Hand Taste: Cook Like A Korean Grandmother
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In Korean cooking, sohn-mat, or “hand taste,” describes the instinctive understanding of ingredients and seasoning that develops through years of experience. For chef Esther Choi, that knowledge began with her grandmother, who made kimchi by rubbing chile paste into cabbage with her hands, mixed dumpling fillings by feel, and rarely relied on written recipes.
In Hand Taste, Choi, the chef behind Mokbar and Ms. Yoo in New York draws on those early lessons to introduce 100 recipes that combine traditional Korean home cooking with the Korean American dishes she has developed throughout her career.
The recipes range from familiar staples such as japchae, kalbi jjim, and assorted jeon, or savory pancakes, to Korean fried chicken wings, shrimp and bacon mandu, and kimchi mac and beef. Choi gives particular attention to foundational techniques, including making kimchi, seasoning vegetables, and building flavor with the fermented pastes and condiments essential to Korean cooking. Her approach accommodates both everyday meals and more elaborate dishes, with an emphasis on understanding how ingredients behave and not just following measurements without question.
Throughout the book, Choi returns to the influence of her grandmother and mother, whose cooking adapted Korean traditions to the ingredients available to their family in America. She encourages readers to taste as they cook, adjust seasoning, and develop confidence through repetition, using her recipes as a foundation rather than a rigid set of instructions.
Family history and practical introduction to Korean cooking allows Hand Taste to be a book which offers a way to understand the knowledge passed between generations in the kitchen, and how that knowledge continues to evolve.
Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.
Published on October 27, 2026
