Becoming a mother has changed the way Esther Choi views food, she told Fox News Digital earlier this month as she opened a new restaurant in Las Vegas.
Choi, a chef and TV star, was celebrating the opening of his new restaurant Mokbar at Caesars Palace.
“Becoming a mother to a 1-year-old has changed my entire perspective on food,” Choi told FOX News Digital. (See the video at the top of this article.)
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“I usually like to cook for people, but cooking for a baby? It's next level,” she said. “It's a lot of fun.”
Choi, 38, announced on Instagram that she gave birth to a son, Leonardo, on February 22nd.
Chef Esther Choi told Fox News Digital that becoming a mother has “changed my entire perspective on food.” Her son is now 1 year old. (Fox News Digital)
Perhaps unsurprisingly given his mother's culinary expertise, little Leonardo is exposed to a variety of foods from an early age.
“I feed him everything,” Choi said, adding, “I hope his palate is really nice and expansive.”
“I'm that type of chef, too,” she said, noting that she cooks with an “open mind.”
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“I love different types of food, so cooking for my kids is one of the greatest joys in life, and I've always done it,” she said.
As a chef, Choi said, “I love cooking for people, and my children are no exception.”
“It's my heart as a chef to want to cook for people.”
Chef Esther Choi recently opened a Mokvah location at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. (Caesars Entertainment)
Long before she became a mother, Choi has always been influenced by her family. She told FOX News Digital that her grandmother is her “biggest inspiration,” not just as a cook, but as a human being.
“She was one of the people who had a really special influence on my life,” Choi said. “She raised me to love people, and for her, how to show that love was through food. And I learned that from her.”
Choi said her grandmother cooked everything with love. Choi believes that this is the secret behind why her grandmother's cooking was so delicious.
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“That's what I always keep in mind. That's my motto as a chef,” she said. “Cook with your heart, cook with love, and think about the people who cook.”
Mokbar's newest Las Vegas location is Choi's fifth restaurant and the first outside of the New York area.
“Cook with your heart, cook with love, and think about the people who cook.”
Choi's other restaurants include a Mokbar location and a gastropub on New York's Lower East Side called Ms. You, named after her grandmother.
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Mokbal's menu is “a twist on modern Korean cuisine” and features “very authentic Korean flavors served in a modern way,” she told Fox News Digital. Ta.
Kimchi, Choi's favorite food, is used in many of the products.
Mokbal's menu is “a twist on modern Korean cuisine,” Choi told Fox News Digital. There are also many products featuring her favorite food, kimchi (pictured above). (Caesars Entertainment)
“I make about five types.” [of kimchi] “Kimchi is kind of central to Korean culture, so that's really special to me,” she said.
Like her other restaurants, Mokbar's menu includes items inspired directly by Choi's grandmother's recipes or her cooking.
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“Mandu, Korean dumplings, is my grandmother's recipe. Just like kimchi and Korean barbecue,” she told FOX News Digital.
“Many of the flavors here are my grandmother’s recipes. [they are] The flavors I grew up with. ”
