Meet Daniel Lee

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel Lee. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel below.

Hi Daniel , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic comes from being resilient and strong will to survive.
I didn’t have many opportunities growing up in a low income immigrant family.
Because of this when the opportunity rose I seized it to the fullest.
Some people don’t realize how much they have in front of them and life is short. Bad things happen, good things happen, and sometimes it just seems you are going anywhere. Believe that if you have will you will find a way.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Hi I’m Daniel Lee, and I’m a chef in brooklyn ny at Okonomi family.

I don’t have a romantic story of how i became a chef. I always liked cooking at home as I had to cook for myself growing up and worked some part time jobs at restaurants during high school.
My first few years in New York was a constant struggle but I ended up at the French culinary institute. This opened up a whole new door for me. Food I never tried, internships at restaurants I only read about, and finally feeling of progress.
I worked for years honing my skills as a craftsman with a high pique in fish which led me to learning more about sustainability – ocean conservation – and how we affect it as consumers.
That is how I ended up at the Okonomi family, impressed by our dedication to “chi san chi sho”, meaning “locally born locally consumed” and mottainai “no waste”. I still get very excited whenever I get to work with world class local fisheries and love telling the story to the guests through food and culture while trying to keep the ocean healthy 1 plate at a time.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. When you start a new job or interview come ~10 minutes early, do some background homework, and always have notepad + pen ready. None of these require a special skill or experience but it shows that you are ready to show up and listen. Remember to listen more than talking.

2. Planning-organizing-executing. Being able to be flexible and spontaneous is an amazing skill set to have but having a priority list to feedback notes will result in much higher success.
Plus saves much time trying to do things last minute here and there which can result in more room for errors .

3. Choose a skill or area of focus and really dive deep.
I wanted to do and try everything In my early career to have future options but I slowly realized have by a specific strong skill set will make you standout more among other peers.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Heavy load of work with more piling up or doing a giant screw can easily trigger anxiety which can lead to feeling overwhelmed.
I found that it’s more helpful to take a step back, breathe, asses the situation as a whole, and then compartmentalize in sections or phases. This will help you come up with an efficient list of things that need to get done/prioritized.
Ask for help kindly, delegate/lead respectfully, work with sense of urgency, and know everything will get done one at a time.
All your list will be checked off before even realizing it with the wave of relief.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Gangjin.nyc
• Instagram: Danielnotchez

Image Credits

Bernard Lin
Kathy Yuan
Cole Wilson