Beverly Kim

Beverly Kim
EducationKendall College
Culinary career
Current restaurant(s)
  • Parachute
    Anelya
Previous restaurant(s)
  • The Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Red Light, Charlie Trotter's, Prairie Grass Cafe, Opera, Aria (Fairmont Hotel)
Television show(s)
Award(s) won

Beverly Kim is a James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur who was a contestant on Top Chef in 2011 and co-owns the Michelin-starred Parachute in Chicago. In 2019, Kim opened neighboring restaurant Wherewithall with her husband Johnny Clark.

Early life

Kim grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois, the daughter of Korean immigrants. She became interested in becoming a chef in high school, writing to Chicago-area chefs and landing an internship with Sarah Stegner at The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago before attending Kendall College, graduating in 2000.[1][2]

Culinary career

After culinary school, Kim worked again at the Ritz, and then at Charlie Trotter's. She worked with Stegner at Prairie Grass Cafe and then became executive chef of Opera and then Aria in the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.[3]

In 2011, Kim competed on Season 9 of Top Chef in Texas, winning the "Restaurant Wars" episode and the "Last Chance Kitchen" competition before finishing in fourth place.[4][5]

In 2012, she was hired to take over the Michelin-starred Bonsoirée in Chicago, but the restaurant closed after two months. She then returned to her alma mater to teach a fine dining course at Kendall College's School of Culinary Arts.[2]

In 2014, Kim and her husband, Johnny Clark, opened their own restaurant, Parachute in Avondale, Chicago, serving modern Korean-American cuisine.[6] The restaurant was named Eater Chicago's 2014 Restaurant of the Year, and it was a finalist for the 2015 James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant.[7] Bon Appétit magazine named it one of the country's best new restaurants in 2015.[8] Parachute received a Michelin star in the 2016 Michelin Guide for Chicago.[9]

In 2019, Kim and Clark won the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Great Lakes.[10]

Personal life

Kim and her husband live in Chicago with their two children.[11] Journalist Lee Ann Kim is her sister.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Made in Chicago". Chicago Life Magazine. October 11, 2008.
  2. ^ a b Pang, Kevin (March 7, 2013). "Lessons from a 'Top Chef'". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ^ "2015 Chicago Rising Star Chefs Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim of Parachute". StarChefs. May 2015.
  4. ^ "Top Chef: Beverly Kim". Bravo TV. 2011.
  5. ^ Gina (February 17, 2012). "Top Chef: Texas - Exclusive Interview with Beverly Kim". Reality Wanted. ICast.
  6. ^ Pang, Kevin (May 27, 2014). "Opening a restaurant, taking a leap: A look at Parachute's beginning". Chicago Tribune.
  7. ^ Gerzina, Daniel (May 29, 2015). "How Parachute Went From Kim and Clark's 'Last Shot' to Restaurant of the Year". Eater Chicago.
  8. ^ Knowlton, Andrew (August 18, 2015). "Parachute, Chicago". Bon Appétit.
  9. ^ Cheung, Ariel (October 29, 2015). "Parachute's First Michelin Star Was 'Extremely Mind-Blowing". DNAinfo. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
  10. ^ Di Nunzio, Miriam (May 6, 2019). "It's a family affair as Beverly Kim, Johnny Clark triumph at James Beard Awards". Chicago Sun-Times.
  11. ^ Kim, Beverly (March 8, 2017). "The Double Standard Women Deal With in Restaurant Kitchens". Eater Chicago.
  12. ^ Paguyo, James (March 16, 2012). "Beverly Kim-Chee Spice". San Diego Asian Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2012-03-22.