From KCRW, I'm Evan Kliman and you're listening to good food. It may not feel like autumn with this latest heat wave, but it is.

And this weekend, many Koreans will celebrate the Harvest Festival Chusak, which runs from

September night through the 12th this year.

In South Korea, many people return to their ancestral homes to spend the three-day holiday with their families.

Jeeh Kim owns the popular restaurant, Miss Kim, in Ann Arbor.

There she serves Korean food modified a bit with Midwestern ingredients.

Named one of food and wine's best new chefs in 2021,

she's here to talk about how she puts a Michigan spin on the Korean holiday of Chousak.

Hi, Geeh.

Hi, I'm excited to be here.

Well, I'm so glad you're here with us.

You grew up in Seoul, South Korea until you were 13, then your family moved to New Jersey. That must have been quite the culture shock. What do you remember about that time? Oh, you know, you're absolutely right it was a bit of a culture shock but not so much

because of the language or the cultural differences it's more that we went from extended family in Korea with

aunties and uncle and cousins to nuclear family where everybody was busy and

working, so it was a very lonely existence.

So food must have been even more important than usual.

Yes, my mother, you know, she's the best cook in the family and even though she was working

seven days a week oftentimes over 12 hours a day, one thing that she insisted on was to make the food homemade.

So she would make homemade kimchi of different kinds and make sure there is a pot of

soup or stew on the stove for us and I didn't know back then, but now I know how much work and effort that took for her to provide some sort of a continuity for us, me and my brother.

And also was it really important for her that you maintain holidays like Chusak?

That was celebrated in more modified way.

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