cookbook.
I want people to use the recipes for a long time and have them eventually become family recipes.
A lot of those ingredients are non-perishable.
They come by with a minivan full of food or we go to Queens and visit them.
From a spiritual level, most of the book is for my daughter.
Im an adopted Korean.
Shes the biggest part of my life.
And I never really wanted to talk about it.
Thats not what I want to spend my time doing anymore.
I want to watch my daughter grow.
I dont know how other adopted people feel, but I feel like my daughter is my child.
Me and my wife created my daughter together.
Shes my blood, you know?
Ive never had that feeling.
Thats a huge part of who I am now, and I dont expect anyone else to understand it.
I dont know if you better sit down at the table and say This is Korean food.
It can be something as simple as the marinated spinach in a bowl of rice.
Id probably make ssam.
Its all really simple, and thats what I wanted the cookbook to be.
I make this stuff, I have made this stuff for my family.
And I dont have that much time.
I dont think about things ahead of time.
