Hee Sook Lee (June 24, 1959 – July 18, 2020), born Hee Sook Hong, was a South Korean-born American businesswoman and founder of the BCD Tofu House chain of restaurants.

Early life

Hee Sook Hong was born in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, the daughter of Young Pyo Hong and Chun Ja Park. Her father was a teacher; after he became disabled, Hee Sook and her mother worked in restaurants to support the household. She studied graphic design and graduated from

Santa Monica College Santa Monica College (SMC) is a Public university, public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a Junior college#United States, junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Althoug ...

in 1994.

Career

Lee moved to the United States in 1989, with her husband and children. She was founder of the popular BCD Tofu House chain of Korean restaurants, named for the Buk Chang Dong neighborhood of Seoul, where her husband's mother had a restaurant. Her first restaurant opened in the

Koreatown A Koreatown (Korean: 코리아타운), also known as a Little Korea or Little Seoul, is a Korean-dominated ethnic enclave within a city or metropolitan area outside the Korean Peninsula. History Koreatowns as an East Asian ethnic enclave have ...

neighborhood of Los Angeles in April 1996. The house specialty, soondubu-jjigae, was made from her own secret recipe. Her chain expanded to include more than a dozen locations, including restaurants in Dallas and New York's Koreatown. Kits for making her signature soup are sold in Korean-American supermarkets. In early 2020, when ''

Parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

'' won the

Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film cou ...

, director

Bong Joon-ho Bong Joon-ho (, ; Hanja: 奉俊昊; born September 14, 1969) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. The recipient of four Academy Awards, his filmography is characterised by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black h ...

and other members of the film's cast and crew went to BCD Tofu House on

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

, after the awards ceremony. The restaurant stayed open 24 hours for take-out orders, and donated soup to needy elderly people and essential workers, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Lee served as president of Global Children Foundation, a Christian charity founded by Korean-American women.

Personal life

Hee Sook Hong married lawyer and restaurant owner Tae Ro Lee in 1983. The couple had three sons. Lee died in Los Angeles in July 2020, aged 61 years, from

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

. Her son Eddie Lee became interim executive of the family's restaurant business.

References

External links

BCD Tofu House
official website.

website explaining a 2015 class action lawsuit and settlement, in English, Spanish, and Korean. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Hee Sook 1959 births 2020 deaths Deaths from ovarian cancer People from Seoul Korean-American culture in California South Korean women in business