KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I am the director of the Korean Food Grand Master Center, which carries out various activities to maintain the heritage of traditional Korean foods and promote their flavor and value. To briefly introduce our center, it is a comprehensive PR platform for traditional food established jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corporation (aT), and the Korean Food Grand Master. The center plans and carries out exhibitions, food experiences, and consulting related to traditional food.

2. What are some of the center’s past and present activities?

The center provides education, publicity, and consulting related to traditional food, along with many other activities that fulfill the purpose of its establishment. Among them, I would like to emphasize our experience program, which allows visitors to get to know Korean food through diverse direct encounters. We have organized countless experience programs in which participants were able to make jerky, persimmon vinegar, distilled spirits, pogi kimchi (whole Napa cabbage kimchi), makgeolli (rice wine), red pepper paste, ssalyeot gangjeong (sweet fried rice puffs coated with taffy syrup), rice cakes, soy sauce, bean paste, and teas. We also provide opportunities to taste traditional food and beverages, and to order food experience kits online.

3. I understand that some of your programs provide traditional Korean food experiences for foreigners. What are some of your efforts in this regard?

From October 2016 to last year, we had over 53,000 visitors to our center, and 3,200 of them were foreigners. I feel regretful about this number because it would have been much greater if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. It is particularly disappointing because foreigners usually don’t just participate in one center experience, but multiple. I remember a group of American businesspeople from Portland, Russian entrepreneurs, and Kazakhs living in Korea who actively took part in our makgeolli-making class. They were very interested in nuruk, the traditional Korean malt used for the rice wine. Some of them took or shipped the malt home to make more makgeolli on their own. Instead of just following along at a surface level, they closely and continuously examined and studied the fermenting process, asking us whenever they had questions. I was grateful and deeply impressed by their enthusiasm.

5. How is traditional Korean food doing in overseas markets? How is it received in foreign countries?

We provided hangwa for the opening ceremony of the Korea-China Library established in the China-ROK (Changchun) International Cooperation Demonstration Zone. The zone is expected to serve as a new platform for bilateral economic cooperation, and we thought it would be meaningful to send the traditional Korean treats to the ceremony. To our delight, the attendees greatly enjoyed the hangwa.

It is also very significant that we have cooperated with Korean diplomatic missions around the world to introduce traditional Korean food to a global audience. We have sent nuruk malt and makgeolli-making kits to the aT office in Kazakhstan, facilitating the beginning of makgeolli production there. Afterwards, a company in Kazakhstan named K2K expressed deep interest in the process, so we sent them a large amount of ingredients. In Hong Kong, we have opened a new market by exporting hangwa to Hong Kong COFCO through the office of the Korean Consulate General, and by holding special exhibitions and showcases at supermarkets.

Let me mention one more event. On December 6, 2021, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, the Conférence d'Art de la fermentation coréenne (Conference on Korean fermented food) was held, arousing enormous interest among the locals. The traditional jang sauces of Master Ki Soon-do, Korean Traditional Food Master No. 35, were extremely popular. French chefs were most enthusiastic about the tasting of the 360-year-old “seed soy sauce” (a crystalized salt that forms a soy sauce base) that Ki had brought from her home, the time-honored residence of the Jangheung Go clan, and her kimchi-making demonstration.

6. I understand you have recently co-authored a book about traditional alcoholic drinks. What motivated you to co-author the book, and could you give us a brief summary?

The Korean Food Grand Master system was adopted in 1994, and there are currently 81 masters—25 for traditional alcoholic drinks, 13 for sauce, 6 for kimchi, 9 for rice cakes and cookies, 7 each for teas and taffies, and 14 for others. As the drinks category is the largest, the 25 masters hold more varied classes and experiences than those in other fields. Master Cho Jung-hyung of the liquor company Leegangju told me that he wanted to write a book with me on his experience with traditional wine, liquor masters, and classes on the secrets behind the masters’ wine-making. He proposed co-authorship. I gladly joined him in writing the book because I thought it would be a good opportunity to share information about the masters’ alcoholic drinks and their secret recipes to future generations. The book, titled Secret Recipes of Traditional Liquor and Masters’ Drinks, was published in July of last year. It covers the masters’ materials, basic information about alcoholic drinks, the history and characteristics of traditional liquor, the tools of traditional wine-making, the drinking cultures of the world, and the way that the grand masters make traditional drinks.

7. What are your plans and wishes for this year?

I plan to work harder to enable the Korean Food Grand Master Center to fulfill its role as a platform that connects the past, present, and future of Korean food culture. I will develop online kits optimized for this non-contact era, and develop interesting programs for people to experience the culture of Korean food. My wishes are to take the lead in sharing information about our traditional food and to contribute even slightly to the globalization of our food culture.