Sungchul Shim

Coming Up

Training in Seoul and at the Culinary Institute of America gave Sungchul Shim the formal base that later met the pace of New York kitchens. Those years established a style built on discipline, precision, and the demands of high-pressure service. From 2005, he worked as extern at Le Bernardin in New York, where the standards were exacting. From 2006, he was line cook at Aureole and Peacock Alley at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, and Chef de partie at Gordon Ramsay in The London Hotel in New York, continuing to build the technical control that would support his later point of view. By 2014, the work had moved into leadership, with Sungchul as executive chef at Neta in Greenwich Village, New York. That role placed him in a kitchen where instinct had to sit alongside polish, and memory had to be translated into a composed dining-room language. Since 2019, he has been chef/owner of Kochi, where heritage, technique, and personal expression meet in the clearest form.

Where They Are Now

Kochi is the current expression of that line of work, and the restaurant’s logic follows the same one used in the kitchen: Korean skewered dishes presented through fine dining, while staying connected to the flavors and textures he grew up with. The food is controlled and deliberate, with each component carrying weight inside a larger structure. The menu shows that approach through specific combinations rather than broad claims. Steamed Mandu Dumpling is built with Lone Mountain Wagyu, foie gras, chile oil, and black rice vinegar, bringing richness, heat, and acidity into a tighter frame. Kabocha Squash Soup comes with spaghetti squash, burdock fritter, lotus root tuile, Osetra caviar, and Fresh Origins Petite Pumpkin Green, moving between smooth, crisp, and briny elements. Beef Galbi is paired with kabocha purée, barley, trumpet mushrooms, zucchini, and Fresh Origins Petite Pumpkin Green, laying down earth, texture, and familiarity in one composition. What holds the plates together is the level of intent behind them. Sungchul Shim works with exactness, but the work stays personal, shaped by formal training and a durable connection to home flavors. At Kochi, that becomes a polished contemporary language that keeps memory, tradition, and restraint in view.

Signature

Sungchul's signature dishes include Steamed Mandu Dumpling, Kabocha Squash Soup, and Beef Galbi. Each shows a different register of the kitchen: the first rich and detailed, the second composed in layers, the third deeply savory and measured.

In Their Words “My mother has always taught me to not chase money but rather gain experiences.”