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Judy Joo is a world-renowned Korean-American chef, restaurant owner and broadcaster. In 2021, Judy appeared on ITV’s Cooking With the Stars (2021) alongside music producer Naughty Boy.
Judy has worked in a number of prestigious restaurants and opened her own, including London hotspot ‘Seoul Bird’. She has also written a number of cookbooks and fronted the documentary Korean Food Made Simple (2014-2016), appeared on TV’s Iron Chef – becoming the first female to win in the UK and second worldwide – and was a judge on the Iron Chef America.
Contact Great British Speakers today to book Korean-American Restauranteur and Chef Judy Joo for your next event.
Judy Joo did not immediately enter the world of cookery, instead graduating with a degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and gained a job at Golden Sachs. But in 2003, she changed track and enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in New York, before moving to London in 2007 and working as a pastry chef under Gordon Ramsay.
She has worked at many restaurants including Restaurant Gordon Ramsey, Maze, Claridge’s, Pétrus, Boxwood Café, Playboy Club, The French Laundry and The Fat Duck, before opening her own Korean restaurant Jinjuu in 2014 in the heart of London, and then opened Seoul Bird in Westfield and Canary Wharf.
She soon became a popular face on the public cooking scene, launching her own shows Judy Joo’s Return to Korea and Korean Food Made Simple. She has also been a guest cook on shows across the US and UK including The Today Show (2013-), Kitchen Inferno (2014), Saturday Kitchen (2001-) and James Martin’s Saturday Morning (2017-).
She has brought her Korean recipes to the wider public by releasing popular and critically-acclaimed cookbooks including Korean Food Made Simple: Easy and Delicious Korean Recipes to Prepare at Home (2016) and Judy Joo’s Korean Soul Food: Authentic Dishes and Modern Twists (2019). She is regularly asked to write articles and provide recipes for online and print media including Forbes, Travel Guide, The Financial Times, OK! Magazine, National Geographic, SAVEURmagazine and The Guardian.
In 2002, Judy founded and managed ‘Harvest Time in Harlem’ the first inner-city ‘Slow Food In Schools’ programme which aimed to teach students about food, cooking and how to make better food choices.
Judy has worked in some of the most male-dominated industries including finance, banking and hospitality, but she has come out the other side incredibly successful. She attributes her success to her challenging her boundaries and welcoming the unease and nervousness that came with living outside her comfort zone.
Her fearlessness and impressive skillset are inspiring to all audiences, and she can be hired for intimate sessions or large corporate events for the food industry and wider afield.
