Credit: Craig LaCourt
SOHUI KIM
Chef & Partner
Sohui was born in Seoul, Korea and lived there until the age of ten, as part of a household where food and entertaining were a regular event. In 1981, her family immigrated to the United States and settled in the Bronx. After acquiring a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College, she was hunting for life’s meaning and discovered her quest for passion. And it was in cooking.
After graduating from the Peter Kump School of Cooking, she started her career with an externship at Blue Hill under chefs Dan Barber and Michael Anthony, who then invited her to join them as they opened Blue Hill Stone Barns. Not wanting to move to Westchester, she went to work for Anita Lo at the celebrated restaurant Annisa in the West Village, quickly rising through the ranks. After Annisa, she did stints working for the Batali/Bastianich group under chef Anne Burrell, recipe testing for Cesare Casella, and as a private chef making French and Japanese food at the high-end Sony Club. In 2005, she was convinced by her husband Ben Schneider to go forth on her own, and together they opened The Good Fork in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Nearly a decade later, Sohui’s highly personal, totally accessible style of cooking has ensured that The Good Fork remains both a beloved neighborhood eatery and a destination restaurant.
Credit: Craig LaCourt
BEN SCHNEIDER
Contractor & Partner
Ben is a native New Yorker who grew up on the Upper West Side during the 70’s and 80’s, spent several years in between as a child in Sicily with his parents, who were anthropologists (and Italian food experts) studying Sicilian culture. After attending the University of Michigan, he spent a decade in Chicago working as an actor and a cabinetmaker. In 2001, he moved back to New York and met Sohui Kim when she attended a show he was in with Okwui, her best friend from the Bronx. After impressing her sufficiently with his mother’s recipe for Osso Buco, she agreed to marry him and they moved to Red Hook. In 2005, he put his carpentry skills to good use by building The Good Fork, the restaurant he and Sohui now run together. Since then, he has also learned how to create a beverage program, pair wine, make espresso, manage the front of the house and wait tables, something he surprisingly never did throughout his 30 years of acting experience.
Credit: Diane S. Kang
YONG SHIN | Chef & Partner
Yong is Korean-born & Middle East-raised. He was fortunate to grow up in a family of foodies with an excellent cook for a mother. Art school brought him to NY but shortly after graduation, he fell into cooking in a serendipitous manner. Under the guidance of Sohui, Yong learnt the basics of cooking at The Good Fork. After two years, he started cooking at Franny’s, where he learnt the importance of seasonal cooking, as well as the art of making & eating pizza. He also fell in love with the practice of fermentation: the heart of Korean cuisine.
At Insa, Yong has the opportunity to work with a familial team in both the front & back of house, as well as farmers & purveyors who provide the quality that makes Insa so unique. The platform that Insa provides for Yong & the team is broad: a place where inspiration can be presented on a plate of deliciousness, a place for collaboration with friends and most importantly, a place to celebrate each other: aka. Korean Fun Time Place for Celebration.