On the surface Eddie Kim and Jae Cho share little more than the same nationality – Korean. The first is a poet, raised in Seattle, striving to craft the perfect kimchi on a small batch scale in Glasgow; the second an entrepreneur who has made his fortune in London since arriving as a student – with a mini-empire that now includes nail salons as well as Tiktok sensation corn dogs.
These are chicken sausages deep-fried in a cornmeal batter. Manchester got the taste for them after the arrival of Jae’s Bunsik brand two years ago. That viral success prompted Jae to open the UK’s largest Korean barbecue restaurant less than 100 metres away across Piccadilly Gardens, which is where I meet him on its launch day. The original Bullgogi is in Notting Hill; Mark II occupies the former M&S site on the corner of Mosley Street.
What strikes me immediately as Jae and I chat in a window booth, the trams rattling past outside, is the boyish 47-year-old’s smile, a mirror image of Eddie’s a week before in an artisan coffee shop in Glasgow’s upwardly mobile Southside. We had first rendezvoused outside his Gomo Kimchi shop/cafe, which he has just quit for a purpose-built facility to service delis, restaurants and Asian supermarkets around the city. A weekly production of 30-40kg is hardly big league, but a step-up from his debut efforts in a tiny flat kitchen during the lockdown.
“Do you know what Gomo means, Jae?” I ask. “Father’s sister – his paternal aunt,.” replies the man who knows cool branding is important. When creating Bullgogi back in 2019, he inserted an extra letter L into Bulgogi, the classic marinated, grilled beef dish, emphasising the Bull as a symbol of strength and vitality alongside Gogi, the Korean word for meat.
Eddie’s Aunt, I mean to tell him, had her own vitality, competing as a speed skater for South Korea in the 1964 and 1968 Winter Olympics. But it was for her prowess as an epic creator of kimchi that Eddie sought his Gomo out as he launched the fledgling business that would keep him afloat in his new city.
I hope such a story might persuade Jae to road-test Eddie’s current batches to showcase at Bullgogi. Its fermented cabbage sides are as excellent as the meats I and opposite foodie Davie have just grilled at table but pale beside the Gomo jar I brought back from Scotland.
The power of Gomo in the Korean Diaspora
“It took persistence to get to this level for Eddie. In his own words: “When my 큰고모 (eldest paternal aunt) emigrated from Seoul to St Louis, Missouri her mother sent her with kimchi sauce/starter and a handful of uncertainty. In a strange country, and at the time unable to even get the right ingredients but desperate for a taste of home, she prepared the wrong kind of cabbage in a bleached out bathtub and used the starter from her mother to make kimchi in a cleaned out garbage bin, buried in the backyard. And it was delicious. Her family, her siblings (my father included), wept at the strange familiarity.
“Most of us don’t know what it’s like to miss home in that way. But most of us understand the power food has to bring people together, to keep us grounded and filled with warmth from the inside out… Kimchi is not only that food for my family, it’s the foundation of virtually every meal we ever cook at home. Doesn’t matter if we’re having roast turkey or prime rib or seared tofu, you’ll always find a dish of kimchi included amongst the spread.
“As the years have passed, with the elder members of our family ageing, it occurred to us that we were in danger of losing the flavours, the kimchi, we grew up eating (albeit a far cry from the garbage bin kimchi my Gomo first made stateside). The thought made me sad and despondent, like a slow fading away of self. I decided I needed to learn to make Gomo’s kimchi, even if it would never taste exactly the same way she makes it —which she still does in her mid-70s, I might add.”
As we walk the sandstone streets of downtown Govanhill a memory of his aunt’s skating days puts into perspective how far we have come to today’s global Corn Dog, K-Pop and Korean cool. “When my aunt went to the Olympics she had only ever skated on the rough, thick ice of ponds. When she encountered the slick competition rinks she recalled ‘I was slipping all over the place at the start.”
Eddie masters the sacred art of kimchi
Her nephew was hardly on solid ground when it came to following in the family’s fermenting tradition. So that’s why when he moved to Glasgow in 2020 he pestered his Gomo from afar to teach him. “The tricky thing about kimchi is that it can be difficult to know exactly how it’s going to turn out. It takes time and experience to learn what kimchi tastes like at different stages – something I hadn’t fully appreciated and probably the reason my aunt was so resistant to teaching me in the first place.”
His beautifully branded jars reflect his artistic side (he studied for a poetry masters in Seattle); their presence on shelves across the Southside and beyond, his collaboration with other small producers, are testimony to his sense of shared community. Check out Glasgow’s Taste The Place initiative, which Eddie has been part of.
Jae Cho’s journey from Japanese to Bullgogi
This may seem a world away from the sleek 165-cover Bullgogi restaurant that has landed in the heart of Manchester. But a Korean creative playfulness is at work here, too. Grilling your own meats at table is fun… and negotiating each booth’s digitally interactive menu via mounted tablets. No corn dogs, mind. That’s for the Bunsik demographic.
I asked Jae why the launch restaurant of what was to become his Maguro Group was Japanese. “Well, one of my grandparents was Japanese and I love the food.” 18 years on Maguro Sushi in Maida Vale is still going strong, though one early devotee isn’t seen these days. “Paul McCartney, who lived in St John’s Wood, was a regular and, as a vegan, always ordered the avocado maki and a salad.”
At the original London Bullgogi Spurs football legend Son Heung Min often popped in to support his native cuisine and heightened its profile. Jae smiles that smile again: “Is it too much to ask Manchester United to sign a Korean star? They’ve not had one in the squad since Park Ji-sung in the Noughties.”
I said I’d mention it to Ruben Amorim if he’s still in a job. Though I wouldn’t put it past Jae to wield his own influence! After all, this was once the teenager who didn’t follow the usual Korean immigration pattern – to the States – because he wanted to study the best English … here. I hope he will also pursue the signing of Gomo Kimchi!
What should you go for at the Manchester Bullgogi beyond the grill?
My favourite dish from our launch lunch was the Korean Beef Tartare Kimbap – seaweed rice rolls topped with the spicy, sesame-rich raw beef (with an honourable mention for the king prawns). Regrets? Not ordering enough of the greens, spring onions and pickles to round out the whole experience. You don’t have to go grilled meats.
We’ll definitely return in November for when the full Hansang Set Lunch is on the menu. Inspired by sang (a traditional Korean low dining table), it presents a complete meal on a single tray with a main dish such as Bibimbap, Kimchi Jjigae or Spicy Pork, served alongside a selection of sides. Guests can choose from 10 main options. Other pleasing options include:
Korean Pancakes – Small plates such as Prawn Pancake and Cheese Potato Pancake, designed for sharing.
Signature Noodles – Highlights include Gim Guksu, buckwheat noodles with seaweed and perilla oil, and Kal Bibim Myun, wide wheat noodles in a spicy sauce with tender squid and perilla seed powder.
And to drink?
Well, getting into the Korean swing, Davie and I ordered the components of a Somaek, a popular beer cocktail made by mixing Soju and beer. Alas, we chickened out and each downed a bottle of our Cass cold brewed lager and shared sips of a Soju called Jinro Chamisul, a “quadruple-filtered spirit with bamboo charcoal and blended with Finnish fructose for a mellow (for that read bland) finish.”
• The best beginner’s guide to cooking Korean cuisine remains Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke and Regina Pro (Orion, £25). Seek out also, from the US, Korean BBQ by Bill Kim (no relation) and Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking by Mingoo Kang.
Bullgogi, 6A Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, M1 4AH. Until October 31 there is 30 per cent off the BBQ menu.