Alexander Yoon
Little Fish | Philadelphia
April 2019
Philadelphian Alexander Yoon spent his early childhood in the blue collar neighborhood of Olney before his family moved out to the suburbs. He developed his cooking skills young, stepping into the kitchen to help out his working mother, who usually wasn’t home to prepare meals. After attending college for a few years in Ohio, Yoon moved back to Philadelphia to attend the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. During his studies, Yoon staged with Chef Steve Eckerd at the touchstone of French cuisine in Philly, Le Bec Fin. Degree earned, he worked the line at Serpico before joining Little Fish as sous chef. In 2014, he competed in the Ment’or Young Chef Competition (a kind of Team USA minor league for the Bocuse d’Or) and won the grand prize to stage anywhere in the world. Yoon went to Chef Mauro Colagreco’s three Michelin-starred Mirazur on the French Riviera.
Back stateside, Yoon moved to San Francisco to work for Corey Lee at three Michelin-starred Benu. But when Little Fish owner Chad Jenkins presented Yoon with the chance to purchase the restaurant in 2016, he accepted the opportunity to return to his hometown. At 24-seat Little Fish, nothing quite steals the show from the pristine, expertly prepared fish that Yoon gets in four to five days a week from up and down the East Coast. A chef-owner and still shy of 30, Yoon’s iteration of Little Fish was named “Best Seafood Restaurant” in 2018 by Philadelphia Magazine and earned three bells from Craig LaBan in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
