SAN DIEGO — A Michelin-recognized restaurant in the heart of Golden Hill offers diners modern Vietnamese-French cuisine using fresh local ingredients.
Chef David Sim was named Executive Chef of Kingfisher in March 2023.
"I like to cook with high acid, salt, spice and sugar, and finding the balance between them all for certain dishes," said Chef Sim.
The first dish he shared with me is the Geoduck Clam with buckwheat broth, pickled taro root, rice paddy herb and chili oil. The flavors are bold, the sauce is mouth-watering.
His culinary career began at In-N-Out Burger. It was his first job. He remained with the chain for nine years.
"They have everything down, their system, it's such a well-run machine that you kind of learn how to run an efficient business properly," he said.
Sim is a first-generation Cambodian-American, raised in San Diego. He grew up in City Heights in the 1990s, eating Vietnamese food because he said there weren't many Cambodian restaurants around. He graduated from Crawford High School.
"Growing up, I tried not to cook Asian food, especially Cambodian food, I was cooking a lot of American food," said Sim. "I was afraid it was too funky for people."
"There's not a lot of refrigeration in Cambodia, so they'll pickle and ferment everything in salt," he said.
"I'll put fermented shrimp on the menu, I'll find a way to balance it to make it more palatable for people," he added.
The 38-year-old is the youngest of three boys.
"We were super close growing up, inseparable," he said. "Our parents were very loving, but gave us a lot of space growing up. Growing up in the 90s, we were out and about doing our thing. As long as we came back before dark, no questions asked. So we got in a lot of trouble, had a lot of fun," he chuckled.
His family's story is just as remarkable as his food.
Sim's parents fled genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s.
"I believe they went to the Philippines first, then Thailand, that's where my brothers were born, in a concentration camp there," he said.
"My parents had a really tough time, they had some insane stories," he added.
His family eventually made their way to Washington, where Chef Sim was born. The family moved to San Diego when he was very young.
"I was the first to be born in America, they did not forget to remind me, I was the 'Golden Child' who had to save the family," he laughed.
"It's something that keeps me humble, something that our parents don't let us forget, about the kind of the struggles they had in bringing us here. We have to take advantage of our opportunity," he said.
When his parents found out he was named Executive Chef at Kingfisher, he joked they asked him how much money was going to be paid.
"Typical Asian parent stuff," he laughed
He said the promotion made him super happy and nervous at the same time.
"I remember getting goosebumps," he said. "It felt like a big wave of relief and gratification, that all the hard work had finally paid off."
Photos | Michelin-recognized Kingfisher restaurant
In the kitchen, he teaches me how to plate his favorite dish on the menu, house-made egg noodles with a soft poached egg and black truffles.
Despite his success, there's still one person who makes him nervous in the kitchen.
"I have a hard time cooking Cambodian food in the kitchen with my mom," he admits, smiling.
"If I do something not super traditional, she'll be like 'We don't do that,'" he laughed. "If [I'm} doing a traditional salad and I'm cutting it the way the restaurant would cut it, she's like 'That's wrong. You're supposed to cut it this way,'"
Though he's proud of all he's accomplished and looks to the future, he said the journey his family took to get here is always with him.
"I think about it all the time, every day, I don't forget what my parents did for me," he said.
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