When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in 2020 and Singapore went on lockdown, Jack Chu and his family found that they could no longer operate their Korean hair salons DuSol Beauty at Novena and Scotts Square.

In 2007, the Chu family had relocated from their hometown in Suwon, a 30-minute drive from Seoul, to Singapore in a bid for a slower pace of life.

Young Jack migrated with his family from Korea to Singapore.

When Jack was completing his National Service, his family’s financial situation was unstable and he ended up not going to university.

Jack completed his National Service in Singapore.

Instead, he set up a marketing agency to help market his father’s chain of salons using branding and video content.

The birth of Jin Kimchi 

When the COVID pandemic unexpectedly struck, Jack – 23 at the time – did not give up trying to support his family. He hatched another brilliant idea: Selling his mother’s kimchi from home and naming it Jin Kimchi after her.

“It was something I ate since young as part of a Korean family and I liked the fresh, sweet kimchi that my mum made for me,” Jack told Salt&Light.

So he went all the way back to the country that he was born in and spent the next three months in Daejeon, Korea learning how to make kimchi from his grandmother.

Jack’s grandmother making kimchi in Daejeon.

When he started selling kimchi from his Orchard Road home during the pandemic, orders came in fast and furious. Word got around, helped by the fact that he was also skilled at marketing his home-based business.

Soon, Jack was easily selling 200 to 300kg of kimchi a day, and making S$50,000 to S$60,000 a month.

After a few weeks of operating the business, it had become so successful that they could no longer cope with producing the kimchi from home. They shifted to a factory to make their kimchi.    

“In Singapore, you can find only two kimchi factories here. Others import their kimchi and so those tend to be older and hence sourer from over-fermentation. We make ours fresh,” said Jack.

Equipment in Jin Kimchi’s factory.

An employee of NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) tasted Jack’s kimchi and liked it so much that he approached Jin Kimchi to open a stall at Fernvale hawker centre, which is run by NTUC.

“There were already 500 applicants for the stalls there and I didn’t even apply for it,” he marvelled.

“I guess even when I was far from God, He was still with me and directing my steps,” he told Salt&Light.

Jin Kimchi’s first hawker outlet at Fernvale.

He had grown up in a Christian family and attended church weekly in Korea. When he moved to Singapore at the age of 10, he attended Sunday school at Orchard Road Presbyterian Church.

However, he stopped going to church at the age of 16. He had not minded going for youth ministry but he did not enjoy the “adult” sermons.

“Since young, I had always questioned if God was real. I never felt close to Him and did not understand how what was written in the Bible was relevant to my life,” he admitted.

Building a chain of hawker stalls

Jack took a leap of faith to occupy the stall at Fernvale hawker centre. He spent 16 hours a day in the kitchen brainstorming, and came up with more than 30 different Korean dishes to offer customers, apart from his signature kimchi.

“I took up loans to start Jin Kimchi. I had to learn everything on my own. I was putting all my time in my business,” Jack told Salt&Light.

“Jin Kimchi consumed me.”

Within a span of two years, he opened a total of 11 Jin Kimchi Express stalls in hawker centres islandwide. Jack is on a mission to make Korean food accessible to the man in the street, and has priced his items affordably.

Jin Kimchi offers a wide variety of Korean dishes that come with friendly prices.

Having become a relatively successful entrepreneur, he began to think he was the smartest person in the room.

“I thought that would make me happy. But I could buy whatever I wanted, yet I was the saddest I had ever been,” he said.

When he bought something nice for himself – a Rimowa suitcase or Balenciaga shoes – he noticed that the euphoria that came with owning those items only lasted a couple of days.

He would go for luxurious car rides in his friends’ Teslas or Bentleys, but that did not make him feel any different.

“Those friendships felt fake and I felt empty. I was looking for something more than material things or the vanities of life,” he said.

It did not help that the rapid expansion of his outlets was creating manpower and financial issues in the company. His chain had scaled up aggressively to justify the rising costs of operating a full-fledged kimchi factory and central kitchen.

Business battles and burnout 

Being preoccupied with business strategies and systemising processes in the company, Jack did not realise – until earlier this year – that a management employee of his had stolen S$30,000 from the company. Other employees had also been stealing cash from the tills.

Police reports were made but Jack gave his management employee a second chance and let her go. “She has a future ahead of her,” he explained.

He also bailed out one of his drivers who had been arrested for a drug-related offence.

“Every day felt like a new battle dealing with every message, every call and every argument,” he recalled. “I felt hopeless and alone.”

Being a solo entrepreneur, Jack had to shoulder the burdens of the business himself. The livelihoods of his staff of 50 was a responsibility that landed squarely on his shoulders. 

Every day, he pulled in long hours – starting at 9am and finishing at 11pm. He had no rest days at all. Rest for him looked like starting or ending his day one or two hours earlier than usual.

“The burnout was real. It still feels very lonely, tiring and painful,” said Jack, who travelled alone overseas every month for business in 2024.

Meanwhile, his business began showing signs of financial trouble. There were a number of times when Jin Kimchi was in the red.

In September last year, a Singapore agency asked him to host a visit for Singaporean entrepreneurs to tour factories in Korea.

