Hee-sook Lee had tenacity. She also had a secret recipe. Together that was enough for her to build a tofu empire.
Lee, who founded the popular BCD Tofu House restaurant chain and helped raise the global profile of Korean cuisine, died July 18 at age 61, according to the Korea Times.
She had been fighting ovarian cancer the past five years, and her illness had recently worsened, the newspaper reported. She is survived by her husband, Tae-ro Lee, and three sons, the Hankyoreh reported.
Advertisement
Lee opened the first BCD Tofu House on Vermont Avenue in Koreatown in 1996 with limited restaurant experience but plenty of confidence and a singular focus on a singular dish: soondubu jjigae, silken hunks of tofu in bubbling spicy broth. The restaurant’s name was short for Buk Chang Dong, a neighborhood in Seoul where her in-laws once ran a restaurant.
Lee treated a common dish with uncommon dedication. In the kitchen, she cooked up a plan and a secret recipe for a soup base that she refused to share with anyone, including her husband, Lee told The Times in 2008.
“To succeed in anything, you just have to be fanatically devoted to it,†Lee said at a South Korean government-sponsored convention for overseas business owners in 2006. “No matter what other people tell you, you shouldn’t look back.â€
Advertisement
There were other soondubu restaurants before BCD but few made the dish as accessible and available. None have been as successful.
BCD Tofu House on Wilshire Boulevard.
(Lucas Kwan Peterson / Los Angeles Times)
Within two years of her first restaurant, Lee opened two more in Southern California. Today, there are 13 restaurants in the BCD Tofu House chain in the United States, largely concentrated in Los Angeles and Orange counties with locations in New York, New Jersey and Dallas. The transpacific empire grew to include outposts in Seattle, South Korea and Tokyo, and its reach remains global with a line of take-home soondubu starter packs through House Foods.
“[She] was an amazing entrepreneur and community leader who impacted the lives of many,†wrote friend and Orange County supervisor Michelle Steel on Facebook. “Her brand and legacy will continue to live on, and she will always be an inspiration to myself and many others.â€
Lee, who considered herself a “diplomat of sorts†for Korean food, also was dedicated to feeding hungry mouths around the world.
Advertisement
She served as president of the Global Children Foundation, a nonprofit organization started by Korean American mothers that provides relief to children and families.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, Lee partnered with the Koreatown Youth and Community Center to feed low-income seniors who were isolated by the pandemic. The center helped spread the news of her death online.
“Lee — as a first-generation immigrant—brought her delicious recipes and healthful approach to countless satiated diners,†the center wrote in a tribute. “Please support this Koreatown empire and honor Ms. Lee when you’re scraping your jigae bowl clean.â€
At the original Wilshire Boulevard BCD Tofu House location on Tuesday afternoon, the patio was mostly full of diners at socially distanced tables, picking at banchan and slurping on bubbling, glowing tureens of stew. Two check-in areas are set up outside the restaurant — one for takeout and another for dine-in. A manager took diners’ temperatures and offered squirts of hand sanitizer.
A large white tent has been set up in the ample parking lot to accommodate further outdoor dining. BCD is known as a go-to after-hours location following a night on the town. While those days may be temporarily over, it still has outdoor dining until 2 a.m., and takeout is available 24 hours a day.
Food is prepared in the kitchen of the Wilshire Boulevard BCD Tofu House.
(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)
Advertisement
Kyung-chun Park, 60, was eating soondubu alone at a small table under the tent.
“I live in Torrance, but I drive 30, 40 minutes here,†he said. Park said that BCD was particularly popular with non-Koreans and was a great place to introduce people to Korean dishes and flavors. “She made Koreatown and this soondubu very well and very famous,†he said.
“I even heard that they opened a BCD Tofu House in Korea too,†Park said, noting that, perhaps counterintuitively, Lee’s success flowed from the U.S. back to her native Korea. “Even though soondubu originally came from Korea!â€
Geral Lopez, a mortgage consultant who works nearby, said he frequently brings his clients to BCD. “The food is delicious, and I am really sorry to hear that the owner passed away,†Lopez wrote in an email. “BCD has been a huge part of this business community.â€
Jennifer Tai, a recent transplant from San Francisco, appreciated the restaurant’s late hours. “It’s a 24-hour restaurant, which I thought was amazing because you don’t really have a lot of those anymore,†she said. The focus of BCD, in her opinion, was on “serving the community: people that work late, people that need to eat when they’re hungry.â€
Kyoosop Cho, a 30-year L.A. resident, was eating lunch with his wife, Jung. Cho was digging into the familiar BCD setup — a boiling-hot bowl of soondubu, a stoneware bowl of rice, a small croaker fish and several assorted banchan.
