First K-pop, now K-food: Seoul in South Korea’s push to highlight its culinary culture beyond kimchi and kimbap is finding fans
- In post-pandemic South Korea, recent festival Taste of Seoul – a citywide gastronomy event – sought to revive local and global interest in Korean food culture
- Chefs known for pushing contemporary renditions of Korean gastronomy are winning fans, while diners have a new-found interest in vegan Korean temple cuisine
South Korean food festival Taste of Seoul launched its third edition late last month with an awards ceremony at the Sebitseom Island convention centre in Seoul.
The event, which ran from September 30 to October 6 and was organised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, was the first citywide in-person gastronomy event of its kind since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as much of Asia moves into a post-pandemic phase. Two previous editions were held virtually because of the pandemic.
Taste of Seoul was held to promote the “diversity and differentiation of Seoul’s gourmet culture”. Michelin-star restaurant chefs hosted parallel events – Seoul Restaurant Week, Seoul Market Dining, Seoul Marché, Seoul Food Cinema and Seoul Sool Class – to spotlight Korea’s food and drinks culture.
Yoshihiro Narisawa, the chef-founder of Narisawa in Tokyo, also took part in the event’s Grand Gala Dinner, where he cooked with “godmother of Korean cooking” Cho Hee-sook and Son Jong-won of one-Michelin-star L’Amant Secret and Eatanic Garden.
“The Seoul government seeks to discover the city’s unique differences in cuisines and promote it both at home and abroad,” says Choi Kyeng-ju, the director general of the city’s tourism and sports bureau. “We want to become a global gourmet city and enhance our food tourism competitiveness.”
