A CUT ABOVE

While David Shim might have started out heading soccer balls (he initially pursued a career as a professional soccer player in Brazil), he now heads the kitchen at COTE, surrounded by dry-aged meats and Shinpo grills. After a chance visit to the Culinary Institute of America – where observing students practicing knife cuts spoke to his competitive spirit – he enrolled and subsequently graduated in 2008, and continued his career with stints at Gramercy Tavern,