Chef
Mingoo Kang
Chef-Owner, Mingles
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Seoul, South Korea
- Venue
- Mingles · Restaurant
Known for
- Reinterpreting Korean cuisine with modern techniques and fermentation
- Youngest head chef at Nobu Bahamas
- Elevating Mingles to three Michelin stars and Asia's 50 Best No. 5
i. Biography
Chef-owner of Hansik Goo, his first overseas outpost in Hong Kong since 2020, Mingoo Kang works from hansik as a live operating system rather than a fixed archive. The contemporary Korean fine-dining register here depends on traditional dishes being moved forward through memory, structure, fermentation, seasoning, restraint, and surprise. The three Michelin stars received at Mingles in 2025 sit inside that practice as recognition of control, continuity, and a culinary vocabulary handled with current intent. Contemporary fine dining, as developed at Mingles, is built through innovative hansik and a kitchen centered on mostly local products and farmers. The work looks outward, but its point of reference remains homegrown ingredients, native sensibilities, and dishes carrying history into present service without being stripped of their source.
Career Arc
International kitchen experience gave the work a wider technical frame before it returned to Korean authorship. Early roles as chef at Nobu in US and chef at Martín Berasategui in Spain placed Mingoo Kang in kitchens where precision, pace, and global vocabulary were daily requirements. That exposure did not flatten the Korean reference point; it sharpened the contrast between outside technique and the hansik structure he would later develop. Korean tradition, in this practice, is treated as a usable structure rather than material to be made anonymous. Kang’s return to his own authorship set inherited forms in conversation with contemporary technique, without leaning on nostalgia or copying an international template. The craft question is how far a dish can be edited, composed, and intensified while still reading from its origin. Modern Korean culinary identity now appears across two related addresses: Mingles, where Mingoo Kang has been chef and owner since 2014, and Hansik Goo, where he has been founder / chef since 2020. One is rooted in Seoul, South Korea, and the other carries the language to Hong Kong; together they show consolidation at home and controlled expansion abroad.
The Work Today
Innovative hansik at Mingles in Seoul, South Korea, has been developed since 2014 through a forward-thinking approach to traditional Korean dishes. The restaurant’s contemporary Korean fine-dining register is not a break from the past. Its craft lies in reconsidering familiar foundations through proportion, texture, pacing, and presentation while keeping Korean culinary identity legible. Ingredient sourcing gives that work its place. The kitchen’s use of mostly Korean local products and farmers ties technique to landscape, season, and supply, so the contemporary dining-room format remains connected to the materials and relationships that define its origin. Hansik in Hong Kong, through Hansik Goo since 2020, extends the same authorship beyond Seoul. As chef-owner, Mingoo Kang carries Korean cooking into another city without presenting it as rootless export. The important point is continuity: the language travels, but it remains attached to the same source and discipline.
Signature
Dessert 'Jang trio' at Mingles places a foundational Korean taste vocabulary inside the fine-dining sequence. As a named signature, it shows Mingoo Kang working with jang not as background seasoning but as material capable of carrying dessert structure and Korean meaning at the same time.
Distinctions
Mingoo Kang has received Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants — Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award (2021). Recognition for Mingles has tracked the sustained development of contemporary Korean fine dining: its first Michelin star in 2017, a second Michelin star in 2018, the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award in 2021, and the three Michelin stars received at Mingles in 2025. In trade terms, those honors mark consistency across years of Korean-led authorship rather than a single moment of attention.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Mingoo
What is Mingoo Kang's current position?
Mingoo Kang is chef-owner of Hansik Goo, his first overseas outpost in Hong Kong.
Where did Mingoo Kang work before?
Earlier in their career, Mingoo Kang worked at Nobu and Martín Berasategui.
What recognition has Mingoo Kang received?
Mingles gained a second Michelin star (2018).
