Monica Lee

Author, Chef & Founder, Beverly Soon Tofu (Los Angeles, CA)

Monica Lee immigrated to Los Angeles from South Korea in 1977. When she opened Beverly Soon Tofu in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1986, it was the only restaurant in the country to specialize in the homey, comforting dish called soon tofu chigae, or soft tofu stew. Her menu—which allowed customers to customize their fillings and level of spice—would become standard at similar soon tofu restaurants across the country. In the thirty-four years it was open, Beverly Soon Tofu was featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain, as well as in several of Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential Los Angeles Restaurants lists. The restaurant closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, but Monica’s legacy lives on in her cookbook, Sohn-mat: Recipes and Flavors of Korean Home Cooking. (Instagram: @beverlysoontofu_la)