“People say the owner was a person who achieved the American dream,†he said.
1/25
Kobe Bryant, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sean Connery and more. (Los Angeles Times)
2/25
Rafer Johnson, winner of the 1960 Olympic decathlon gold medal, was a man whose legacy was interwoven with Los Angeles history, beginning with his performances as a world-class athlete at UCLA and punctuated by the night in 1968 when he helped disarm Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin at the Ambassador Hotel. Johnson lit the Olympic flame at the opening of the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. He was 86. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
3/25
With his quick wit and easy smile, Alex Trebek drove the game show “Jeopardy!†up the ratings charts and became a welcome television host in America’s living rooms. As the quiz show rolled through the decades, Trebek remained a comfortable fit — in a 2014 Reader’s Digest poll, Trebek ranked as the eighth-most trusted person in the United States, right behind Bill Gates and 51 spots above Oprah Winfrey. He was 80. (Los Angeles Times)
4/25
Guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s speed and innovations along the fretboard inspired a generation of imitators as the band bearing his name rose to MTV stardom and multiplatinum sales over 10 consecutive albums. The streak made Van Halen one of the most successful bands in rock history, including two albums that reached diamond status (10 million copies sold): 1978’s debut “Van Halen†and 1984’s “1984.†He was 65. (Wibbitz/Getty)
5/25
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg championed women’s rights — first as a trailblazing civil rights attorney who methodically chipped away at discriminatory practices, then as the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, and finally as an unlikely pop culture icon. A feminist hero dubbed Notorious RBG, Ginsburg became the leading voice of the court’s liberal wing, best known for her stinging dissents on a bench that mostly skewed right since her 1993 appointment. She was 87. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press)
6/25
Chadwick Boseman’s breakout role was playing Dodger Jackie Robinson in the 2013 sports biopic “42.†The next year, he made an electrifying lead turn as James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, in “Get on Up.†Then came the role that would change his career: As Black Panther, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first Black superhero, Boseman became the face of Wakanda to millions of fans around the world and helped usher in a new and inclusive era of superhero blockbusters. He was 43. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
7/25
Sumner Redstone outmaneuvered rivals to assemble one of America’s leading entertainment companies, now called ViacomCBS, which boasts CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Showtime, the Simon & Schuster book publisher and Paramount Pictures movie studio. Unlike contemporaries Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner, Redstone was not a visionary, but rather a hard-charging lawyer and deal maker who pursued power and wealth through the accumulation of content companies. He was 97.
(Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)
8/25
Regis Philbin reigned for decades as the comfortable and sometimes cantankerous morning host of “Live,†first with Kathie Lee Gifford and later Kelly Ripa, above. He earned Emmy nominations by the armful, hosted New Year’s Eve specials, rode in parades, set a record for the most face-time hours on television and helped reinvigorate prime-time game shows with “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.†He was 88. (Charles Sykes / Associated Press)
9/25
Rep. John Lewis famously shed his blood at the foot of a Selma, Ala., bridge in a 1965 demonstration for Black voting rights, and went on to become a 17-term Democratic member of Congress. An inspirational figure for decades, Lewis was one of the last survivors among members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle. He was 80. (Mark Humphrey / Associated Press)
10/25
Country music firebrand and fiddler Charlie Daniels started out as a session musician, which included playing on Bob Dylan’s 1969 album “Nashville Skyline,†and beginning in the early 1970s toured endlessly with his own band, sometimes doing 250 shows a year. In 1979, Daniels had a crossover smash with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,†which topped the country chart, hit No. 3 on the pop chart and was voted single of the year by the Country Music Assn. He was 83. (Rick Diamond / Getty Images for IEBA)
11/25
Carl Reiner first came to national attention in the 1950s on Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,†where he wrote alongside Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and other comedy legends. He later created “The Dick Van Dyke Show,†one of TV’s most fondly remembered sitcoms, and directed hit films including “The Comic†(1969), starring Van Dyke; “Where’s Poppa?†(1970), starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon; “Oh, God!†starring George Burns and John Denver; and four films starring Steve Martin. He was 98. (Associated Press )
12/25
