30 October 2025
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At the edge of Dalmaji-gil in Busan, a panoramic ocean view unfolds beyond tall glass windows. Inside Palate, the gentle light reflected off the sea spills across each table, revealing the subtle shifts of the day. At this One-MICHELIN-Starred restaurant, guests not only see the city’s coastal landscape — they savor the passage of time itself. For Chef Kim Jae-hoon, this interplay between light and time embodies what he calls “the taste of the seasons.”
Though grounded in French culinary techniques, Kim’s dishes carry the air and temperament of Busan. From butter and ice cream perfumed with local kelp to seafood fresh from the Gijang coast, Kim’s cuisine captures a sense of place and seasonality. Each plate feels like a fleeting record of here and now — an expression of the port city’s changing rhythm.
For Kim, Busan is more than his hometown — it’s his open-air market, his landscape of inspiration. “I always end up discovering something unexpected — an ingredient that sparks new ideas.
“Because we’re surrounded by the sea, I can always find something special,” he adds. “At Gijang Port, you’ll see fresh seafood just brought in from the morning catch. Sometimes, I’ll meet grandmothers who’ve gathered wild greens from the mountains. Those encounters inspire me every day.”
Born of the sea, perfected by time
Busan is a city where the mountains, rivers, and sea converge — and its geography has shaped both its people and its cuisine. “When I think of Busan, I think of abundance,” says the chef. “There’s the sea, the mountains, and the rivers. You get special ingredients from where they meet, and that environment makes it possible to find ingredients of really good quality. I try to use as many of those as I can.”
At Palate, those ingredients take center stage. From kelp harvested in Gijang and Seosaeng to tomatoes from Daejeo and duck from Gimhae — every dish captures the flavors of Busan on that particular day.
“I put a lot of effort into never losing the sense of seasonality,” he says. “The aroma, the color, even the temperature of the dish — everything should capture that specific moment.”
This autumn, Kim presents his signature duck dish — a work of time and balance. He sources his duck from a farm in Gimhae, which is then brined in salt water, blanched briefly for sterilization, and then dry-aged for two to three weeks under carefully controlled temperature and humidity.
Once aged, the duck is slowly smoked over applewood to infuse a deep, mellow aroma. “I prefer applewood because of its faint sweetness and subtle fruit scent,” says Kim. “It gives a deeper, more elegant smoke.” Afterward, the duck is roasted for an extra layer of color, then finished over charcoal and in the pan for a crisp yet tender texture.
The dish is served with carrot purée made from Jeju’s Gujwa carrots — juiced, cooked down, and concentrated to draw out their natural sweetness and aroma. A gastrique sauce — caramel blended with vinegar and enriched with smoked duck bones and leg meat — ties the flavors together with a smoky acidity.
“In colder seasons, duck becomes softer, fattier and more flavorful,” he explains. “It’s not a flashy or complex dish — it’s all about the deep flavors born of aging and smoke.”
At Palate, flavors aren’t rushed. Each element — aging, smoking, resting — takes time, patience and intuition. Together, they create a dish that mirrors the slow transformation of the seasons themselves.
Where teamwork completes the plate
“I could never run Palate by myself,” says Kim — a sentiment the chef repeated several times throughout the interview. Every day, the team holds four full-staff meetings: in the morning, before lunch service, before dinner service and before going home.
“It’s helped us communicate better and start to really understand and respect one another,” he explains.
What’s particularly unique about Palate’s operation is its schedule. Unlike most restaurants, where kitchen staff start earlier and front-of-house staff finish later, both kitchen and service teams at Palate begin and end their day together. This policy was born from staff suggestions that Kim actively embraced.
During service hours, the atmosphere is sharp and intensely focused. Outside those hours, however, music fills the space, laughter returns and the rhythm of the day feels balanced and human. That rhythm, says Kim, is what shapes Palate’s teamwork.
“Before guests arrive, the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable,” he says. “After our meeting, once service begins, it switches instantly — calm turns to precision and focus. We joke and laugh off-service, but when service starts, we become razor-sharp.”
“I try to treat every day as a new beginning,” he continues. “With good teamwork, our goal is to deliver the best food and service to our guests, while creating a restaurant where both the team and each individual can grow.”
Shaped by nature and time, defined by craft
Kim says he came to cooking rather late in life. “At first, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “I just thought, maybe I should learn a skill.”
He majored in Chinese, but in his mid-20s began working at a restaurant — and was told that it was too late to change his career path. Still, he left for Australia, where he spent seven years studying culinary arts and training in professional kitchens. When he returned to Korea, he joined the Two-MICHELIN-Starred Zero Complex in Seoul as sous chef — an experience that eventually led him to open Palate.
“At first, I don’t think cooking really suited me,” he says with a laugh. “I was scolded a lot, and it was hard to adapt. But I think I kept going out of sheer determination. I didn’t want to quit, so I told myself to just keep trying — and that’s what brought me here.”
Just as the sea of Busan finds its rhythm in quiet persistence, and the Genesis G90 moves with composed elegance, Kim’s cuisine reflects a journey of sincerity revealed through restraint.
“When I first started cooking, I wanted to show off everything I knew — all my techniques, all at once,” he says. “But I realized it threw everything off balance. Over time, I’ve learned to hold back. Now I focus entirely on the ingredients and flavor — less on what’s visible, more on what’s refined.”
That “invisible craftsmanship,” as Kim calls it, mirrors the Genesis G90’s pursuit of balance, restraint and quiet sophistication. Focusing on the essence of what a sedan should be, the G90 refines its most advanced technologies into a design that feels both simple and sophisticated, heightening the emotional ease of every drive.
Every detail of the G90 reflects a seamless harmony of technology and elegance: From the Easy Close system that lets you shut the door with the simple press of a button on the door trim, to the Auto Flush door handles that stay seamlessly hidden while driving or parked, then elegantly emerge when the driver approaches with the smart key. It also features a Fingerprint Authentication System that allows the driver to select their profile, approve in-car payments via CarPay, start the engine, or deactivate valet mode — all with a single touch.
Genesis shares the same philosophy as Kim. The chef’s dishes reflect the unseen work behind them — the patience, time and dedication that turn craftsmanship into art. These innovations, moreover, translate into a more elevated and graceful lifestyle.
“For most chefs,” he says, “our work becomes our lifestyle. I think it’s a natural process — and I’m right in the middle of it.”
And as he says this, he slips into the car, to embark on yet another trip to the market. “Whenever I have time, even if I don’t need to buy anything, I go. You never know what ingredients you might find — the ones you didn’t even expect.”
“Palate,” he adds, “means the ability to discern and appreciate good flavor. I hope this restaurant becomes one that truly understands taste — the kind of place people think of when they think of Busan.”
