Maangchi facts for kids

Emily Kim (born 1957) is a famous South Korean-born American YouTuber and author. Many people know her by her online name, Maangchi. She is well-known for making fun cooking videos about Korean food. The New York Times even called her "YouTube's Korean Julia Child" because she teaches so many people how to cook.

Maangchi's Life Story

Emily Kim was born in Yeosu, a city in South Korea. Her family worked in the seafood business. She learned how to cook delicious meals from the women in her family. This helped her become a great cook later on.

In 1992, Emily and her husband moved to Columbia, Missouri, in the United States. There, she worked as a teacher. She noticed that it was hard to find good Korean food in Missouri. So, she often cooked for other Korean-Americans living nearby. In 2002, she moved to Toronto, Canada.

After her children grew up and moved out, Emily started playing a computer game called City of Heroes. She chose the character name Maangchi. This word means "Hammer" in Korean. This is how she got her famous online name!

Starting Her Cooking Career

In 2007, Emily Kim discovered cooking videos on YouTube. This gave her the idea to start her own channel. She decided to make videos teaching people how to cook Korean food. She used her game name, "Maangchi," for her channel.

Her channel quickly became very popular. People loved her happy attitude and how she stuck to traditional Korean recipes. Besides her YouTube videos, Maangchi also has a website, maangchi.com. On her website, fans can ask for recipes and chat with each other. It also has extra photos and a podcast.

In 2013, Maangchi worked with Kristen Kish, a winner from the TV show Top Chef. They were part of a PBS show called Lucky Chow. Maangchi taught Kristen how to make traditional Korean dishes. They focused on making kimchi and japchae.

Maangchi's Cookbooks

Because her YouTube channel was so successful, Maangchi wrote her first cookbook. It was called Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking and came out in 2015. She then wrote a second cookbook in 2019. This one was called Maangchi's Big Book of Korean Cooking. She wrote it with another author, Martha Rose Shulman.

This second book shares many recipes. It also explains how to use different cooking tools. Plus, it has pictures to help you identify Korean ingredients. In March 2018, the South Korean government's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs decided to work with Maangchi. They wanted her to help show Korean foods to more people in North America.

As of May 2023, Maangchi's YouTube channel had more than 6.2 million subscribers. This shows how many people love learning to cook Korean food from her!