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Long before he honed the knife skills of a Michelin three-star chef, Corey Lee learned how to handle blades. This was in New York, in the 1980s, where the Lee family had moved from their native South Korea. Lee’s father, an engineer who had been introduced to golf through his work, often brought his young son to the course. Meticulous by nature, the boy liked hitting balls and developed an effective self-taught swing.
Tennis was his main sport, though, and by the time Lee entered high school, a dramatic shift in his living situation severed his connection to golf altogether. It would be another 15 years, after he moved to California to work at The French Laundry for the famed chef and golf nut Thomas Keller, before Lee picked up a club again. This time, the hobby stuck.
Now 46, Lee remains a range rat, as fond of practicing as he is of playing. But making room in his schedule for either can be tough. Like his ex-boss and mentor, Lee is both a chef and a businessman these days, with three restaurants in San Francisco, including his Michelin three-star flagship, Benu, featuring modern American cuisine with contemporary Asian influences; a fourth in Seoul; and a fifth set to open in Singapore this summer. On a recent afternoon in San Francisco, Lee took a break from prepping for dinner service to discuss his game, how the kitchen compares to the course, and why he enjoys looking for answers in the dirt.
What are your early memories of the game?
Before we moved to New York, my dad had worked for a bit in Texas, which is where he first got into golf. Once we got to New York, he kept at it, and he’d take me with him. He would play and leave me on the range hitting balls for four or five hours. I was around 8 years old, and that’s all I did for a year. My dad told me I was too young to have any business on the course. And he was right.
You didn’t feel like you were missing out?
I enjoyed hitting balls. I still do. It’s very meditative. I like making little tweaks, toying around. When I was a kid, I was a pretty competitive tennis player, and a lot of things translated. It was definitely a self-taught swing, not classic, but I got to the point where I could get it around.
Did you play in high school?
No. By then, I’d stopped. When I was about 12, my parents decided to move back to Korea with my older sisters. I stayed. They found a little apartment in Tenafly, New Jersey, in a safe neighborhood where I could walk to school. My mom stayed with me until I was about 15, and after that she would go back and forth between Korea and the States. But it was a big change in my lifestyle. Going to the course with my dad on weekends – that all went away.
You were basically living alone in high school?
I know it sounds crazy now, but there were many Korean immigrant kids in my situation. My parents were doing what they thought was best for the family, but also what they thought was best for me. And I still felt very close to them, even though physically they were thousands of miles away.
Is that how you learned to cook, by having to fend for yourself?
When I was 17, I got a job at a place called Blue Ribbon Sushi in New York. I took the job to make money. I wasn’t thinking of cooking as a career. But I wound up learning some things, and I felt a connection to the people. After high school was when I really got into cooking. I worked at Lespinasse in New York. I went to Europe and worked at some good places there.
How did golf come back into the picture?
In 2001, I was living in New York, waiting for my visa to come through so I could go back to Europe. One day – I remember it was a Wednesday, because the food section of the New York Times came out on Wednesdays then – I was sitting on the stoop of my building reading the paper. There was a picture of Thomas Keller and Jean-Georges (Vongerichten) and a story about them opening restaurants in the Time Warner building. I thought, wow, this is amazing. At that time, Keller was this almost legendary, untouchable figure. Still, I wrote a letter and asked if I could be involved in (Keller’s New York project) Per Se. And he wrote back saying, you can be involved, but come out to California now and start training.
Keller loves his golf. So that’s how you started playing again?
The build-out of Per Se got delayed, but in 2004, I went back to New York and worked there. I honestly thought I’d stay in New York forever. But then Keller offered me the job of chef de cuisine at The French Laundry, and that was too good an opportunity to pass up. I moved back to California just as Keller was getting into golf – really into it. He and I became regular playing partners. If it wasn’t for Thomas Keller, I’m not sure I’d ever have taken the game up again.
Are there any similarities for you between the kitchen and the course?
Yes, but I think they’re more personality-driven than actual similarities between the two trades. I’ve always been obsessed with getting better at the details. At the restaurant, I’ll spend enormous time and effort on tiny things that no one would probably ever notice. But I notice. That’s how I feel about golf. Someone says, “Nice shot,” but you know you didn’t catch it pure. That’s why I like the range. I almost prefer practicing to playing. I enjoy diving into the minutiae. I don’t know if it’s fun or a form of torture or something between the two.
Chefs are very particular about their knives. How about your clubs?
I’ve got Titleist irons. T200s? T2000s? (The T2000 was a metal tennis racket Jimmy Connors made famous.) I’m not sure, to be honest. I have a PXG hybrid and 3-wood. And I’ve got a Scotty Cameron putter that I inherited from Kevin Na.
How’d you get that?
We have a mutual friend. (Na) has probably gone through hundreds of putters and this one just ended up in my bag. I’ve never had a chance to hang out with him, though.
Who is the best golfer-chef out there, to your knowledge?
The best self-proclaimed golfer- chef is David Chang. But he has canceled on me about a dozen times now, so I don’t really believe him anymore. The fact is most chefs are pretty lousy golfers.
Why do you think that is?
More than anything, it’s the time. It’s hard to maintain your game. Restaurant hours are the exact opposite of golf hours, and you can’t be up 24 hours a day.