Chef Ki Kim. Credit: Restaurant Ki

Ki Kim Was Telling the Wrong Story

10 Minute read

09 Jul 2026

Allie Lebos

Journalist

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Long before Restaurant Ki earned a MICHELIN star, its chef was searching for something harder to find: a story that felt like his own.

Closing a successful restaurant is not supposed to feel like the right decision.

But by the time Ki Kim shut the doors on Kinn in 2023, he knew he couldn't keep going. The Koreatown tasting-menu restaurant had earned praise for its approachable fine dining and developed a loyal following, yet something felt off. "When I was creating the menu, I didn't think I loved it, yet I still chose to serve it," he says. For a chef who had spent years chasing excellence in some of the world's most celebrated kitchens, it was a difficult realization to ignore.

The lesson had been years in the making. Long before Restaurant Ki earned a MICHELIN star and Kim was named the recipient of the MICHELIN Guide California Young Chef Award, he was a journalism major at the University of Colorado Denver. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim moved to the United States with his family in 2008. After taking his first college exam, he realized journalism wasn't for him, dropped out, and took a restaurant job to earn extra money. "I ended up falling in love with cooking," he says. "Eventually, I started working at Matsuhisa in Aspen, which opened up a lot of doors for me."

Kim's ambition quickly grew beyond Colorado. After completing an internship at Benu in San Francisco, he spent time cooking in Japan and Hong Kong before eventually landing in New York City, where he worked at acclaimed restaurants including Jungsik, Atomix, and Blanca. Along the way, he became fascinated by Japanese cuisine and dreamed of becoming a sushi master. For a time, he believed that reaching the pinnacle of sushi was the ultimate goal. But while working alongside Japanese chefs in Japan, Kim began to question whether he was pursuing his own vision or someone else's. "While watching Japanese chefs cook Japanese food, I felt that they were telling their own stories through their cuisine," he says. "Standing beside them, I realized that I was trying to tell someone else's story."

The question lingered: If Japanese food wasn't his story to tell, what was?

"The answer I arrived at was Korean food. For me, Korean cuisine became the language through which I could finally speak honestly about who I am."

In late 2021, Kim opened Kinn in Los Angeles' Koreatown. The contemporary tasting-menu restaurant earned praise for its approachable take on fine dining and quickly developed a devoted following. On paper, it looked like the culmination of everything he had worked toward. In reality, Kim was still wrestling with the same questions that had followed him home from Japan.

"I didn't feel true to myself," Kim says.

Starting Over

While disagreements with partners and operational challenges played a role in Kinn's closure, Kim says the decision was ultimately more personal. From that point forward, he made himself a promise: he would never serve something he didn't truly believe in.

The months that followed were difficult.

"I'm not going to lie, I was really depressed," Kim says. "While trying to cheer myself up I thought, 'Hey, at least I have time. I should go eat at places I've never been to because I was always at the restaurant.'"

One of those meals would end up changing the course of his career. While dining at Kaneyoshi in Downtown Los Angeles, Kim struck up a conversation with chef Yoshiyuki Inoue, known to many as Yoshi-san. The discussion eventually turned to a recently renovated basement space next door.

"Yoshi-san was saying that they were looking to open up a new concept, but that they didn't have a chef," Kim recalls. "I didn't think anything of it. I was just kind of enjoying the food and minding my own business, but then he looked at me and asked, 'Wait, what are you doing? Why can't you come here?'"

Kim assumed Inoue was joking. The next day, however, the chef reached out to make it clear he was serious. Before long, Restaurant Ki was in the works.

Restaurant Ki opened in January 2025 in a discreet 10-seat space tucked beneath Little Tokyo. Six months later, it earned a MICHELIN star, and Kim was named the recipient of the MICHELIN Guide California Young Chef Award.

Yet for Kim, the restaurant's success is less meaningful than what it represents. Restaurant Ki is the first time he has felt fully aligned with the food he serves, a menu shaped by Korean flavors, global influences, and a philosophy that places personal conviction above trend or expectation.

The experience reinforced a lesson Kim first learned as a teenager in Seoul.

During a difficult period in his life, his uncle took him out for dak-galbi, a meal someone had once shared with him when he was struggling. At the time, Kim didn't think much of it. But he remembers the feeling.

"We were having a serious conversation, so I didn't show much reaction, but inside I remember thinking, 'Could anything ever taste better than this?'" he says. "It was the first time food made me feel that way."

Today, Kim sees cooking through a similar lens. While Restaurant Ki has earned accolades and become one of Los Angeles' most sought-after reservations, he remains focused on something less tangible than awards or recognition.

"Ultimately, I want to help make the world a better place through food," he says. "More specifically, I'm interested in creating projects that support both the mental and physical health of people living in the modern world."

For years, Kim searched for his story. Today, he's finally telling it.

The Chef

Chef Ki Kim is the chef-owner of Restaurant Ki in Los Angeles, where his Korean-inspired tasting menu earned a MICHELIN star and the 2025 California Young Chef Award.

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