Steve’s very first memory was when he was 3-years old holding hands with his grandmother walking through a farmer’s market in Korea. Aside from being with his grandmother, the sights, smells, and sounds of the market are what he remembers the most from his early childhood. Watching a chicken being roasted over an open flame served with lightly pickled, salty sweet, white daikon radish cubes…those memories are what drives his passion today for always seeking the best of what the world offers when it comes to food.

Fast forward to today, Steve hosted an outdoor Korean feast at the request of a local (Richmond) magazine food editor and good friend, Brandon Fox. After the evening and seven-course meal was featured in the magazine, many of his friends made comments about not being invited and asked about the hot sauce that showed up in the pages. On a dare, Steve reached out to an old colleague, Tim Ashman who owned a food manufacturing company about co-packing a Korean hot sauce. A month later the first bottles of KIMKIM sauce came off the production line in Virginia Beach. A month after that Steve was on stage with Jose Andres at the International Fancy Food Show in Washington D.C. to receive the gold SOFI trophy for most outstanding product at the show.

And the journey continues…….