Changki Kang

The Climb

Korean flavor and technique were developed through repeated service in kitchens including Her Name is Han, Chodanggol, and Take31, where Changki Kang honed the fundamentals of heat, acidity, fermentation, texture, and meal balance. The training ground was not a single showpiece dish but the Korean table as a system, where many elements have to speak to one another. Contemporary Korean heritage work became part of the craft through Onjium in Seoul, where Kang was a founding member. The path then moved to Europe, where he served as chef at Korean Embassy in Vienna, before returning to restaurant development as menu research and development lead at HAND Hospitality. Restaurant craft, cultural representation, and research and development each require a different standard of execution. Those roles gave Kang experience with everyday Korean appetite, formal representation of Korean food, and the conversion of ideas into repeatable dishes. Today, Changki is Executive Chef of Odre (since 2024), applying that accumulated discipline to a seasonal Korean prix-fixe table.

Today

Seasonal Korean prix-fixe cooking at Odre in New York, NY, draws from family traditions and nostalgic childhood memories in Korea. In Changki Kang’s hands, home cooking is translated into an upscale format through pacing, temperature, texture, and taste, without treating tradition as fixed or ornamental. Gamasot, or cauldron cooking, gives the restaurant one of its clearest technical anchors. The large Traditional Korean iron pot is used for preparing dishes such as stews, soups, and rice. In Kang’s dining room, that vessel gives weight to the meal: rice functions as a central preparation, soup carries structure, and stew shows the depth that comes from Korean technique handled with patience. Banchan has a defined role within Bansang, which includes rice, soup of the day, and six seasonal banchan across categories including jangajji, jjim, kimchi, saengchae, jorim, and namul. The format lets Kang work in small, exact registers: pickled, braised, fermented, fresh, seasoned, and softened by time. The result is generous without excess and refined without losing the home-style logic of the table. The prix-fixe includes Cuttlefish Hwe, Shrimp Jeon, Spicy Beef Jjim, and Bansang. These dishes keep several Korean textures and temperatures in play: raw preparation, jeon, jjim, rice, soup, and banchan. The cooking is Home-style Korean fare presented in an upscale format, seasonally driven, rooted in Korean tradition, and measured by the calibrations that matter in this cuisine: temperature, texture, and taste.

In Their Words “I decided to become a chef simply because I love to cook and eat.”

Recognition

Recognition for this Korean table includes Michelin Bib Gourmand, Top Restaurants in NYC (2025), and Best New Restaurants.