Matjip: This software engineer quit tech to start a Korean microbakery
đź“Ť San Francisco, CA
đź”— hotplate.com/matjip
Michelle didn’t wait until everything was figured out to start her business. But one thing was clear: baking couldn’t be boxed into her nights and weekends anymore.
“I don’t have everything figured out,” she wrote in her very first post. “But the important thing is to just start.”
How it started
Baking has been Michelle’s passion since she was a kid. She remembers spending evenings watching Food Network and flipping through recipe books.
Food and baking “was always the thing I would go to and what I spent all my free time doing.”
Even as she built her career in tech working as a software engineer, baking remained her constant creative outlet and what she looked forward to outside of her day job.
“All of my time and energy outside of work was going into baking,” she says. “I thought I was fine with it being a side hobby, but over time it just kind of consumed my whole life.”
A few years ago, she started to push beyond following recipes and began developing her own, sharing her work on her food account @mkwon.makes.
“Through documenting and sharing, you start to see your own growth. And then you just get more passionate,” she says. She started to wonder what her passion might lead to if it wasn’t just a side project.
From side hobby to full-time leap
To test that idea, Michelle took her first big step last year.
She enrolled in École Ducasse’s pastry essentials program and stepped away from work to fully immerse herself in baking for two months.
“I decided to go to a pastry school program and take a break from work to go to that and use that as a test for myself. Like, even if I do this as my full-time job, do I still love it with that same intensity? And the answer to that was yes. Even baking like eight, ten hours a day on my feet, I was so happy and felt so fulfilled during that period.”
When she got back from Paris, she returned to her full-time engineering job and struggled to squeeze her love for baking into nights and weekends.
“My work life balance did not allow me to have any other kind of life really. And I was just growing increasingly frustrated and also really wanted to make something of my experience in the school and build on top of that momentum while I had it.”
In March, she took the leap. She left her full-time engineering job and got started on Matjip, even before she felt “fully ready”. She started applying to opportunities, launched on Hotplate, and stayed determined to learn along the way.
What she’s building today
Today, Matjip is a small-batch Korean home bakery in San Francisco. Michelle describes her recipes as “reimagining the Korean flavors [she] grew up with through a pastry lens.”
The name itself reflects her mission. Matjip (맛집) literally translates to “taste house,” but is commonly used to describe places known for serving delicious food.
“Matjip is my way of introducing Korean flavors and food culture to a wider audience, one pastry at a time – making things like street food and fermented bean pastes feel accessible and exciting to people who might not have grown up with them!”
Look out for the Savory Jang Trio on her menu. Three savory milk buns inspired by the umami-rich fermented soybean condiments that serve as the foundation of Korean cuisine.
“In Korea, there are three kinds of master sauces—gochujang, fermented bean paste, and soy sauce,” she explains. “I build buns around those, infusing the dough and fillings in different ways.”
The result is something both personal and approachable. A way for people to experience flavors they may never have heard of.
Michelle is also curious about the other doors that Matjip might open down the road.
“I’m hoping to get it to a maintainable rhythm operationally,” she says. “But long term, I see this as a way to develop recipes and share them with others.”
Discovering Hotplate
Michelle first discovered Hotplate through other bakers she followed online.
“I saw it through social media, especially through other microbakers like Hali Home Bakes,” she says. “Her journey, it inspired so much of mine too…I think I knew that she was doing things through Hotplate…and then from following Hotplate, I got introduced to other micro bakeries that I followed and I learned like, Oh my gosh, this is such a cool tool and platform.”
For someone just starting out, simplicity mattered. “It felt like it made it so easy for me to just kind of get something up and going.”
A lesson that shaped her approach
Q: What’s a piece of advice about running a baking business that changed how you work?A: “Baking cannot be rushed—and honestly, that’s one of the things I love most about it. But it took me burning myself out in the first month to really internalize that.”
In the beginning, Michelle tried to do too much at once.
“I overcommitted and stacked my schedule. I’d be juggling too many things, watching the clock, trying to squeeze bakes in between everything else,” she says. “And I’d make silly mistakes, which meant redoing everything.”
Now, she approaches things differently.
“I don’t compromise on my timeline. Taking my time will save my time.”
How to find Matjip
Just a month into it, Michelle already has 4 popups lined up this month. If you’re in SF, find the details pinned on her Instagram and subscribe to her Hotplate notifications here.
She’s staying flexible as she grows - exploring what she enjoys, experimenting with new ideas, and building something that feels sustainable.
Michelle stopped by the Hotplate office last week. She brought along two boxes of treats that left us speechless, wide-eyed, standing over our office’s kitchen table. We were lucky enough to try her Malted Banana Milk Bread - still warm from the oven - and Honeycomb Graham Chocolate Cookies. We all subscribed to her storefront (www.hotplate.com/matjip) on the spot.
