French adoptee and chef Ko Hyo-il blends his two worlds in ‘Culinary Class Wars'

Chef Ko Hyo-il at his French restaurant, Chez Nous Private Kitchen, in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 16. [PARK SANG-MOON]

 
For nearly 20 years, something felt incomplete for chef Ko Hyo-il, who appeared as one of the "Black Spoon" chefs on Netflix's recently wrapped second season of "Culinary Class Wars" (2024-). He was introduced under the nickname "Annyeong Bonjour."
 
"Something was missing in my life," he said during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at his restaurant, Chez Nous Private Kitchen, in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 16. Ko's nickname was derived from his background: He was adopted to France when he was just 6 years old — still a child, but old enough to understand what was happening around him.
 

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"When you are 6 years old, you know what's going on. You understand that you have to move on to your new life."
 
He grew up in France under the name Mathieu Moles, where he trained at the Grégoire Ferrandi Paris culinary school and built his career in Michelin-starred kitchens. Yet despite years abroad and professional success, the feeling that something was missing never quite faded.
 
"And then I thought it was time for me to go home," he said.
 
So after two decades in Paris, the 47-year-old chef returned to his birth country in the mid-2000s. Twenty years later, he found himself competing on one of Korea's most-watched cooking shows — a decision he didn't make himself.
 

Chef Ko Hyo-il speaks during an interview with Korea JoongAng Daily at his French restaurant, Chez Nous Private Kitchen, in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 16.[PARK SANG-MOON]

 
"My wife applied for the show," Ko said, "saying it could be a good experience for me." And it was. Not only was it an opportunity to show off his culinary expertise; his restaurant is now fully booked through February.
 
In the show's first round, Ko presented a lobster kimchi bisque — a carefully cooked lobster paired with a creamy sauce infused with a hint of kimchi — as his signature dish.
 
"I wanted to show my French identity, but also Korean," he said. "A French guy, with something Korean."
 
Judge Anh Sung-jae advanced Ko to the next round, putting him in the top 40 out of 100 chefs. The nod came with rare praise from Anh for the dish's doneness and balance. Ko surprisingly revealed that he had cooked it only once before preparing it in front of a hundred competitors.
 

Chez Nous Private Kitchen's Michelin 2025 plague and "Culinary Class Awards" dish [PARK SANG-MOON]

 
The second round raised the stakes. Ko was assigned an unfamiliar ingredient: gobchang gim, a type of seaweed he had barely eaten, let alone cooked with.
 
"It was a little bit challenging, to be honest," he said. "I practiced many times. When you use other gim, it's easy to fry, but with that gim, it was so difficult."
 
To make matters worse, his opponent was already well-known in the United States for seaweed-based dishes.
 
"Some chefs told me they were worried because he is special for gim," Ko said. Ko prepared Fried Chi-Gim, gim rolled into a cylindrical shape and filled with chicken, served with a yellow wine-based sauce, which won the judges over for its culinary skill. "I was surprised that I won. But I also came up with some good ideas. Of course, I didn't know I was going to win — but I expected to win."
 
The pressure of the show is intense: dozens of chefs watching and cameras everywhere. But for Ko, the hardest part wasn't the cooking. "I speak Korean like a kid," he said, chuckling. "My vocabulary is poor."
 
Despite his limited communication skills, his confidence in the kitchen shone through — built on 25 years of culinary experience, including a stint early on at the one-Michelin-starred L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Paris, an establishment of the man often referred to as the "godfather of French cuisine."
 
"It was really intense. But I learned so much." He later moved to Le Jules Verne, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.
 
"It was wonderful," Ko said. "The view was really iconic. I had never been to the Eiffel Tower until I worked there."
 
Michelin kitchens, however, demand discipline and stamina, he said.
 
"It's a lot of discipline, hard work and long hours. If you are not passionate, you cannot work in that kind of restaurant."
 

Chef Ko Hyo-il poses inside the kitchen at his French restaurant, Chez Nous Private Kitchen, in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 16.[PARK SANG-MOON]

 
When he finally decided to take his culinary career to Korea 20 years ago, there were no Michelin restaurants, he said. "The best opportunity was to work at hotels."
 
So he spent years in Korean hotel kitchens, including at the Shilla Hotel and Four Seasons, before working at overseas hotels in Dubai and the Seychelles.
 
Still, he said, something was missing. "Working in a hotel is very different from working in a restaurant," he said. "In hotels, the focus is more on management. In restaurants, it's more about cooking. For me, they are different jobs."
 
So in 2020, Ko finally opened his first restaurant in Yongsan District near N Seoul Tower, which he "loves." The restaurant has been listed in Michelline Guide since 2023.
 

Chef Ko's French restaurant, Chez Nous Private Kitchen, in Yongsan District, central Seoul [PARK SANG-MOON]

 
"I think it was time for me to cook again and enjoy my job again," he said. "In the first year, about 95 percent of our customers were French. It changed little by little, and now it's mostly Korean."
 
The restaurant serves a French course menu featuring dishes such as tartare and beef tenderloin, priced at 99,000 won ($65). While firmly rooted in French technique, Ko incorporates Korean produce with "a touch of my French cooking."
 
After the show aired, customers began asking for the dishes he had cooked on television. "Customers wanted to try them," he said. "They asked me to do it for Christmas. They really liked it." Those dishes are now available as add-ons.
 
Ko said he hopes to open another restaurant — one that reflects his training even more clearly. "I really want to open a very fine dining restaurant because of my education," he said. "French cuisine with Korean elements. That's what I want to do."
 
And if another survival-style cooking show comes along?
 
"Why not?" he said, laughing. "I realized I can cook under pressure. I'm shy, but when I'm cooking, I'm not shy."

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]