Chef
Josh Smookler
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- New York City, New York, United States
i. Biography
Korean adoption into a New York Jewish family, a Long Island upbringing, and later work between Queens and Sonoma form the biographical ground around Josh Smookler, but the trade line is clearer: wine service, exacting restaurant work, and a ramen counter built for pressure. The craft has moved between cellar discipline and kitchen speed, from Per Se to Mu Ramen in Long Island City, New York, and now toward Animo restaurant in Boyes Hot Springs, California, with Heidi Hu as planned co-owner/operator. Based in New York City. “I started in the wine business because, when I was a teenager, I thought wine was for affluent, educated and sophisticated people. I wanted to impress women. It felt like it had more cache. Silly, right?” Josh has said.
The Ascent
Restaurant range, early on, meant wine and exacting service before the work narrowed into its strongest New York form at Mu Ramen (2014–2020). In Josh Smookler’s case, the role joined wine director and chef/owner, putting list-building and pass work under the same operator. That combination required two different kinds of timing: the structure of what is poured, and the immediate demands of broth, noodles, raw foods, heat, and counter service. A ramen counter became the public proof of that range. From 2014 to 2020, Mu Ramen placed Josh Smookler’s name inside a restaurant identity built from personal history, Japanese forms, New York pace, and kitchen pressure. The work did not sit neatly in one category; it depended on fast decisions, direct service, and a room where food and wine had to function together. The next operating frame is Animo restaurant in Boyes Hot Springs, where Josh Smookler is the planned chef/operator (since 2022). The move to Sonoma changes the setting, not the underlying task: align cooking, wine, and hospitality in a room with its own rhythm.
The Work Today
California is the current operating context. As planned co-owner/operator of Animo restaurant in Boyes Hot Springs with Heidi Hu, Josh Smookler brings the New York experience of Mu Ramen (2014–2020) into Sonoma. The useful continuity is not atmosphere but coordination: what is cooked, what is poured, and how service holds those parts together. Animo reframes the résumé without replacing it. Wine work, Per Se, and the chef/owner role at Mu Ramen now sit behind the planned restaurant in Boyes Hot Springs, where Smookler and Hu are the named operators. The craft history is cumulative: wine director, kitchen veteran, chef/owner, and planned co-owner/operator working toward a California opening.
Standing
Recognition here is carried by the work history itself: wine director, Per Se veteran, chef/owner of Mu Ramen from 2014 to 2020, and planned co-owner/operator of Animo in Boyes Hot Springs. In trade terms, the sequence shows an operator moving across wine, high-pressure kitchen practice, counter-service identity, and a planned California restaurant with a defined partner in Heidi Hu.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Josh
Where did Josh Smookler work before?
Earlier in their career, Josh Smookler worked at Mu Ramen.