During the trip, he struck up a friendship with Reuben Ang, the managing director of Hesed and Emet, which owns catering businesses Elsie’s Kitchen and Continental Delight.

“We bonded and had quite a bit of fun during the trip. It was only later that I got to know that he is actually an elder in a church,” he told Salt&Light.

But when he returned to Singapore, it was back to the grind for Jack.

With the rising cost of living, business had become so bad that he contemplated closing down Jin Kimchi for good earlier this year.

“I had anxiety attacks and life felt really empty,” he said.

Hitting his lowest point

When his 28^th birthday rolled around in March this year, Jack did not celebrate it by throwing a party or having a lavish dinner with friends.

He was exhausted from the past month which he had spent rebuilding important systems for Jin Kimchi, working 16-hour days and solving problems non-stop.

So for his birthday, he chose to stay at home and have a small family dinner cooked by his mother.

Jack celebrating his 28th birthday at home.

That night, as he was trying to rest, he scrolled TikTok aimlessly.

He chanced upon a reel of a Japanese actress who shared that she had converted to another religion because she had felt a calmness after praying to that god.

As a despondent Jack sat on the floor that night, he thought about the God that he was raised to believe in since he was young: Jesus.

“Previously, I tried meditation and visualisation exercises but I did not feel any different. I ended up just pondering over my own thoughts during those sessions.

“So I thought, why not I just pray to the God I am familiar with and maybe I would find the calmness that I was seeking,” he said.

Right there on the floor, he prayed for the next 20 minutes, telling God all about the pain he felt and what he was going through. He also asked for forgiveness for walking away from Him and for courage and guidance to come back to Him. Tears streamed down his face.

Jack having a quiet moment with God on the night of his 28th birthday.

“After praying, I not only felt calmer, I also felt lighter. It was as if a load had been taken off my shoulders. I just knew that God was listening to me and speaking to me,” he told Salt&Light.

Having had this encounter with God, Jack shared it with Reuben over text. Reuben knew Jack was having a tough time with his business.

Being an elder at Zion Serangoon Bible-Presbyterian Church, Reuben invited Jack to church that same month.

Jack said: “I am the type of person that even if you tell me God is real or how He did a miracle in your life, I would not believe.

“I needed to experience God myself to believe.”

Divine revelations 

Having experienced a touch from God during the lowest moment in his life, Jack decided to follow Reuben to church. It had been years since he stepped into a church. 

There, he found himself crying for a whole ten minutes.

“I wasn’t crying because of what the pastor said or preached, or because of the songs. I realised it was because of all the shame and guilt I felt for walking away from God.

“I was so foolish trying to stand on my own, when God and my family had always been there for me,” he said.

The pastor preaching in the church that Jack first visited and where he now worships.

Looking back, Jack began to see the hand of God in His life. He realised he was never alone all that time.  

“The time when I was invited to open a hawker stall when I didn’t even apply for it; the time when I secured a suitable place when I needed a bigger factory — these were all from God who was directing my path.

“It would be very naïve to assume that all those were just luck. Not everyone gets lucky like this every single time,” Jack said.

From then on, he made time to go to church every Sunday morning. He used to work at the office on Sundays with a colleague, but now gave that colleague Sunday morning off since he was going to be in church.

“I like to listen to sermons and take notes,” Jack told Salt&Light. “Somehow His word began to resonate with me and I find that I can apply what I learnt in my life.”

When he learnt about seeds needing good soil to grow in the Bible, he also endeavoured to be good soil to his employees by being more patient when communicating with them.

Today, Jack’s business draws in over S$7 million in yearly revenue. His kimchi is also stocked at Cold Storage supermarkets.

Jack and his family in recent times.

Recently, he felt convicted reading Deuteronomy 8:3 where Moses reminded the Israelites how God humbled them, causing them to hunger and then feeding them with manna, only for them to realise that Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

“I realised that it was He who crafted my journey for me. Through the ups and downs, he was crafting me into the person I needed to be. I needed to be humbled and come to Him to see the bigger plan He had for me,” he shared.

Sharing his faith journey with others 

Every night, Jack prays and tries to journal his reflections before sleeping.

Being a content creator, he naturally thought about recording those thoughts and prayers in video format to share with his followers.

“I just wanted to share about my life and faith authentically with others. Sometimes, making these videos also force me to make a habit of praying,” he explained.

One of the Instagram videos that he posted about how he went to church for the first time in years garnered over 100,000 views.

The week after the video was posted, the church that he went to, Zion Serangoon Bible-Presbyterian church was more packed than usual.

Various people in church came up to Jack and said they had seen his video.

Jack shares his faith journey freely on social media.

“Growing up, I hated the church for forcing me to evangelise and share my faith with others when I was not ready,” he said. “So now I find it really ironic that I am just sharing about my life and others are impacted by it.”

He recalled how a pastor once noticed the teenage him questioning the faith and remarked: “It’s okay for you to reject God. For people like you, however, once you believe, you will be such a strong anchor and weapon of God.

Today, Jack shares his faith journey and prayers with others through weekly videos posted on his social media accounts.

One of the prayers he posted sums up his journey well: “Dear God, thank you for your patient heart and knowing me for the stubborn being that I am. Thank you for helping me overcome the hardships in my life for they drew me closer to You.”

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