Meet Sophia Wang Choe | Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sophia Wang Choe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sophia, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think when you’re passionate about what you do, taking risks is something you’ll eventually come across. Passion driven so you follow your heart always thinking “I can do it”. The biggest risk I took was probably when I was 25/26 and opening two restaurants adjacent to each other sharing the same kitchen. I had to be everything from owner/manager/exec chef to the dishwasher/busboy when needed. After 2 of the hardest, most grueling and thrilling, years I eventually had to close down both places because I was surviving and not thriving. It was a heartbreaking decision and a huge risk, but one I’ll never forget or regret. I learned more in those two years than I did my whole 13-14yrs of cooking. I was fortunate enough to have a supportive father to invest in my dream at the time. He took that risk with me. Looking back there is definitely a few things I would’ve done definitely with alot more patience. Those lessons I will carry with me my whole life. I say if you’re able to, always take the risk. Success feels amazing but failure is apart of that process.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a new mom, I still have the urge to cook and plate dishes and needed a creative outlet. It started as a joke plating food for my baby and soon one thing lead to another and instagram babychefplates happened. Hubby told me to go for it, so I did haha. I would love for it to go viral and really take off. Become a real content creator or just open the door to other opportunities. Mixing 2 things I love, my baby and cooking! My cooking career really has been all over the place and feel so fortunate to experience so many different types of work. Working in hotel and restaurant kitchens, cooking for NBA players and actors, to working the corporate world. It definitely wasn’t easy, especially as an Asian female. People just didn’t expect it. Us females had to work harder than the boys just so we weren’t overlooked. You won’t survive the industry with thin skin. I’ve had plates and nasty words thrown at me. It’s all part of the job and at the end of the day, nothing personal. You learn to keep your head down and keep on trucking because it’s what you love to do.

Its the era of instagram/tiktok and a totally new venture for me. Its exciting and a territory I haven’t touched. Hopefully it does well!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oof I might have to skip this one. My baby is almost a year old so that’s a year of me pretty much staying home and totally behind on the new hip places to eat and drink lol

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family was always my biggest support. My mom and big brother always cheered me on and believed in me. My mom put me through culinary school straight out of high school and basically said go do what I think my calling is and she got me no matter what. And I still call my brother my rock, he’s always in my corner. As I got older and more serious, that’s when my father stepped in and mentored me. Without him I would of never been able to experience those couple years as a restaurant owner. He has a big role in the koreatown restaurant/business community and couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. Lastly, my wondeful supportive husband. I shifted from restaurant chef to corporate, to personal and private. Whatever direction I wanted to move in he told me to go for it and if something didn’t work out he always told me another bigger better opportunity would come. Never let myself get down.

Instagram: Babychefplates