Visionaries
Visionaries
Woongchul Park
Chef Founders-K-studio
London, England
At Sollip, the Michelin-starred restaurant he created with his wife and co-founder Bomee Ki, Woongchul Park brings together the different worlds that shaped his life. French and European technique, British ingredients and Korean flavour meet within a restaurant built around a simpler belief: that hospitality is one of the most direct ways people can share happiness, emotion and care.
The Story of Woongchul Park
At Sollip, the Michelin-starred restaurant he created with his wife and co-founder Bomee Ki, Woongchul Park brings together the different worlds that shaped his life. French and European technique, British ingredients and Korean flavour meet within a restaurant built around a simpler belief: that hospitality is one of the most direct ways people can share happiness, emotion and care.
ORIGIN
Woongchul grew up in a Korean city around 45 minutes from Seoul. At eleven or twelve a newly opened bread shop first made him imagine becoming a chef. At home, his mother prepared three proper meals a day and always searched for the best ingredients she knew how to find for her family.
FORMER LIFE
His professional foundation came through French and European cooking, while London became the city where he and Bomee created their shared life. Rather than choose between those worlds, he developed a cuisine shaped by European technique, British produce and Korean flavours from Korea.
THE TURNING POINT
Sollip was due to open in February 2020, one week before lockdown. After months of work and almost no sleep, its future disappeared overnight. Woongchul and Bomee protected their young family, accepted the support available and held the restaurant together until it could finally begin.
OBSESSION
Hospitality as a human relationship. Woongchul believes the first purpose of a restaurant is not perfection or performance, but happiness created through good food, thoughtful service and good people. For him, cooking is one of the most direct ways that human beings can share love too.
The detail
White tones. Korean ceramics. Minimalism. Restraint. Woongchul and Bomee wanted the room to feel quiet instead of empty, leaving space for the food, the service and the voices of their guests. The interior does not compete for attention. Human presence is what fully completes the room.
WHAT HE PRESERVED
The Korean idea of jeong: affection and human connection built over time. Woongchul sees a Korean table as a place where happiness, sadness and every emotion between them can be shared through food. Sollip carries that invisible spirit forward rather than recreating tradition directly.
“For me, the beauty of Korean cuisine is jeong. It reflects the full spectrum of human emotion, because we share our happiness and sadness together around the table through food.”
Woongchul believes that what matters most in Korean food cannot always be seen in an ingredient or technique. It exists in the relationships built around the table. A meal creates somewhere for family, friends and colleagues to share happiness, sadness and everything between them. That human connection, rather than spice, fermentation or presentation alone, is what he most wants Sollip to carry forward.
The Story of SOLLIP
Sollip began as the shared creation of Woongchul Park and Bomee Ki, then survived lockdown to become a deeply personal expression of Korean hospitality in London.
Woongchul and Bomee returned to London because it held the memories of their early careers and shared life. They named the restaurant Sollip, a Korean word for pine needle, recalling an ingredient once reserved for dishes prepared with special care and for honoured guests. The name became their promise of hospitality.
Sollip was meant to open in February 2020, one week before lockdown. With two young children and no guaranteed future, they held the restaurant together until it could begin. When Michelin later awarded its star and told them, “London is yours,” Woongchul knew it was a sentence they would remember forever as a family.
At Sollip, Korean memory is not preserved by repeating the past. It is carried forward through flavour, restraint and the human warmth of sharing a table.
For Woongchul Park, the deepest quality of Korean cuisine is not found in one ingredient, technique or recognisable dish. It is found in jeong: the affection, trust and emotional connection that develop when people repeatedly gather around the same table. At Sollip, that idea is expressed through European technique, British seasonal produce and flavours drawn from Korea, but the intention remains deeply personal. The restrained dining room, the measured service and the clarity of each course are designed to leave space for human connection. Woongchul and Bomee did not want to reproduce tradition literally or create a restaurant defined only by nationality. They wanted to carry the emotional generosity of Korean hospitality into the life they had built together in London, creating a place where precision and warmth could exist in equal measure.
