Suyeon Yang is a Boston-based multi-talented culinary artist and Northeast Asian food expert. She is also a founder, activist, psychoanalyst, journalist, and editor. As the founder of Sue’s Jazz Kitchen, she developed a catering service specializing in highly nutritious menu selections rooted in her native Korean culture, formulated to appeal to Western palettes. The business expanded to include continuing education in food and cooking classes, which are ongoing.

 

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Suyeon learned traditional food preparation skills from her mother, who infused everything from family festivals to daily meals with love and devotion. Her family inherited the cultural tradition of the Yang family, one of the founders of Jeju Island. 

An emphasis on natural, wholesome ingredients was vital to properly treating her father’s diabetes, which led to an interest in vegetarianism, culminating with training in Korean Temple Cuisine as practiced by Buddhist monks throughout her country. This knowledge and experience proved propitious upon her arrival in America, with the increasing popularity of vegetarianism and veganism. 

 

Similarly, a long-held appreciation for classic ceremonial tea led to her expertise in the traditional tea ceremony she now shares with students in her current home in Massachusetts. Yang is a pioneer in the integration of soft, pure green tea as a central ingredient in distinguished, gourmet dishes. ​

 

Yang’s formal culinary background includes training at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine, studying both traditional Korean foods and the highly-specialized cuisine of the Royal Courts from the Yi Dynasty. She studied under the tutelage of Han Bok-Ryu, an officially designated living cultural asset as cited by the government of South Korea. She received her education in pastries and baking at the Institute of Korean Royal Dessert, proceeding from there to rigorous training in the art of French cuisine at The Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in Massachusetts. It was there that she developed her unique ideas and methods for creating stylish, contemporary dishes that mingle the finest qualities of Korean and Western cuisines. 

 

Besides culinary training, Yang has a bachelor's degree in philosophy and studied Nietzsche, Spinoza, Hegel, and Wittgenstein. She also studied psychoanalysis at Lacan College in South Korea and co-founded a psychoanalysis school, The Lacanian Praxis Institute. 

 

Yang has been a serious jazz enthusiast since middle school and published Korea's first jazz magazine, Jazz Hipster, in 1997. She also opened a jazz club, the Hot House, in Seoul, South Korea. In 2018, she established the Deep Listening Jazz Program, a combination of psychoanalysis and music.

 

After coming to the United States in 2003, she successfully ran a bilingual newspaper, the Korean American Press, until 2011. She got the New England Ethnic Media Award in 2008 and the National Ethnic Media Award in 2009  which honors the best ethnic article about arts, culture, and political-social issues. She continues providing news articles to South Korea’s major publications and to the broadcasting network YTN, a 24-hour news channel. She also has written many culinary columns for magazines and newspapers linking music, psychoanalysis, and philosophy.

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She founded Walden Korea (waldenkorea.org) in 2021. Walden Korea is an academic and cultural exchange organization centered on youth and college students that engages with the world on the issues of justice, peace, human rights, and the environment.