Irene Yoo

The Climb

Irene Yoo’s work sits where food media, performance, and Korean food history meet. The career path includes photo & video producer at Food Network, writer and recipe developer at Food52, writer and recipe developer at FoodNetwork.com, writer and essayist at Slate, presenter on Korean culinary history at The Korea Society, and presenter on Korean culinary history at The Museum of Food and Drink. Each role adds a different toolset: editorial writing, recipe development, production, and public presentation. Today, she is founder and chef of Yooeating and chef and co-owner of Orion Bar. The through line is Korean foodways handled across formats. Yoo’s practice draws on Korean home cooking, street food, drinking culture, and culinary history, while also working within modern media. Recipes are built for screen, ideas are shaped for video, and food is treated as something lived, social, and current rather than fixed in place.

Today

At Orion Bar in Brooklyn, New York, Irene Yoo is chef and co-owner, helping shape the Korean and American drinking spot in Bushwick. The work extends beyond the dining room: she develops recipes, makes videos, and continues to build Yooeating as a public platform where Korean food, fermentation, drinking, travel, and more stay in conversation. The line she uses to introduce herself captures that split screen: “I’m Irene, I’m the chef and co-owner at Orion Bar, a Korean and American drinking spot in Bushwick, as well as the creator behind Yooeating.” That pairing of hospitality and content gives the work its range. In service and on camera, Yoo keeps the focus on Korean foodways, with an approach shaped by care and cultural memory. The point is not just to cook the dishes, but to explain their place in the culture that formed them.

Signature

Irene's signature dishes include Soy Sauce Ddukbokki, Spicy Ddukbokki, Gyeran Mari (Korean Rolled Omelet), and Watermelon Soju Punch (Subak Soju Hwachae). Taken together, they show a broad register: comforting, playful, and attentive to how food and drink work in a social setting. Ddukbokki appears in two forms, Soy Sauce Ddukbokki and Spicy Ddukbokki, showing how one dish can move between moods. Gyeran Mari (Korean Rolled Omelet) points to the plain strengths of Korean home cooking, while Watermelon Soju Punch (Subak Soju Hwachae) brings a shared-table drink into view.

In Their Words “I'm Irene, I'm the chef and co-owner at Orion Bar, a Korean and American drinking spot in Bushwick, as well as the creator behind Yooeating.” The line matches the rest of Yoo’s practice: it keeps multiple roles in frame at once. Chef, co-owner, and creator are not separate lanes here; they are parts of the same working language, moving between kitchen, camera, and cultural commentary in a direct register.

Recognition

Her work connects kitchen leadership, recipe development, and video through a consistent focus on Korean foodways and culinary history. That makes her public voice useful beyond service, especially in the context of Korean home cooking, street food, drinking culture, and culinary history. The recognition here comes from range without drift. Through Orion Bar, Yooeating, and her earlier roles across food media and cultural institutions, Yoo has built a body of work that speaks in more than one form at once, making room to cook, show, and explain in the same frame.