Kim now serves traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean food, including dishes he learned from his mother growing up in Hawaii and sushi he perfected while training with Iron Chef Makota Okuwa.

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He abandoned that goal after a year of training and launched a career as head chef for various restaurants in Germany, serving up everything from experimental sushi, to fusion food to contemporary German cuisine.

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But in 2007, with no formal training, Pic became the only female chef in France (and only the fourth woman in history) to earn the culinary world's top honor -- a three-Michelin-star rating -- for her family's restaurant, La Maison Pic, in the Rhone-Alpes town of Valence.

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