Lenny Moon

The Recognition At Hortus in New York, United States, Moon serves as Executive Chef, a role that places his name directly behind the restaurant’s food direction. The title is the central recognition attached to his career: a kitchen leadership post in New York City, supported by experience in both restaurant cooking and beverage study. His specialty is Asian-fusion food and drink. That phrasing matters for the way it joins two sides of hospitality often treated separately: the plate and the glass, the kitchen and the bar, the inherited and the trained. Moon’s background gives the specialty a clear source. His family owned and operated restaurants in South Korea for 35 years, making professional hospitality part of his earliest frame of reference.

The Work

Behind It The current role at HORTUS NYC follows a career that includes work at Jungsik in New York City. That experience places him within one of the city’s most demanding restaurant environments, and it sits alongside another leadership post: Executive Chef at Musaek. Moon’s training spans several culinary and beverage schools. He studied at Han-Sol Cooking Academy and Han-Dol Cooking Academy, and his education also includes The French Culinary Institute, French Culinary Institute, and International Culinary Center. New York Bartending School adds a drinks-focused credential to the same résumé, aligning with his stated specialty in Asian-fusion food and drink. Rather than reading as a single-track kitchen biography, his formation moves across family restaurants, culinary academies, restaurant posts, and bartending education. The result is a chef whose public identity is tied to food and drink together, with South Korean restaurant roots and New York professional experience both present in the work.

The Road Moon’s path begins with a family business context in South Korea, where restaurants were not an abstraction but an operating life for 35 years. That origin gives weight to the later training: cooking schools did not introduce hospitality from scratch; they sharpened a field he had already grown up around. His education then broadened across institutions with different emphases. Han-Sol Cooking Academy and Han-Dol Cooking Academy sit beside The French Culinary Institute, French Culinary Institute, International Culinary Center, and New York Bartending School, creating a résumé that names both culinary technique and beverage preparation. Professional roles followed in New York City and beyond. He worked at Jungsik, later held the Executive Chef title at Musaek, and now carries that same title at HORTUS NYC. The throughline is precise: Korean restaurant heritage, formal training, Asian-fusion food and drink, and executive kitchen leadership in New York.