“Joo had been working at a Michelin star restaurant for the past 17 years. After 7 years of maintaining the Michelin star as Head Chef at Galvin at Windows at the London Hilton Park Lane, Joo wanted to move to comfortable casual dining, with his Korean heritage roots.”
That’s the opening of the ‘about’ section on Cálong’s website, and that’s chef Joo Won it’s talking about. And frankly, that alone ought to be enough to convince you that it’s worth checking out when it opens this winter. But if you still need some more? No problem.
After years of learning French fine dining techniques and refining his palate, Joo Won went back to Korea, and here he saw his homeland’s cuisine with new eyes. He thus decided to open his own pop up (called Cálong) which served French & European cooking with Korean flavours to a pretty rapturous reception.
So what can we expect? Well, the forthcoming menu promises things like his signature kimchi risotto, some beef shoulder bulgogi vermicelli japchae, and a 70% chocolate cremeux with yuzu compote, hoji tea & toasted grain cream. And the building they’re moving into is a rather nice-looking brick-walled spot on Stoke Newington Church Street, which is basically a small neighbourhood unto itself.
And lastly, according to that ‘about’ page, the word cálong (which is pronounced Kkal-long), basically means a South Korean hipster from the city of Busan.
So make sure you get to this place before it’s cool.
NOTE: Cálong is set to open in either late 2024 or early 2025. You can find out more at the Cálong website.
Cálong | 35 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0NX
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