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- [ By Lee Won-il (Director of the Cooking Class for Foreigners, Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine) ]
- My dream of opening a Korean cooking class for foreigners at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine dates back to my period of study abroad. I lived in a dormitory with other international students where we shared food with one another. This naturally brought me closer to them and helped me understand them better. This is when I found out that inter-cultural exchange could happen not only through verbal communication but also through the sharing of food.
If I were to summarize my feelings from running the cooking class for foreigners for the first time this year, it would be “More Exposure, More Interest.” The more foreigners are exposed to Korean culture, the greater their interest becomes in hansik. They were particularly curious about the dishes they came across in TV series or films, and they eventually became very interested about other Korean dishes as well. Furthermore, they wanted to know what options vegetarians have with hansik.
- I paid close attention not to boost foreigners’ impression of hansik as being spicy at the class. That was because the use of too much spice can get in the way of fully exploring the natural flavor of Korean ingredients. But I also made an effort to show how the unique basic spices are used to make Korean dishes Korean. The key spices are made of fermented food items like soy sauce, gochujang (chilly pepper paste), doenjang (soy bean paste), sesame oil, and vinegar.
Many foreigners expressed a great deal of satisfaction about the curriculum we prepared, and wondered why they did not find out about similar cooking classes earlier. Those who could not attend the next class because they had little time left in Korea asked about future opportunities to take part in a similar class and gave us their contact information. Such responses made us proud of our work.
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I think that the food in itself cannot fully appeal to the international market. The flavors of dishes lay the groundwork, then the vessel that holds the food, the atmosphere (architecture or interior design) in which the food is served, the outfit of the server who brings the food, the alcohol and music that complement the food, and the story behind the food have to work together to bring about the development of hansik as a total cultural product on an international sale. The declaration of hansik’s global development and the launch of hansik’s global development promotion committee last year might make the related efforts more systematic. Support for study on specific areas of hansik, including royal cuisine, Buddhist temple cuisine, folk cuisine, and traditional wine, needs to be provided.
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The development of hansik as something that can appeal to the palates of foreigners - in other words, the global development of hansik - is a relative concept. Each Korean person has a different preference in taste, and the same goes for people of different countries and regions within those countries. We need to find a way to localize hansik to appeal to the palates of all people around the world without losing its essence. The localization of Korean flavors can only come about with efforts to better understand other cultures.
- Curriculum vitae [ Lee Won-il ]
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- Lectured on hansik to international students at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine.
- Manger at tofu restaurant Duran
