2 LA Chefs Host 1 Feast for Hanukkah, Christmas, and Lunar New Year

The moms start with the food that feels most unfamiliar. In the case of Kathy, chef Katianna Hong’s Irish Catholic mother, that usually means piling her plate with kimchi. For Jessica, chef John Hong’s Korean American mom, there’s no better way to break a health-conscious routine than with cheesy cornbread casserole.

Katianna and John, who are married and own the restaurant Yangban in downtown Los Angeles, started a tradition four years ago of gathering their family to celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, and Lunar New Year all in one — in a feast that pays homage to their diverse heritages. Sometimes, they open their home; other times, they close down the restaurant. Always, they cook up a spread vast enough for gochugaru to coexist with nutmeg. This year, Katianna’s brother, Reid, is in attendance with his wife, Elspeth, and their sons, Damon and Conrad, along with John’s brother, Steven; his wife, Diane; and their daughters, Olivia and Presley. On the table, there’s everything from spiced caramel to hot mustard, butter to Bosc pears, pea shoots to ponzu. This feast melds cultures and foods, reflecting the lives of the couple who cooked it.

Katianna was born in Korea, adopted by a German Jewish father and her aforementioned Irish Catholic mother, and raised in upstate New York. John, who is a second-generation Korean American, grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Both chefs pursued culinary careers that took them to Mélisse, Josiah Citrin’s two-Michelin-star spot in Santa Monica. In 2011, they moved to Napa Valley to work for Christopher Kostow’s The Restaurant at Meadowood. Katianna then opened The Charter Oak, another Kostow restaurant, and in 2018, Food & Wine named her a Best New Chef. The following year, the duo returned to Los Angeles to open a restaurant of their own.

When Yangban Society opened in January 2022, it was a lunch-focused Korean American deli. After renovating the space and leaning into full-service dinner, the revamped Yangban, which launched this past September, feels like a return to Katianna and John’s roots. “When we first started ideating the style of food we wanted to do, I think we were both needing a break from fine dining,” Katianna says. “This is more true to who we are.”

Both at Yangban and at home, Katianna and John draw from personal references — whether that’s matzo ball soup made with chopped pea leaves or a scallion pancake–inspired fritter.

“The food isn’t necessarily Korean, and it’s not necessarily Jewish,” Katianna says. “But our goal is that, whether you are Korean, or Chinese, or Jewish, you could find something that you identify with.” That’s the same feeling Katianna and John try to evoke when they host their family for the holidays.

Take the Creamy Mushrooms with Rice Cakes, which Katianna makes by reducing heavy cream with doenjang, or fermented soybean paste, to yield a slightly funky, savory sauce that gets mixed with mushrooms and chewy rice cakes. It’s a combination that pairs Korean ingredients with the flavors of a dish she grew up eating: beef Stroganoff. “This is a way of having something that’s approachable for everybody,” she says.

The cheesy Kimchi Cornbread Casserole similarly combines Katianna’s Korean heritage, her Jewish upbringing, and her childhood in the 1980s. Growing up, bready baked casseroles were a staple, but adding roasted kimchi and melted cheese energizes an otherwise old-fashioned dish.

There’s always a roasted or braised meat on the table, sometimes nodding to Jewish traditions with brisket, other times inspired by an old-school Korean lamb stew. “Traditionally, lamb isn’t eaten in Korea for sustenance, so we wanted to take something less widely known and put a spin on it,” John says. In the Braised Lamb Shanks with Herb Salad, what’s traditionally served as a bubbling hot pot becomes more of a salad: An acid-forward mix of thinly sliced sugar snap peas and fresh mint leaves rests atop the lamb, braised with perilla seeds, garlic, and ginger.

When Katianna and Josh were living in Napa, Josh’s mom would send him frozen homemade kalbi, or marinated short ribs, so whenever he missed the Korean food he grew up eating, he could simply fire up the grill. To go along with the meat, the couple made a variation of the vinegar-heavy scallion salad that usually comes with kalbi at Korean barbecue restaurants. That scallion salad makes a reappearance on this year’s holiday table, reimagined as a Pea Shoot and Chive Salad, with apple cider vinegar to cut through the fatty beef and chile flakes for extra zing.

For dessert, there are Christmas cookies for the kids to decorate, plus Katianna’s Pear Crumble, the latter laced with the flavors of autumn fruit. In the crumble topping, warm baking spices like nutmeg and cardamom get a boost of nuttiness from roasted soybean powder and toasted sesame.

What started as a way to make everyone feel welcome has blossomed into a one-of-a-kind feast. Whereas John’s Lunar New Year celebrations growing up centered on traditional Korean dishes, and Katianna’s childhood memories separate Christmas with her mom’s side and Hanukkah with her dad’s, their four-year-old daughter, Alessia, gets to have all of the holidays blended into one big, beautiful meal. “That will be her normal,” Katianna says. “Like, what, you don’t have kimchi and casserole?”