When Bill Jeong is in the kitchen, he treats it like he’s stepping on stage.
“Fine dining is, in a sense, a lot of legwork. You have to get your mise en place ready, make sure everything is in place. Then, when the curtain opens, it’s showtime,” explained Jeong, the chef/owner of Paju.
It is an apt metaphor. Although Jeong is an accomplished cook, his background is in performing arts.
“I came to America (from South Korea) when I was 14, and I didn’t speak the language very well,” Jeong said. So I started playing an instrument and from there I went to the University of Washington. Classical guitar was my major.”
A trained musician, Jeong admits he didn’t expect to pursue a career in food. That all changed when he got a job at Saison, a restaurant with two Michelin stars in San Francisco.
“Saison changed the way I approach food and restaurants as a whole. It was like, ‘Oh, I can actually make a career out of this,’ and here I am,” Jeong explained.
Jeong’s experience at Saison led to visits to fine dining restaurants on both coasts. He then returned home to Seattle and in 2019 opened Paju. The restaurant is named after the city in South Korea where Jeong was born and raised.
“Paju is a place where a lot of progressive Korean food is happening,” Jeong said.
Acclaimed since it first opened, Paju has now evolved, moving from its original 1,000 square foot location in lower Queen Anne to a stunning space, more than twice the size, in South Lake Union.
“We were able to include a full-sized bar. Now we have a real dry acreage in the house where we can cure, dry our own meats. Then we just have the hearth where we can actually cook and smoke things properly . It was the right call at that moment,” Jeong explained of the decision to switch locations.
The hearth allowed Jeong and his team to add new menu items, like a 13-ounce dry-aged ribeye served with seasonal banchan. But the restaurant’s ethos has been consistent from the start.
“If you look at our menu, there are menu items that you would see in Korea. But we take these ingredients and instead of cooking it in a traditional Korean method, we bring in French cooking methods or another method from Latin. America, things I’ve learned over decades of cooking,” Jeong explained.
“The number one dish we recommend is probably the yellowtail. Another dish is our signature fried squid ink rice.”
Made with rice cooked with squid ink, to create an almost black color and add umami, the fried rice is studded with bacon and kimchi and topped with roasted seaweed, house ‘bacon salt’ and a smoked quail egg. It’s a holdover from Paju’s early days and a dish you’re likely to find on pretty much every table during a busy service.
“It’s one of those dishes that we tried to take off our menu and we got so much backlash that I said, ‘You know what, just bring it back.’ Ever since then, there’s been nothing mess with it,” Jeong said with a laugh.
These are flavors that come together to create perfect harmony. And like music, eating at Paju is an experience at its best when shared.
“The main reason for Paju is that our guests come in with their friends and family, enjoy their time here, eat delicious food and then just leave happy.”
Learn more about Paju here!