The flamboyant, piano-pounding Little Richard roared into the rock ‘n’ roll spotlight in the 1950s with hits such as “Tutti-Frutti,†“Long Tall Sally†and “Good Golly, Miss Molly.†The Georgia native’s raucous sound fused gospel fervor and R&B sexuality, profoundly influencing the Beatles, James Brown (who succeeded him in one of his early bands), Jimi Hendrix (one of his backup musicians in the mid-’60s) and Bruce Springsteen. He was 87. (Boris Yaro / Los Angeles Times)
13/25
Don Shula was the NFL’s winningest coach, leading the 1972 Miami Dolphins to the league’s only undefeated season. He coached the Baltimore Colts to one Super Bowl and the Dolphins to five, winning Lombardi Trophies after the 1972 and ’73 seasons. He was 90. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
14/25
Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak crushed dissent for decades until the 2011 Arab Spring movement drove him from power. During his presidency, which spanned nearly 30 years, he protected Egypt’s stability as intifadas roiled Israel and the Palestinian territories, the U.S. led two wars against Iraq, Iran fomented militant Shiite Islam across the region and global terrorism complicated the divide between East and West. He was 91. (Sameh Sherif / AFP/Getty Images)
15/25
Among his 40-odd films, burly Brian Dennehy played a sheriff who jailed Rambo in “First Blood,†a serial killer in “To Catch a Killer†and a corrupt sheriff in “Silverado.†On Broadway, he was awarded Tonys for his roles in “Death of a Salesman†(1999) and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night†(2003). He was 81. (Dia Dipasupil)
16/25
Singer-songwriter John Prine broke onto the folk scene in 1971 with a self-titled album that included two songs brought to broader audiences by Bette Midler and Bonnie Raitt: “Hello in There†and “Angel From Montgomery,†respectively. In 2019, he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was 73. (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images for Stagecoach)
17/25
Country singer Kenny Rogers racked up an impressive string of hits — initially as a member of The First Edition starting in the late 1960s and later as a solo artist and duet partner with Dolly Parton — and earned three Grammy Awards, 19 nominations and a slew of accolades from country-music awards shows. Country purists balked at his syrupy ballads, but his fans packed arenas that only the titans of rock could fill. He was 81. (Suzanne Mapes / Associated Press)
18/25
Xerox researcher Larry Tesler pioneered concepts that made computers more user-friendly, including moving text through cut, copy and paste. In 1980, he joined Apple, where he worked on the Lisa computer, the Newton personal digital assistant and the Macintosh. He was 74. (AP)
19/25
Ski industry pioneer Dave McCoy transformed a remote Sierra peak into the storied Mammoth Mountain Ski Area. Over six decades, it grew from a downhill depot for friends to a profitable operation of 3,000 workers and 4,000 acres of ski trails and lifts, a mecca for generations of skiers and boarders. He was 104. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
20/25
Screen icon Kirk Douglas brought a clenched-jawed intensity to an array of heroes and heels, receiving Oscar nominations for his performances as an opportunistic movie mogul in the 1952 drama “The Bad and the Beautiful†and as Vincent van Gogh in the 1956 drama “Lust for Life.†As executive producer of “Spartacus,†Douglas helped end the Hollywood blacklist by giving writer Dalton Trumbo screen credit under his own name. He was 103. (Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times)
21/25
“Queen of Suspense†Mary Higgins Clark became a perennial best-seller, writing or co-writing “A Stranger Is Watching,†“Daddy’s Little Girl†and more than 50 other favorites. Her sales topped 100 million copies, and many of her books, including “A Stranger is Watching†and “Lucky Day,†were adapted for movies and television. She was 92. (Associated Press)
22/25
Fred Silverman was the head of programming at CBS, where he championed a string of hits including “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,†“All in the Family,†“MASH†and “The Jeffersons.†Later at ABC, he programmed “Laverne & Shirley,†“The Love Boat,†“Happy Days†and the 12-hour epic saga “Roots.†He was 82. (Associated Press)
23/25
Former California Rep. Fortney “Pete†Stark Jr. represented the East Bay in Congress for 40 years. The influential Democrat helped craft the Affordable Care Act, the signature healthcare achievement of the Obama administration, and also created the 1986 law best known as COBRA, which allows workers to stay on their employer’s health insurance plan after they leave a job. He was 88. (Associated Press)
24/25
News anchor Jim Lehrer appeared 12 times as a presidential debate moderator and helped build “PBS NewsHour†into an authoritative voice of public broadcasting. The program, first called “The Robert MacNeil Report†and then “The MacNeil-Lehrer Report,†became the nation’s first one-hour TV news broadcast in 1983. Lehrer was 85. (David McNew / Getty Images)
25/25
Terry Jones was a founding member of the Monty Python troupe who wrote and performed for their early ’70s TV series and films including “Monty Python and the Holy Grail†in 1975 and “Monty Python’s Life of Brian†in 1979. After the Pythons largely disbanded in the 1980s, Jones wrote books on medieval and ancient history, presented documentaries, wrote poetry and directed films. He was 77. (Associated Press)
