Meet Rany
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach… really!
I’m from a family whose love language is feeding. My 70 year old mom still makes 300kg of kimchi every winter just to “share.” Upon meeting my South African husband, who only speaks English, my non-English speaking parents communicated their approval with a bottomless Korean BBQ. So, when I fell in love with South Africa, guess what I wanted to do?
Your journey so far?
Read Rany's Bio
I'm from South Korea. Since leaving home at aged 16, for an education in Australia, I have studied hotel management in Switzerland and achieved an MBA from INSEAD. I have also lived in France, Singapore, Indonesia, Switzerland and China: 16 years in total.
After 15 years with corporates, I realized I'm not made for the corporate culture and would be much happier working around food. So I opened UFS in 2017 and became a food educator.
How you ended here?
A man! What else 😎? The sole factor that trashes one's logic and long term planning all at once.
Africa had nothing to do with me, not even in my dream… until I met and fell madly in love with a Durban boy in Singapore. The rest is history.
Why you opened UFS?
Read Our Journey So far
An obvious choice when I finally understood what I do well (analyzing & teaching), when I'm most happy (working with food), where there's opportunity (Asian food in SA needs to improve) and what I want (to introduce my adopted country to my beloved country through food and the ritual of eating).
Who taught you to cook?
Firstly my grandma, who brought up 3 kids on her own by selling her food. I also received intensive culinary training in Swiss hotel school. I started to pick up different recipes and techniques from chefs and foreign friends that I worked with in the hotels and multinationals.
Since I opened UFS, I have taken a month of study leave per year to visit an Asian country and learn their food culture and original recipes with local teachers.
Your goal?
Book Class
To make Asian cuisine more accessible to South Africans, in a way that acknowledges the time constraints of modern life and makes it easy to recreate dishes with what you have in the fridge.
