Lee Yeon-bok Rejected U.S. Chinese Restaurant Offer Out of Pride, and Regretted It for Years

Chef Lee Yeon-bok once had a clear path to work in the United States, complete with help on visas and permanent residency. He turned it down, he said, because accepting the offer after repeatedly announcing his resignation felt like a blow to his pride.

Lee recalled the episode during an interview on the YouTube channel “Attack Chef.” At the time, he had worked for about eight years at Taiwan’s embassy in South Korea and was considering leaving. He said he had been thinking about recipes and had also heard that working overseas could bring higher earnings.

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The ambassador and his wife discussed it and asked whether I would work at their son’s Chinese restaurant in the United States. They said they would take care of the permanent-residency or visa issues.

After Lee told the ambassador he intended to resign, the ambassador and his wife discussed another possibility with him. They asked whether he would work at the Chinese restaurant operated by their son in the United States. According to Lee, they also offered to take care of the permanent-residency and visa arrangements.

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I really wanted to go deep down.

Lee said the offer did not come immediately. It was conveyed through the secretary after he had expressed his intention to leave several times, and the ambassador and his wife later tried to persuade him in person. By then, however, he had made up his mind.

“I really wanted to go deep down,” Lee said. But he felt embarrassed about accepting after repeatedly saying he would quit, so he ultimately left. He said he occasionally wondered how his life would have turned out if he had gone. Before reaching his current position, he regretted the decision, but he added that his later success gave him some comfort.

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I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out if I had gone then.