Eva Chow Has Her Personal Model Now

It’s the busy season for Eva Chow, who co-chaired the twelfth annual LACMA Artwork + Movie Gala over the weekend in Los Angeles.

She based the occasion in 2011 as a fundraiser for movie programming, and it rivals the Met Gala in star wattage. Chow was the right hostess Saturday night time, sporting a white robe by Gucci’s new artistic director Sabato De Sarno and cozying as much as the style model sponsor’s new chief government officer, floating amongst J. Lo and Keanu Reeves on the dinner tables and planting a kiss on Kim Kardashian’s cheek on the dance ground.

After a long time of serving to to supervise ex-husband Michael Chow’s Mr. Chow restaurant empire, together with introducing Mr. Chow wine, she’s settling into a brand new life and model — Khee soju, which was entrance and middle on the cocktail bars on the gala, natch.

“I began this as a result of I really like going again to Korea. I used to be born there, however I got here right here once I was younger, so I assume I missed it. And I actually gravitate towards Korean tradition,” Chow mentioned over glasses of Khee (which is her title in Korean) on a latest afternoon at her art-filled Beverly Hills home, which is presently in the marketplace for $70 million.

“I need to promote and transfer to Trousdale to a smaller home, midcentury,” she mentioned earlier than opening the doorways to the spectacular library the place she has entertained the Obamas, amongst many others.

Wearing an off-the-cuff sweater, pants and ballet flats, she makes use of a pair of silver tongs to place ice cubes in crystal lowball glasses, providing her soju neat (it is available in 22 or 38 proof for $39 to $59) or combined with flavored Perrier. It has a pleasingly clear style, is refreshingly chilly and straightforward to drink and not using a chunk.

“Whereas I used to be getting divorced with Michael, I mentioned, I must do one thing to spend time in Korea. So I believed, you already know, there’s this nationwide drink however outdoors of Korea, no person actually is aware of about it. They know sake, and in case you distill soju extra it turns into sake. The approach is similar however the rice is completely different in Korea. So mine could be very particular to my style.”

Chow was born in Seoul, and her household moved to the U.S. when she was a youngster. She by no means tried soju — the clear, colorless alcoholic drink constructed from rice or candy potatoes — till she was an grownup.

“Once I began going again to Korea, we’d be in eating places and all people’s ingesting the stuff. One night time I used to be having dinner with Psy, you already know, the singer, and he says, ‘you’re Korean; it is advisable drink soju.’ I’d by no means had it. So he taught me every part. I believed it was so harsh swallowing it and it smelled of drugs alcohol, so I needed to make one thing completely different.”

She spent three years growing Khee, which first launched in Korea final 12 months. It’s additionally obtainable within the U.S. at Bristol Farms, Wally’s Wines, and at eating places resembling Mr. Chow and Spago in L.A. and the Cote Korean steakhouse in New York.

“It’s the number-one premium soju in Korea now. Lots of people are used to the diluted low-cost stuff which is available in a inexperienced bottle normally, and sells for 7 or 8 {dollars}. That is made in an space the place they develop the very best rice, the water comes from 500 meters beneath the bottom, we use the perfect yeast and nothing else,” mentioned Chow, who designed the bottle resembling a fragrance flacon.

She has the design background, having attended the Otis Parsons College of Design in L.A. Whereas there, she put collectively a small assortment of easy night clothes and tailor-made fits and confirmed it to a purchaser for Neiman Marcus. When the client positioned an order, she was in enterprise. At its peak, the Eva Chun label had a showroom at 550 Seventh Avenue in New York, she had her personal manufacturing firm, and offered to Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and specialty boutiques globally.

“Now, I’ve type of made premium soju trendy in Korea,” she mentioned, noting she offered 100,000 bottles final 12 months in Korea, the place “Squid Sport” actor Jung-Jae seems on her billboards, and he or she opened a member’s-only bar in Seoul that’s frequented by the celebs of BTS and Blackpink, execs from Samsung, Shinsegae and different buddies to expertise the drinks, she mentioned.

The U.S. has been slightly tougher to crack, largely as a result of folks don’t know a lot about soju.

“I want to teach American folks about what soju is,” she mentioned. “The largest factor in Korea is soju and beer, however it additionally makes nice cocktails. I feel that is the subsequent massive factor; we’ve had vodka, tequila and gin, and with this you don’t placed on weight, it’s very pure.”

Not like music, artwork, vogue and movie, soju is one side of Korean tradition that has but to actually go international in a mass approach.

“Once I was working in New York as a designer, there have been hardly any Koreans, a lot much less Korean eating places. Now you’ve Cote, and also you open Netflix and it’s all Korean content material,” mentioned Chow, who’s financing the model herself.

Her many Hollywood buddies have been completely satisfied to help. Finally 12 months’s LACMA gala, Miley Cyrus was photographed draped throughout the Khee bar.

“To this point, I haven’t actually been in entrance of it. As a result of regardless of what different folks consider me, I don’t do me, me, me,” mentioned Chow, whom the New York Instances has known as “the tradition queen of Los Angeles” in a 2015 profile that depicted her as a persuasive determine. “However I need to go actually mass so I want to come back ahead and be hooked up to my model. Subsequent 12 months, I’m taking it to Europe after which China…I made this for the world, not simply Korea. And when folks get to know Korean tradition, Chinese language tradition, Israeli tradition, that’s after they actually turn out to be one. I feel that’s the place we should always go and that’s the place we’re going.”