The year he turned 17, he began his cooking career at Grand Hyatt Seoul. In 1983, he joined Hilton as an opening member.
In 1990, he entered a culinary competition in Singapore for the first time, and says he won his first medal in an international competition. In 1994, he won gold in five categories at the Singapore international culinary competition with a French dish made with Korean soy sauce.
In 1997, he was promoted to deputy manager and then manager. In January 1999, he became a culinary director, the first in the hotel industry.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 40, in June, he was promoted to executive chef of Hilton Seoul and became the first Korean executive chef among more than 210 Hilton hotels. In January of the same year, an episode about him aired on MBC Documentary Seonggong Sidae (a documentary series).
In 2006, he received the Mérite Agricole from the French government. In 2009, he became Lufthansa’s star chef from Korea. In 2010, he joined the G20 summit menu development task force.
In 2014, he was named Master Craftsman of the Republic of Korea in cooking. In 2015, he left Hilton and moved to Sejong Hotel as executive chef. In 2017, he appeared as a judge on TV Chosun I Am Chef.
The year he turned 64, he served as head judge of NS Food Festa in August, and in December he appeared as a White Spoon in Netflix Culinary Class Wars season 2. In the episodes released on the 30th of that month, he was eliminated in the White Spoon–Black Spoon team round.
In 2026, he was recruited as head chef of the Federation of Korean Industries restaurant, and in April he released collaboration products with Emart24 and began the YouTube show Yorihaneun Halbaedeul.
Park Hyo-nam (born 1961) began his cooking career at Grand Hyatt Seoul in 1978, the year he turned 17, and became known on Jun 15, 2001, the year he turned 40, as the first Korean executive chef at Hilton Hotel. Netflix Culinary Class Wars season 2, in which he appeared as a White Spoon, was released on Dec 16, 2025, the year he turned 64.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.