Hyungkyu Jun

Training in Vancouver, New York, Paris, and Italy gave Hyungkyu Jun a wide frame of reference and a compact working vocabulary. Each city marks a layer of method, and together they describe a chef formed by comparison: different markets, different kitchens, different standards. That breadth now sits inside his role as Executive Chef of Gucci Osteria Seoul, where the work is shaped by cross-cultural fluency and the precision required to keep it coherent.

At Gucci Osteria Seoul, the kitchen leads with a clear sense of responsibility as well as control. Hyungkyu Jun frames that responsibility plainly: “I also strongly believe in sustainability, in making the world better for the next generation.” For another working chef, that line reads as a practical position, not a slogan. It places the work inside a longer horizon, where technique is measured not only by service, but by what it supports beyond the pass.

The named dishes point to a chef working through contrast, geography, and reference. Seoul Garden, Teokbokki Journeys to Appennini, Acero di Mt. Seorak, Snow Fight in Monte Bianco, and Galbi, Untitled, 1953 each signal a different register, but the shared method is clear: fold place, memory, and invention into one plate without losing line. Read as a set, they show a kitchen language that can move between Korean, Italian, French, and Japanese while staying legible as one voice.

The four-part description he gives for his work is “Korean, Italian, French and Japanese.” For Hyungkyu Jun, that is less a label than a working brief: a concise way of naming the traditions that inform the kitchen and the discipline needed to hold them together.