Carrying Grandma’s Legacy Forward

As we begin Grandma’s Kimchi, I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmother.

It feels strange sometimes to see her represented on our pouches, our market tent, and our website. To everyone else, she is “Grandma” in Grandma’s Kimchi. But to me, she was the woman who raised me and shaped so much of who I am.

My grandmother was not an ordinary woman, especially for her generation in Korea.

She refused to let expectations about what a woman should or shouldn’t do determine her life. She was fiercely independent, curious, generous, and incredibly hardworking. She became an entrepreneur and went on to own and operate multiple restaurants in Korea.

Food was also something she took very seriously.

She spent years learning from masters of Korean royal cuisine, Japanese cuisine, and other traditional culinary arts. In our family, that knowledge didn’t stay in restaurants or recipe books. It came home with her. Recipes, techniques, and little ways of doing things were passed from one generation to another.

But when I think about my grandmother, her accomplishments aren’t actually what I remember first.

I remember how much she cared for people.

She quietly helped students who were struggling financially. She took care of people around her. And, like so many Korean grandmothers, one of the clearest ways she showed that care was through food.

If she cared about you, she fed you.

And she fed you well.

My grandmother passed away in 2022. I never imagined then that several years later I would start a company carrying her name.

Kimchi Was Just Something I Made at Home

There wasn’t some grand plan to start a kimchi company.

I had always made kimchi at home.

I grew up knowing what our family's kimchi tasted like, and when the kimchi I found here didn't taste very good to me, the solution was simple: I just made it myself.

It wasn't unusual or particularly special to me. It was simply part of how I ate.

I knew what I liked. I had the recipes and knowledge passed down through my family. And if I could make kimchi at home that I genuinely enjoyed eating, there wasn't much reason for me to buy one that I didn't.

For years, that was it.

I wasn't thinking about packaging. I wasn't thinking about farmers markets. I certainly wasn't thinking about putting my grandmother's face on a pouch and selling kimchi to strangers.

I was just making kimchi.

But eventually, a thought began to stay with me.

If I felt this strongly about the difference between the kimchi I wanted to eat and much of what I could easily buy, maybe other people were looking for something different too.

And perhaps something that had always been ordinary within our family was worth sharing outside of it.

That idea eventually became Grandma’s Kimchi.

Putting Her Name on It Means Something

When we decided to call the company Grandma’s Kimchi, that name came with a responsibility.

We aren't borrowing the idea of a grandmother because it sounds warm or nostalgic.

There was a real woman behind it.

There is a real family behind the recipes.

And if we're going to put her name on something, I want to be able to stand behind what is inside the pouch.

That has become the standard behind many of the decisions we make, even the ones customers may never notice.

We care about the ingredients we choose. We source locally when we can and seek out ingredients we're proud to use. We don't want to add something simply because it makes production cheaper or easier. And as we grow, I never want efficiency to become an excuse for lowering the standard of the food.

Our promise is actually very simple:

If I wouldn't serve it to my own family, I don't want to sell it to yours.

That's what “No Shortcuts. No Compromises.” means to us.

It doesn't mean we're perfect. We're a new family business, and I know there will be plenty for us to learn along the way.

It means that when we're given a choice between doing something the easy way and doing it the way we believe is right, I want us to remember whose name is on the pouch.

What We Hope to Build

Of course, I want Grandma's Kimchi to grow.

I hope one day you'll find our kimchi in more farmers markets, neighborhood stores, restaurants, and eventually in communities far beyond Seattle.

But I don't want success to simply mean making more and selling more.

I want us to build a company that preserves what made this food meaningful in the first place.

Kimchi is everyday food in Korea. It sits on the table alongside countless meals, sometimes without anyone giving it much thought. But behind something so ordinary are generations of knowledge—how ingredients are prepared, how seasons change recipes, how fermentation changes flavor, and how every household develops its own way of making it.

There isn't just one kimchi.

There are countless varieties, regional differences, family recipes, and memories attached to it.

As Grandma's Kimchi grows, I hope we can share more of that.

I want someone who has never eaten kimchi before to discover why Koreans love it so much. I want someone who grew up eating kimchi to open one of our pouches and find something familiar. I want people to understand that fermentation isn't something to be afraid of, but part of what makes kimchi alive and constantly changing.

And I want to introduce people not only to our food, but eventually to the farmers, ingredients, traditions, and stories behind it.

Most importantly, I want to build this company with the same basic philosophy I learned from my grandmother:

Make good food. Care about the people you're feeding. And don't forget where you came from.

A New Chapter

We're still at the very beginning.

Right now, Grandma's Kimchi is a small family business. We make our kimchi each week, pack it ourselves, load the coolers, set up our booth, hand out samples, talk to customers, make deliveries, and learn something new almost every day.

And I actually love that people are meeting us at this stage.

Because if Grandma's Kimchi grows into what I hope it can become, some of you reading this will have known us when we were just getting started.

You'll have met us at a farmers market.

You may have tasted a sample before buying your first pouch.

Maybe you've already told a friend about us, placed an online order, followed us on Instagram, or simply stopped at our booth to tell us that you enjoyed the kimchi.

Those things may seem small, but to us they aren't.

Every person who brings our kimchi home is allowing something that was once made only for our own family to become part of another family's table.

And I think my grandmother would have loved that.

She spent so much of her life feeding people. I wish she were here to see where her food and her influence have taken us.

Since she isn't, the best thing I know how to do is keep carrying them forward.

So this first Journal entry is for her.

And to everyone who is joining us at the beginning, thank you for giving Grandma's legacy a place at your table.

There is much more I hope to share with you.

This is only the beginning.

 

Tradition, Carried Forward.

— Mihyun Kim
Co-Founder & Granddaughter
Grandma’s Kimchi