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Working: How a Doctor Became a Chef (And Kept Being a Doctor)

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Society & Culture, Business

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host Karen Han talks to Yoon Sung, an urgent care doctor in Los Angeles who decided to pivot to the culinary arts…while continuing to be a physician. In the interview, Yoon talks about what his two jobs have in common, how he balances both careers, and how he fell into his latest gig as the pastry chef at Hanchic.  After the interview, Karen and co-host Isaac Butler discuss the role of “service” in creative work and the decision to do work that makes you happy.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Yoon talks about his early culinary experiments in Baltimore. He also shares some of his favorite foods to eat and cook.  Do you have a question about creative work? Call us and leave a message at (304) 933-9675 or email us at working@slate.com.   Podcast production by Cameron Drews.  If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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1:13.0

It was actually my boss who's an EMT doctor that sent me down one day and he was like, you know, you know, I think you would be a great physician, but have you ever thought about pursuing the culinary feel professionally?

1:35.0

He was like, I really want you to go home and ask yourself, like, what makes you happy, what drives you?

1:42.0

Welcome back to Working. I'm your host, Isaac Butler.

1:46.0

And I'm your other host, Karen Han.

1:48.0

Karen, how are things out there in lovely Los Angeles?

1:51.0

Good. I love winter or, like, I guess quote-unquote, winter in LA because it feels like fall on the east coast. Like mornings and evenings are really nice.

1:59.0

I still don't, like, love going out in the middle of the day, but that's because I'm, I'm, like, a little worm. I hate being in the sun.

2:05.0

Would you say they call you doctor worm?

2:08.0

I'm not a real doctor, but I am a real worm.

2:12.0

Amazing. And speaking of doctors, whose voice was that we heard? I'm the Segway King. Whose voice was that we heard at the top of the show?

2:20.0

That was Yoon Sung, who is currently the pastry chef for Han Shik, as well as a practicing physician.

2:26.0

Not to, you know, sound like a Gentah, but he's a doctor and a chef. That's wild. Can't wait to hear about that.

2:33.0

But in the meantime, gotta know, do our slate-plus members get a little something extra this week?

2:39.0

Oh, you know they do. So this week, the slate-plus extra bit is I talked to Yoon about his experience starting his culinary journey in Baltimore.

2:48.0

And how, like, what was available to him at that time, informed his path as a chef, and how he really became interested in this field, like, while starting out in medical school.

...

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