“I always look forward to Lunar New Year, but New Year’s Eve seems to just creep up on you, especially when you have restaurants,” says Sohui Kim, chef and co-owner of Insa (as well as The Good Fork, which closed in 2020, and Gage & Tollner, which is due to open in 2021). “It’s a big deal at the restaurant, and I’m usually at work—so I never get my act together to celebrate it properly.”
Still, she always finds a way to make the holiday special, usually by cooking a meal for extended family at her home in Brooklyn. This year, Kim says the celebration will require some improvising—and some Zoom time. “The shadow of the coronavirus is pretty dark—so we have to be strategic in how we do it,” she notes. Having video guests may make this Lunar New Year feel a bit different than those in the