Last night, New York City’s foodie and fashion contingent gathered at the immersive Genesis House restaurant in the Meatpacking District to celebrate the other first Monday in May: the start of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Alina Cho, the evening served as the first in a series of salon-style dinners that will be held at the Korean-inspired eatery, with the goal of fostering a close-knit environment of discussion, art, and culture. The restaurant is an aesthetic experience in itself, located on the third floor of a sweeping event space with interior and architectural details built to promote harmony and balance, as a nod to traditional Korean design.
Top tastemakers and industry leaders, including Zac Posen, Wes Gordon, and ELLE’s own editor-in-chief Nina Garcia, were in attendance to kick off the series with Cho. As Genesis House offers a distinct Korean dining experience, modernizing recipes from the Royal and Imperial periods to create dishes that inspire even today’s restaurant obsessives, some of the dishes dated back as far as a thousand years (yes, you read that right), curated and crafted by artisans Cho Eun-hee and Park Sungbae, who hail from the Michelin-starred restaurant Onjium in Seoul.
The night was memorable in more ways than one, both because of the innovative menu and the intimate setting celebrating Asian culture. Cho reminisced about her experience growing up as an Asian American in a school where no one else related to her experience. But now, “it’s never been cooler to be Korean,” as one of Cho’s friends stated. Chalk it up to the hallyu wave: Louis Vuitton just presented its pre-fall 2023 collection in Seoul, K-Pop bands like BTS and Blackpink are topping the charts, K-beauty brands like Laneige and Then I Met You are appearing on the shelves (and quickly selling out), and Korean films and dramas like Everything Everywhere All at Once have made their way to the Oscars stage (hi, Michelle Yeoh!) and the cultural zeitgeist.
Fittingly, Alina Cho’s next Genesis House dinner will take place during New York Fashion Week in September. For an inside look at the inaugural event (and a sneak peek of what to expect from the rest of the series), click through the gallery below.
