March 2023

Korean cultural centers around the world have been busy responding to the growing interest in Hansik. The Korean Cultural Center UK has been running various programs related to Hansik.

Poster of ¡®Korean Cuisine Menu Week¡¯ hosted by KCC UK in collaboration with Westminster Kingsway College

Building Various Channels

Efforts have been made to establish channels through which local people could experience Hansik through cooperation with Korean and international organizations such as Le Cordon Bleu, Westminster Kingsway College, Great British Chefs, Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism and the Seoul Tourism Organization.

The Korean Cultural Center UK has drawn interest from locals by introducing Hansik that fits local tastes as well as food and beverage trends. For example, people in the UK are very interested in vegetarianism with 5.8% of the population being vegetarian. Keeping this in mind, the Korean Cultural Center UK collaborated with Le Cordon Bleu London and Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism to present Korea¡¯s representative vegan food, temple food.

February of this year, the Korean Cultural Center UK invited Venerable Beop Song to teach people how to cook winter temple food over a two-day period. The cooking lecture was conducted for the Diploma in Plant-Based Culinary Arts and also for the general public. They also offered dishes that were unfamiliar to the locals such as majuk (Korean yam porridge) and yeongeunmujeon (lotus root and radish pancakes). Despite all of this, the cooking lecture sold out within three days, showing the high interest people in the UK have for Korean temple food.

The program showed that people are interested in many different kinds of Hansik other than well-known dishes. The Korean Cultural Center UK has curated Hansik according to each country¡¯s cultural background as well as food and beverage trends, showing that it is possible to introduce a broader and deeper world of Hansik to local people.

Scenery of Vincent Rooms during ¡®2021 Korean Cuisine Menu Week¡¯

Special Menus at Famous Restaurants

The Korean Cultural Center UK also conducted a program with Westminster Kingsway College, the oldest cooking school in the UK and the alma mater of English star chef Jamie Oliver. The program, Korean Cuisine Menu Week, was well received by students aspiring to be chefs as well as the general public.

The Korean Cuisine Menu Week program gave students menus with Korean cuisine courses that were composed directly by professors at Westminster Kingsway College. The students then presented the courses to the general public at the college¡¯s restaurant The Vincent Rooms Brasserie. Eleven Korean dishes were introduced through the program including bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetables), bulgogi (marinated grilled pork), kimchijeon (kimchi pancakes), and yangnyeom chicken (seasoned chicken).

The Vincent Rooms is a restaurant where students from Westminster Kingsway College participate from cooking to serving. It was selected as one of the top 10% of restaurants worldwide in 2020 by Tripadvisor, the world¡¯s largest travel site. The program marked the first time the restaurant had developed a menu for a specific country¡¯s cuisine, yet again highlighting the high interest in Hansik in the UK.

Until the Food is Placed on the Home Table

The best way to show one¡¯s love for Hansik is to actually make it at home. A video showing non-Koreans how to make Hansik has recorded a high number of views for Hansik-related content on YouTube, thus proving the high interest and love for the cuisine. However, there is a problem in which it may be difficult to procure the proper ingredients used to make the food in Korea. It doesn¡¯t matter if a recipe is easy to follow if people cannot obtain the right ingredients.

The Korean Cultural Center UK has produced Hansik recipe book for local people who want to make Hansik at home. The dishes were selected based on ingredients that could be procured locally in the UK, and the recipes were organized through a collaboration with professional chefs. Illustrations by famous illustrator Thibaud Hérem were also added to the recipe book.

The Korean recipe book contains everything from mini gimbap, dubu-jang (tofu paste), and sangchoojeon (lettuce pancakes) to temple food and fusion dishes such as kimchi risotto. It was distributed both online and offline, contributing to the formation of Hansik culture that could be enjoyed at home rather than at restaurants or events.

Hansik has gradually moved from the screen to the restaurant menu board, and has continued to move from the menu board to the home table. We hope that the activities of the global Korean cultural centers will help unfold the rich and deep world of Hansik and bring the cuisine to tables all around the world.