|
Hwi Shim 'People think I must be crazy'
|
The entrepreneur
Hwi Shim, 33, Wizzy
These
days chef and restaurateur Hwi Shim (Wizzy to her friends and almost
everyone else) is sleeping at her eponymous restaurant. ‘It’s okay
really,’ the 33-year-old explains. ‘I finish late here, and we have a
shortage of staff at the moment.’ That’s the sort of thing you do when
you’ve put everything you’ve got, plus a £65,000 loan from the bank,
into your own business. Wizzy is not just an entrepreneur, she’s an
innovator, opening London’s first modern Korean restaurant at a time
when many had yet to try the cheaper traditional Korean establishments.
A design school graduate and former journalist, she learned a lot about
dealing with customers while working front of house at Hakkasan and
Nobu, but despite returning to Korea for six months to work in a top
restaurant kitchen, it was not her intention to become head chef at
Wizzy – she simply couldn’t find the right person to do it. ‘People ask
me why I’m doing things the hard way. They think I must be crazy. It’s
not for success, or fame, or money – it’s about my ability, my passion,
my interest and what I want to be. If I gave it up, I don’t think I’d
do anything else better.’
Wizzy, 616 Fulham Rd, SW6 5RP (020 7736 9171) Parsons Green tube.
Feature continues
