While celebrities sip on gin martinis, couples twirl their seafood pasta and crisp-collared businessmen share trade secrets over filet mignon, Kyung Ho Lee makes sure that behind kitchen doors, nobody misses a beat.

As the executive chef of The Palm Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, a two-story steakhouse that’s bustles with the hungriest of crowds, Lee conducts a medley of slices and dices, sizzles and sautés. Clad in a crisp white coat, his mission is to have each diner leave full-bellied and happy.

Lee can tell you that Kobe Bryant likes everything well-done and that Hulk Hogan, who usually walks in with an entourage of ladies, can pack down a five-pound lobster and 32-ounce steak. He can tell you the exact temperature of the soup of the day and the shape, size and name of each potato.

But Lee, 50, knows that it takes more than knowledge and precision to be a good chef. It takes heart. 

As he celebrates his 15th anniversary with the white-tablecloth restaurant group, Lee tells the story of a boy who followed his dream … and his stomach.

Back in Seoul, Lee’s father owned three restaurants that served up Korean and American fare. He worked grueling hours, waking up at 3:30 a.m. to pick out ingredients at the market and staying late to make sure everything was in place for the following day. So when Lee, at the age of 6 or 7, declared that he too wanted to open a restaurant one day, his father scoffed at the idea, telling the young boy to become a doctor or businessman instead. 

“He said only the dumbest guys work in the kitchen,” Lee recalls. “But I liked being in the restaurant. If you’re a doctor, you see sick people every day. At restaurants, you see happy people every day.”

So despite his father’s grumblings, Lee followed in his footsteps, learning everything he could about food. At home, he practiced cooking, whipping up special dishes for his mom and inviting friends over to test out his latest experiment with ramen noodles.

Lee studied hotel management in Korea, and, upon graduation, while only knowing a handful of English phrases, decided to move with his wife to America for greater opportunities. He blended in quickly, receiving a cooking degree from the Culinary Institute of America in New York and a restaurant management degree from Florida International University in Miami. Right out of school, he started working as a chef and kitchen manager at Legal Seafood in Boston.  

In 1992, he became the executive chef at The Palm Restaurant in West Hollywood. Some colleagues couldn’t pronounce his name, so they simply called him “Kay.”

“At first, some people would see me and think, ‘Look at this Asian guy. Can he really make Italian food?’ Now they know I can make everything,” Lee says.

Lee transferred to the downtown Los Angeles location when it opened five years ago. He oversees a kitchen staff of about 30 that prepares hundreds of meals per shift.