Food Designer Suea Takes Us Inside Her Fridge

For Suea, it’s all in the details. The fashion girl-turned-food designer is meticulously carving chairs from butter and tying bows around spare ribs for her food styling and catering business, marrying her Korean heritage with her design obsession. After dishing out her Instagrammable creations at her supper club, cake service, and retail ventures, she’s forging her own path in the food world, so we begged for a peek into her mind (and her fridge).

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1. “I paid for this fridge myself. I chose this one because it has a craft ice maker. It makes spherical ice and also has regular ice and filtered water, which I’ve never had in my life.”

2. “I’m thawing some Cornish game hens for dinner tonight. I’m going to make those into a Korean ginseng soup called samgyetang.”

3. “I obviously always have tofu. Sundubu is the extra silky one. It’s really easy to make my sundubu jjigae or a cold appetizer with it.”

4. “I have my gochujang in my onggi clay pots that aid fermentation, then I have my ssamjang and my homemade doenjang from my aunt. I hate describing it this way because Korea is Korea and Japan is Japan, but a lot of people say it’s like Korean miso. We don’t need to go into specifics, but I do believe it came first.”

5. “This is my perilla leaf oil, which is similar to sesame oil. It’s a little bit different. I got that from the countryside in Korea. My mom’s friend made that.”

6. “I was making a cake for a friend the other day and that’s a test batch. I have a printer that prints edible paper with food ink, and so I play around a lot. I really love Sanrio characters. That’s Little Twin Stars. It’s a vintage gif that I took a screenshot of.”

7. “I just went to the farmer’s market, so I have a lot of fresh greens. I keep a lot of it in cups of water. It keeps it fresher for longer.”

8. “I obviously have my sauces. Love hot sauce, always have Kewpie mayo, love mustard.”

9. “I try to keep my crispers stocked with veggies. Right now, pumpkin’s in season, so I think I’m going to steam the kabocha and pumpkin and squash.”

10. “Preserved yuzu from last year. I often use the peels of the preserve to add into anything from pastas to soups to stir-fries. It’s like preserved lemon, but a bit more special.”

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Photo Assistant: Iain Emaline.

Chill by Con Ed.