Selected as NANRO Next's first Fellow, Chef Lee Ha-Sung passed through New York's Gramercy Tavern and Copenhagen's three-Michelin-starred Geranium, then served as chef de cuisine at New York's Atomix — where the restaurant reached two Michelin stars during his tenure — before becoming sous chef at The French Laundry in Yountville, California. In 2026, he opened his first independent restaurant, Oyatte, in Manhattan. On Netflix's Culinary Class Wars Season 2, he took second place under the nickname "Cooking Monster."
He does not confine his work to the category of Korean cuisine. Rather, Oyatte is his way of layering the languages he has learned across the world's kitchens over his own roots and weaving something new. Three Michelin stars, in his framing, are a means and not the end; his next horizon is to become a mentor to the chefs coming after him — and it is in that spirit that he joins NANRO Next as its first Fellow.
