Alice had magical “eat me” cakes; chef Sol Han has bungeo-ppang.
The fish-shaped pastry, a popular Korean street snack, is traditionally a springy, waffle-like shell stuffed with sweetened red bean paste. Han flips it savory by nixing the filling, flavoring the batter like a scallion pancake—a nod to a childhood staple—and serving it with black garlic butter, as part of a quartet of snacks that opens a five-course tasting menu.
“It’s our bread-and-butter service without being bread and butter, which is boring,” Han said. “When you take a bite of the bungeo-ppang, you’re entering our world of craziness. You’re entering LittleMad’s world.”
This is a world supercharged with the energy and bravado of a young chef with a vision: creating a one-of-a-kind restaurant where diners can only expect the unexpected.
Born in Seoul, Han moved to the United States with his family when he was 7 and grew up in Long Island, New York. His parents worked long hours to save up to buy their own restaurant, a Japanese spot, where Han helped out as a teenager and first began concocting his own dishes.
After culinary school and working in fine-dining French and Italian kitchens, Han teamed up with Hand Hospitality to open LittleMad, in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood, in June 2021. The cuisine-blending menu melds French techniques with the Korean flavors of his childhood—and an irreverent dose of playfulness.
“It’s got to have the tradition, but it’s also got to be outside the box and different,” Han said. “It’s got to be fun.”
Take the chou farci, a classic French dish of stuffed cabbage leaves: Han makes his with a mandu (Korean dumpling) filling, then floats the translucent parcel in a pool of tarragon oil and frothy lobster sabayon. Meanwhile, the buh-sut, tempura-fried maitake, reflects his American upbringing: It’s served with a chips-and-dip-inspired sour cream and onion dip, presented in a whole onion.
A kalbi entree is marinated for 48 hours, grilled and brushed with brown butter, and served with confit garlic and housemade ssamjang and apples; a lobster option includes a tomalley-fried rice stuffing, a white kimchi salad with the claw and knuckle meat, and a miso soup made with shell-enriched lobster stock.
A few items are menu staples, but Han says the rest changes at least weekly, a challenge for a nimble and hardworking team and an outlet for a restless stream of creativity.
“I don’t stop thinking about food—when I’m in bed, when I wake up [at] two, three in the morning to get a glass of water, throughout the entire night,” he said. Once inspiration strikes, “I need to make it the very next day. If you’re a rapper and you come up with a rhyme, you need to write it down, right? Same thing.”
Far from finding it draining, Han clearly thrives on this particular brand of madness.
