H Mart’s First Cookbook Is a Love Letter to Korean American Food

Reported by Vogue.

Before H Mart became the sprawling, culturally essential grocery chain it is today, it was a single small store in Woodside, Queens — Han Ah Reum, run by a Korean immigrant family in the 1980s. Stacey Kwon grew up in those aisles. Now, as president of H Mart, she's translated that childhood into something tangible: H Mart: The Cookbook: Essential Ingredients, Techniques, and Korean Recipes, the brand's first-ever cookbook and, in her own words, "an expression of love."

The book is structured like the store itself — organized by aisle — but its ambition runs deeper than a shopping guide. "Unless you're Korean and have been shopping at H Mart since you were little, it can be hard to navigate the store blind, culturally," Kwon tells Vogue. So the cookbook doubles as a cultural orientation: illustrated sections on grilling equipment, Korean herbs, pantry staples, and the techniques that make everything cohere. Woven throughout are Kwon's reflections on growing up the child of Asian immigrants in America — the nostalgia, the displacement, the food that held it all together.

Food as Love Language

"Food means a lot to Korean people," Kwon says, according to Vogue. "It helps us recenter ourselves when we're feeling lost, sick, even to cure a hangover." That philosophy shapes every page. This isn't a cookbook that treats Korean cuisine as trend content or a series of weeknight hacks. It's a document of inheritance — the kind of book that asks you to slow down, stock your pantry properly, and understand why you're cooking before you start.

To mark the launch, Kwon shared a personal recipe: kalbi jjim, braised beef short ribs with rice cakes. It's her son's favorite dish, a fixture at every family gathering, and the kind of food that communicates effort without announcing it. "The dish is all about how nicely you cut the carrots, the radish — it's the love and care you put into it," she says. "You want your guests to have a perfect bite every single time." Trim the silverskin. Cube the vegetables with intention. Make a massive pot, because there's never enough.

The recipe — six pounds of short ribs, dried shiitakes, soy, mirin, sugar, radish, rice cake logs — is time-consuming in the best possible way. It's special-occasion food that doesn't perform its own specialness; it just delivers. Which, honestly, is the entire thesis of the book: Korean food doesn't need your validation, it needs your full attention.

H Mart: The Cookbook is out now from Artisan Books — and if you've ever stood in the H Mart aisles wondering where to start, this is your answer.

Read the original at Vogue.