Gusoo is a digital platform that aims to highlight the diversity and complexity of the St. Louis food scene. Our main focus is on immigrant-and-refugee-created restaurants in St. Louis. While food is a necessary sustenance for all humans, it is also a way for people to connect with their culture and introduce others to their heritage. We aim to highlight these people and their stories and elevate them to a wider audience. Through interviews of chefs, restaurant goers, home cooks, and anyone involved in the culinary process, we hope to uncover the nuances of St. Louis communities that many often overlook. 

Gusoo (구수) is a Korean word, pronounced as goo (like in gooey butter cake) - soo (like Soulard). Most translators will reduce the word to just mean “savory” or “delicious,” but that is simply not true. Yes, the word is usually used to describe savory foods, but it carries a bag of hidden meanings. For example, you can only apply the word towards specific foods, foods that give off a slightly earthy-taste. Second, the word represents an emotional connection you have with that food; these foods are usually what your mom or grandma would make when you were sick or when you visited home. gusoo describes comforting, homey, nostalgic, earth-bound food.

If you look at our logo, you’ll probably notice that the letter “g” looks like a 9. In Korean cuisine, the number 9 is representative of the yin-yang characteristic of the foods. Many traditional, royal Korean food uses 9 different ingredients, all of which are different colors. Each color represents a different part of the human body, and eating all the ingredients simultaneously was thought to bring balance to that person’s life.

Our mission is to elevate stories of those who are involved in the food scene in St. Louis, particularly marginalized populations, immigrants, and refugees.

Going forward, we hope you can reflect on what your comfort food is and what you would use to describe as gusoo. Does that food bring some sort of balance to your life?