Aoi Hana (青い花), the Blue Flower in Hongdae

works

29/12/2025

kimhyuk

Aoi Hana (青い花), the Blue Flower in Hongdae
— by A.mont

手に職をつける
(Skill is strength.)

As we turned from Hongdae toward Hapjeong,
our steps were drawn to a place marked by a blue sign.

Aoi Hana
a restaurant and bakery café whose name means Blue Flower.

The carefully crafted interior and the presence
of the head chef, who is Japanese,
made it feel as though we had stepped into Japan itself.

There, we had the opportunity to hear the story of Aoi Hana.

What led you to choose the path of a chef?

For now, I’m still considering whether I will continue
my life in Korea or eventually return to Japan.

I once dreamed of becoming a journalist,
but rather than contributing to changing
the world directly through content, I found myself wanting
to communicate in a more indirect way
through human connection.

That desire led me to look for a different path,
one that allowed me to engage with people more closely.
One of those paths was choosing to approach
people as a chef, through food.

How has life in Korea been?

My life as a chef in Korea began after a recommendation
from a restaurant owner who was already running a business here.

There wasn’t a specific reason that brought me to Korea,
but now, about four years in, I feel that I’ve gradually
established my own rhythm of life.

Since this past spring, I’ve finally begun to
have a regular day off during the week.
Even so, when that day comes, I often find
myself wondering what to do with it.

My daily routine is quite simple home, restaurant, home, restaurant.
In the past, even on days off, I often found myself handling
administrative work related to running the restaurant.

These days, I sometimes meet up with friends.

I also have a cat I’ve been raising for three years now.

Since coming to Korea, that cat has become
the one companion I feel the closest to.

Living abroad can come with a lot of stress.
Do you have your own way of dealing with it?

When I was younger, before coming to Korea for work,
I once traveled through the country starting in Busan
and moving up through different regions all the way to Seoul.

From Incheon, I even took a boat to China.
I remember feeling a bit frightened at the time,
as I was the only foreigner surrounded
by middle-aged Chinese men.

Having spent long periods traveling across various countries,
I’ve grown accustomed to differences in culture
and the discomforts that sometimes come with them.

Because of that, I feel mentally trained enough to manage
the stress that comes with working in a foreign country.

Especially in the restaurant, where I oversee both the kitchen
and the floor, allowing stress to build up internally
can eventually affect the work itself. So I make
a conscious effort to let go of what can be ignored
and focus on keeping my mind steady.

In the end, I don’t really have a specific method for relieving stress.
If anything, the answer might be mind control
accepting the differences that inevitably come
with life abroad, and choosing to overlook
what doesn’t need to be held onto.

How would you describe your personal fashion style?

My clothing and hair styling are all either
purchasedin Japan or styled by a Japanese
hairstylist who runs a salon here in Korea.

Even though I’m living in Korea, I try not to dress
like Koreans just because I’m here — instead,
I focus on staying true to who I am.

Because of that, when I walk down the street,
it’s often clear at a glance that I’m Japanese.

Aoi Hana?

Aoi Hana is a traditional Japanese yōshoku restaurant.
Rather than adjusting recipes to suit the local palate,
we focus on preserving the original flavors as they are.

At the same time, we also create dishes that
exist only within Japanese Western-style cuisine.

For example, Dry Curry — often referred to
as “dry curry” — is a dish made by stir-frying
curry powder, meat, and vegetables, then mixing
in rice and frying it once more.

Based on Indian cuisine, it is a style of curry rice
that developed uniquely in Japan, characterized
by the direct use of curry powder.

What kind of person are you as a chef?

When someone is new to cooking,
or when a chef begins developing new dishes for Aoi Hana,
I make sure to explain every step carefully the first time.

After that, I encourage them to learn through
repetition by failing, reflecting, and gradually
understandingthe process on their own.

When I first started learning how to cook,
mistakes were met with harsh scolding.

But if we trained younger chefs that way today,
no one would last. That’s true in both Korea and Japan.

Mistakes are inevitable. What matters more
is whether someone can recognize what
went wrong and figure out how to improve.

Those are the people I choose to support and advise.

If there’s one unfortunate thing, it’s that people
who are already “good enough” from the beginning
often become comfortable too quickly and stop growing further.

What do you hope for in the future?

Traveling through different countries
when I was younger gave me the opportunity
to experience the diversity of each place.

It made me especially aware of cultures
that are slowly disappearing or being forgotten,
as well as the natural environment something
that feels ordinary around us now, yet is constantly changing.

Through cooking, I hope to share a sense of
awareness about what is precious and worth protecting.

Looking further ahead, while I am currently part
of a company, my second dream
is to one day open my own restaurant.

When that time comes, I would like to tend even
a small garden, growing vegetables myself a
nd using them directly in my cooking.

That, to me, is both a dream and a hope for the future.