By Jenny Yeona Choi, Los Osos High School, Grade 11
May 23, 2011
America’s Next Great Restaurant (ANGR) is a NBC reality television show that allows contestants to pitch their own restaurant idea and the winner is given the opportunity to open restaurants in Los Angeles, New York, and Minneapolis. Stephenie Park, a 28-year-old attorney, was a Korean-American contestant on America’s Next Great Restaurant.
In an interview with J Student Reporters, Park stated, “I love the creative and nurturing aspects of cooking, but I also like the feeling I get, specifically when working at young companies, that the things I’m doing each day contribute to the health and success of the enterprise.”
Shocked at the portion sizes and lack of variety, Park believed that there had to be a balance between nutrition and light menus, which helped her to come up with the idea of “Compleat.” It was centered on the notion of portion control, while incorporating all the pieces of a full meal: an entrée, a side, and dessert. As the show progressed, Bobby Flay, an acclaimed chef and one of the judges of ANGR, pushed her to take upon a Mediterranean-stylistic menu — later known as “Harvest Sol.” Park was eliminated in Episode 8, when she was one of the top four contestants.
One might wonder, ‘how does Park go from being an attorney and graduating from Harvard to culinary?’ As Park stated, “I never intended on becoming an attorney.” While she was serving in the Peace Corps in Benin, she decided to take the LSAT and apply to law schools.
“I hadn’t expected to get in anywhere, so when the acceptances started coming, I was probably more horrified than happy. By the time I graduated, I had so much debt that the best hope I had of paying my loans off quickly was to become a Biglaw attorney,” she said, in response to her decision.
Park had faced struggles with tradition and culture throughout her life. When asked about her difficulties, Park responded, “I experienced the typical struggle of tradition vs. assimilation and there was the implicit pressure created by having watched my parents pull themselves up in the world so that I could succeed. As I got older, though, it seemed that the farther I strayed from the accepted path, the prouder they were of me.”
After ANGR, Park set out on a venture — a venture of pursuing her dreams. She has spent a month and half as a stagiaire at Province restaurant. Also, in order to learn Spanish, she traveled to Panama and Honduras, and she sang two concerts with NYC chorus Essential Voices USA.
Park said, “Right now, I’m taking time to write music, finish my novel, and solidify my business plan.”
Ever since her appearance on the show, Park has “received a number of messages from Asian-Americans.” “[Many]… are inspired by seeing someone wander so far from the fold and it strengthens my resolve to live my life as I see fit, not according to an outsider’s narrow definition of success,” she said.
When asked if she had any advices for students, Park replied, “It’s okay to not know what you want to do. When I was younger, I thought that one day I would just know what I was supposed to be, and it wasn’t until I was in my early twenties and started asking my older friends and relatives how they ended up in their jobs that I realized that most adults in their forties and fifties still have no idea what they want to do or they know and they’re not doing it. Also, everyone needs something they love in life, whether it is family, friends, a job or a hobby. If the thing you love in life is not your job, make sure you have time for other things.”
