Lee Mi-ryeong, better known by her stage name, Auntie Omakase #1, was an unlikely finalist on Culinary Class Wars. Operating two noodle shops in an obscure part of Seoul with mostly traditional cooking, she was not as well-trained as many of the other chefs, nor as creative.
But when it came to the “Cook a dish that represents your life” challenge, Auntie Omakase revealed why she was exactly where she belonged. She created a variation of Andong Guksi, her most famous dish, which she had cooked thousands of times over more than 20 years. And as she presents it to the judges, we finally learn how noodles became her specialty.
“I grew up in a very wealthy household when I was little,” Auntie Omakase explains, “but when my father’s business suddenly failed, we fell on hard times.” Eventually, her dad collapsed from cerebral hemorrhaging from the stress, and he became partially paralyzed. To raise Auntie Omakase and her siblings, her mom stepped up and started selling noodles from a tiny corner stall at a market.
“Back when I was in school, I hated eating those noodles,” Omakase says. “I think I hated them so much because I saw them as a symbol of poverty.” Worse, when her mom had to have eye surgery as a complication of diabetes, it was her turn to make noodles. “My mom was struggling so much, I didn’t really have a choice. So I took over the job, and I kept working.”
As the years passed, Auntie Omakase got married. She had kids. She expanded the business and opened a second store. “Now, we make a comfortable living, and we’re able to take care of my parents and my husband’s parents,” Omakase goes on. “And I’m able to buy my son and daughter delicious food and everything they want. I did this by selling noodles. The same noodles that I hated so much eventually became my greatest savior.”
And then, with a tear in her eye and those of every other finalist, Auntie Omakase explains what makes her noodles so special: “These noodles have allowed me to put food on the table. They’ve let our family live happily, which is why I’ve gone with this dish as the one that shaped my life. To me, these noodles are…something of a miracle.”
Unless it’s very spicy, it’s not every day that a bowl of noodle soup makes you cry. But when you hear Auntie Omakase tell her story, that really does the trick. The best ingredients are not ingredients at all, and that’s why, even when there’s nothing mystical about them, we all have our own variety of miracle noodles. The only question is: What’s yours?