Local restaurateur gains fame on MasterChef

Failure to win an international television show cooking contest hasn’t fazed Columbia restaurateur Jina Yoo’s efforts to build world-class eateries in Missouri, and it’s brought her some local recognition.

“I went for the experience, but the free publicity didn’t hurt either,” Yoo says about the trip she took to her native Korea, where in March she was one of 100 finalist contestants on the Korean version of the popular “MasterChef” television series. Eliminated in the first round, she lost out on the chance to win 300 million won, the equivalent of $250,000.

Yoo’s cuisine at Jina Yoo’s Asian Bistro has been termed fusion, but the recipes she cooks up are of her own making. “I am the one creating my genre,” she says. That verve likely contributed to her early demise at the hands of the traditionalist Korean judges. No matter, she is on to other things, notably expansion of Asian Bistro into Kansas City.

Asian Bistro originally launched in 2007 at 2200 Forum Blvd. in Columbia with the help of a U.S. Small Business Administration-backed $290,000 loan from Boone County Bank, $100,000 of her own money, and business plan assistance from the Small Business and Technology Development Center at Missouri University. Yoo says her new restaurant in Kansas City – possibly at Second and Main streets—will be financed by investors rather than a bank.

Yoo says that when people ask her for business advice, she admits having a hard time explaining her success. But she will offer them one piece of advice: Anyone wanting to own or operate a restaurant should be prepared for a lot of hard work. “I can’t even date anyone,” she says of the long hours she spends at her business.

As an immigrant with a lack of restaurant experience, Yoo says she struggled at first to build her business. At one point she had only $300 in her business checking account and fought to stay financially afloat by buying a little food, cooking and selling it and then buying some more. Yoo says the experience taught her four rules for business survival: pay vendors on time, pay employees on time, pay taxes and keep the bank loan current.

Yoo learned cooking at home, but her mother pushed her into studying music. She’s a graduate of Chong Shinn College in Seoul and one class short of obtaining a master’s in pipe organ at Indiana University.

Although Yoo is an accomplished pipe organist, she never warmed to music as a profession. “I’m a lot happier in the kitchen than in the practice room,” she says.