Hu Deokjuk, Who Has Wielded a Chinese Cleaver for 58 Years, Has No Recipes in His First Book [Kim Heeyoon’s Chaekseop]

First to introduce Buddha Jumps Over the Wall to Korea and the first former chef to become a Hotel Shilla executive… The “art of working” behind a glittering career
“Responsibility for employees, accountability for leaders”… The “basics,”

A chef who has wielded a Chinese cleaver for 58 years has published his first book. But there are no recipes. The book has little to say about how he first introduced Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a premium Cantonese health tonic, to Korea, or the cooking techniques that helped bring a hotel Chinese restaurant to the top. Instead, it offers lines like this: What employees need is a sense of responsibility, and the leader—in this case, Hu Deokjuk himself—takes ultimate responsibility. After a long career in the kitchen, Chef Hu Deokjuk, 77, ultimately wanted to talk about not food, but how to approach work.

Chef Hu Deokjuk, a master of Chinese cuisine who published the essay “On the Basics,” introduces the book at a press conference at the Franciscan Center in Jung District, Seoul, on the 29th. Yonhap News.

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When we met him on October 29 at the Franciscan Center in Jung District, Seoul, Chef Hu explained that he had published his first essay, “On the Basics,” because he “wanted to include only experiences and stories from nearly 60 years of work.” When asked about Michelin stars, he talked about his regular customers; when the conversation turned to his television appearances, he returned to the kitchen. He also said, “It’s basic for a cook to stay in the kitchen.” Coming from a master chef, “the basics” sound almost too ordinary.

It took 58 years to say something so ordinary.

Hu Deokjuk’s career overlaps in large part with the history of Chinese cuisine at Korean hotels. Having lost his parents at a young age, he joined the kitchen of the UN Center Hotel in 1968. After working at Bando Hotel, he learned Cantonese cuisine in Japan, and in 1977 became a founding member of Palsun, the Chinese restaurant at The Shilla Seoul. He introduced Buddha Jumps Over the Wall to Korea for the first time in 1987, and in 1994 became the first chef to serve as an executive at The Shilla. Even after spending 42 years at The Shilla, he did not retire. He still works in the kitchen at Hobin, the Chinese restaurant at Ambassador Seoul Pullman.

What is particularly interesting is “Hu Deokjuk the executive.” He recalls that simply being skilled with a knife and wok was not enough to let him keep cooking the dishes he wanted to make. As he became head chef and took charge of the organization, he had to learn the language of management in addition to the language of the kitchen. He had to communicate with other departments and accept that the organization needed to deliver results if it was to keep producing good food. The fundamentals of being a chef had expanded beyond taste to encompass people and organizations.

A scene from Netflix’s variety show “Culinary Class Wars 2.” During a team challenge, rather than leaning on his experience and authority, he shared responsibilities with his junior colleagues and quietly pitched in. After the show aired, his approach sparked buzz as “Deokjukjeok sago.” Netflix

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That is why the four things highlighted in “On the Basics” have little to do with cooking techniques: perseverance, direction, curiosity, and people. The message is to persevere, but not without direction; to stay curious even as things become familiar; and to recognize that, in the end, nothing can be done alone. “Speed improves efficiency, but it cannot replace the basics,” he says. His words convey not resignation after a long career in the kitchen, but a wariness born of experience. Some skills can be learned quickly, but no one becomes a chef overnight.

The so-called “Deokjukjeok sago” that the public discovered through this year’s “Culinary Class Wars 2” is not a persona he has newly adopted. People were surprised to see a master with more than half a century of experience take a step back and willingly help junior colleagues, but to Hu Deokjuk, it was simply the long-standing order of the kitchen. In his book, he writes that if you rush ahead alone, it may be “that person’s cooking,” but it can never be “our cooking.”

Kindness alone does not tell the whole story. Hu Deokjuk says that if the results are poor, the work cannot continue. That is why he does not shy away from giving junior colleagues the frank advice they need to hear. But the line of responsibility is clear. Staff members must feel responsible for their own work, he says, but “I, as the leader, take responsibility.” In today’s terms, this is less about soft leadership than the ethics of a traditional master.

His attitude toward change is also reflected here. Even past 70, the man who went to Japan in the 1970s to learn new approaches to Chinese cuisine remains curious about unfamiliar worlds. “You have to try things that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable if you want to keep pace with your juniors,” he writes. Sticking to the basics does not mean clinging to old ways. Rather, you need a firm center to judge what to change and what to preserve.

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As the book nears its end, the word “people” appears more often than “cooking.” He explains that a head chef in Chinese cuisine is called a “shifu” (master) because the shifu shows not only how to cook, but also how to approach food and live as a chef. His second dream now is for his skills and spirit to live on through his junior colleagues.

It is no surprise, then, that his first book contains no recipes. The “basics” Hu Deokjuk learned over 58 years are not confined to the plate. A meal is eaten by a guest and then disappears. What he ultimately wants to leave behind is something that lives on in people.

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On the Basics | Munhakdongne | Hu Deokjuk | 296 pages

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