CASUAL COOKING
For designer Rejina Pyo, fashion, food and art are integral to her creative approach. Away from the studio, she likes to get everyone involved in making her favourite dumplings.
Fashion designer Rejina Pyo is a firm believer in taking inspiration from what’s close to the heart. “It’s not that I’m actively trying to promote South Korea but, over the years, I learned that it’s best to stay true to whatever is authentic to you – and that’s my home,” she says, as she mixes tofu, cabbage, spring onions and pork mince to stuff the mandoo (Korean dumplings) that she is preparing with Konfekt. “I travel there every year and take in the culture so the inspiration comes naturally.”
For Pyo, who was born in South Korea and moved to London 14 years ago, elements of her heritage – the vibrant energy of the city of Seoul, the eclectic style of her fellow Koreans, their flair for colour and attention to detail – have made their way into her design practice, ever since she was a fashion student at Central Saint Martins. And that continued when she founded her eponymous fashion label. One of her most recent collections was photographed in the streets of Seoul, with restaurants and food markets as the backdrop. “I shot the photos myself –we just went out to the streets on a rainy day,” she says. “People liked the fact that it wasn’t staged or too fancy.”
A laid-back energy seems to run through everything that Pyo does: the women modelling her clothes (usually friends, artists and fellow designers) are always bare-faced and fresh, while her designs seamlessly transition from day to evening. “The brand isn’t about one-off purchases; it’s a full wardrobe,” says the designer, pointing to her wide-ranging
“Chefs
are like designers: you’re given the same ingredients, but you mix them to create something your own”
ready-to-wear collections, including her popular pastel-hued tailoring and puff-sleeved dresses, designed to gently hug the body.
She channels the same energy in her daily life, always making a point to step away from the relentless pace of the fashion industry and making time for reading, painting and cooking with her two children and husband, chef and food writer Jordan Bourke. Inside her airy north London home – painted in calming powdery pink and earthy hues –you’ll spot abstract artworks that she produced during her weekly art classes, stacks of books she likes to dig into after work (topics vary from art to psychology and self-improvement) and piles of ceramic plates, pots and cutlery loosely arranged across her open-plan kitchen, which has been designed to be truly lived in – just like her fashion.
Today, Pyo – dressed in her Margot denim cargo trousers and an alpaca-patterned knit from her autumn line – is preparing to make a big batch of mandoo. She has chopped a large batch of cabbage, spring onions and cloves of garlic. Bourke often waltzes in to give her a helping hand. The chopping and
cutting of the raw ingredients are the most time-consuming parts of the process and having company always helps, according to Pyo. She then takes over and begins to mix the tofu, vegetables and minced meat while keeping the conversation going. “Everyone loves dumplings,” she says. “It reminds me of sitting around the kitchen table with my family and everyone working together: someone would be chopping, someone else would be stuffing the dumplings... It’s a production line. I love making things by hand.”
These days, she often replicates the experience with her own children. “The Korean way is to cook a big batch and store it for later,” she says. “It’s efficient and it means that you are always eating well – no need for emergency deliveries; there’s always something in the fridge.” It’s also a way to re-create a sense of home. “We don’t have any extended family in this country. By cooking and eating with friends, you’re conjuring up an experience; it’s a form of cultural exchange.”
Pyo can get lost inside the process of mixing ingredients and making different shapes with the dumpling dough: some are large and rounded, others have more of a coil-like shape. She sketches new collections in the same way. “Chefs are like designers: you’re given the same set of ingredients or, in our case, fabrics but you mix them to create something of your own,” says Pyo, as she places one dumpling wrapper after the other in the palms of her hands, fills them with stuffing and folds them into half-moon shapes. “Fashion and food are inseparable from daily life. You wear something every day, you eat something every day; there’s the same element of necessity,” she says as she carefully fills a steamer basket with the finished mandoo placing it over boiling water.
It’s why Pyo aims to explore different creative pursuits through her work. Inside her flagship boutique in London’s Soho, you can take in artworks by Catherine Repko and Conie Vallese, attend talks or sign up for the designer’s supper club – during the most recent, she served delicious Korean rice bowls. “I’ve always been interested in every aspect of daily life,” she adds. “That’s why my brand isn’t really a typical fashion brand: there’s so much more around it than new season collections.”
As she prepares to celebrate 10 years in business, it’s clear that her formula – both in and out of the kitchen – is working well. At a time when many fellow independent designers are struggling, Pyo found her feet by writing her own rulebook: choosing intimate supper clubs over short-lived runway shows, focusing on timeless designs over trends and making time for play and creativity. “We’re always talking about what we enjoyed as children,” says Pyo, as she serves her steaming hot mandoo alongside a delicious dipping sauce (a mix of soy sauce, wine vinegar and sesame seed oil), followed by an espresso to finish the meal. “For me it’s always been painting, so taking classes in the evenings means that I get to speak to new people and get out of my bubble. We all need more hobbies.” – k
Pork & tofu dumplings
(Doegi-gogi mandoo)
Ingredients
260g firm tofu
200g Chinese cabbage, stalks removed, leaves roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
6cm piece of ginger
Half an onion, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
700g pork mince
1 egg
2 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps roasted sesame seed oil
60 shop-bought dumpling wrappers (you can also make your own pastry skins using flour and water)
Sea salt Black pepper
For the dipping sauce
2 tbsps soy sauce
4 tsps rice wine vinegar
1 tsp toasted sesame seed oil
Half a red chilli, halved, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 spring onion, finely chopped ½ tsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
1. Tightly wrap a clean tea towel around the tofu and squeeze very firmly over the sink.
2. In a bowl, combine the ingredients for the dipping sauce. Set aside.
3. Put the cabbage, garlic, ginger, onion and spring onions into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until everything is finely chopped. Add the tofu, pork, egg, soy sauce, sesame seed oil and ¾ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. Pulse until the mixture is just blended together. Don’t over-blitz.
4. Line two large flat baking sheets with floured greaseproof paper and have a pastry brush, a small bowl of water and a teaspoon close by. Place one dumpling wrapper in the palm of your hand and put about two teaspoons of the filling into the centre. Use a pastry brush or your fingertips to lightly moisten the edges of the wrapper with water. Fold the wrapper in half, encasing the filling. Firmly press the edges closed, eliminating any air pockets as you go, to create a half-moon shape.
5. Steam the dumplings. Place as many of the rounded “nun hat” dumplings as will fit into your steamer basket, keeping a little space between each one to prevent them from sticking. Place your steamer basket over boiling water and steam on high for 10 to 12 minutes until the dumpling skin becomes transparent.
Photographer – Henry Redcliffe Writer – Natalie Theodosi