Tan left behind a punishing daily commute on Tokyo’s rail network and a career at a multinational corporation to launch Mikan, a cross-cultural culinary venture in Barcelona. According to reporting by Laura Conde in La Vanguardia, the 27-year-old entrepreneur transitioned from corporate life to the food sector after a spontaneous realization during a trip to the Catalan capital, establishing a restaurant that blends her Chinese heritage, Korean family background, and years living in Japan with local Catalan ingredients.
From Tokyo Cubicles to Barcelona Nights
Before relocating to Europe, Tan spent years navigating a demanding routine in Tokyo, where she worked five days a week after completing a degree in economics. Born in Shenyang in northern China near the Korean border into a family of North Korean descent, she moved to Japan with her parents at age nine. She spent her youth moving between the two countries before settling in Tokyo, where she accepted a standard corporate trajectory she previously viewed as inevitable. That trajectory shifted during a vacation in Barcelona, while she was attending the Bruch Electronik electronic music festival at Montjuïc. Conversing with a local resident, she reconsidered her lifestyle constraints and decided to leave her corporate job at age 27 to study a master’s degree in tourism in Spain, as reported by La Vanguardia.
Building Mikan from a Pandemic Side Project
After initial dissatisfaction working for a Japanese food company in Barcelona, Tan returned to cooking, a long-held personal interest. During pandemic lockdowns, she began organizing private dinners for friends, which quickly expanded to include friends of friends and boxed takeout orders prepared on her days off. Growing demand led her to quit office work entirely in 2021. Operating out of a shared kitchen space in Poble-sec, she laid the groundwork for Mikan—named after the Japanese word for mandarin orange, which was also the name of one of her cats. In 2023, she officially opened Mikan alongside her partner, Woody Wong, and her friend Arthur Holland, featuring a menu paired with natural wines.
A Menu Without Borders
Mikan’s menu reflects Tan’s multi-layered background, combining traditional East Asian staples like kimchi, seaweed, and tofu with hyper-local Catalan products sourced from regional suppliers. According to La Vanguardia, the kitchen utilizes local ingredients such as pork from d’pagès, beef from Cal Tomàs, and regional fish catch. Among the restaurant’s signature dishes are eringi mushrooms prepared with garlic butter and ponzu sauce. Balancing motherhood with restaurant operations, Tan notes that despite the physical demands of running the establishment, she maintains a strong preference for Barcelona’s open social climate over the more reserved emotional expression she experienced in Asia, and she is already exploring plans for a second location.
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