KOREA FOUNDATION

1. Please briefly introduce yourself.

I grew up in a Christian family. As a teenager, I was encouraged by a friend to read the book Mind by the Buddhist monk Cheongdam. I was so impressed by his essay “You Are the Master of Your Mind” that I became a Buddhist monk in my twenties. I live happily and busily every day with a sense of gratitude. As a monk from the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, I want to lead a life that heaven, Earth, and people want me to live.

2. In June 2022, you were named the Jogye Order’s temple food master thanks to your outstanding efforts to pass on, preserve, and popularize Korean Buddhist temple food. What does this honor mean to you?

The job of temple food master refers to a monk of the Jogye Order with expertise in temple cuisine. This person must serve as a good example and positive influence through diverse activities and lead the promotion of temple food. I would like to benefit and edify other people whenever and wherever necessary through temple food.

3. From 2011, you were on the Jogye Order’s committees for the publication of temple food textbooks and advisory. For three years from 2013, you compiled standardized teaching material with the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism. Could you tell us more about it?

Making the teaching material was quite significant and essential for the preservation and passing on of temple food, since monks and temples nationwide had their own cooking traditions and recipes. The five members of the order’s advisory committee—Jeong Kwan, Seonjae, Jeokmun, Daean, and myself—played the central role in producing the material by discussing the theories and practices of Buddhist cooking. Through time-consuming efforts and discussions, we mutually endorsed each other’s recipes and produced a standardized textbook. This book is widely used not only in classes conducted by the order’s education office but also at temples around the country.

4. Since the inaugural event “Experience Korean Temple Cuisine” in New York in 2010, you have attended events on temple food in Belgium, China, Italy, Russia, and Spain. From 2017 to 2019, you also promoted temple food at the Korean Cultural Center in New York. How was the response?

Since 2010, such events were organized mainly by the respective local Korean Cultural Centers (KCC), and I gave lectures on temple food to people worldwide, including ambassadors, opinion leaders, and power bloggers. I introduced temple cuisine, which is rich in the spirit of Korean Buddhism, through practical training, demonstrations, and tasting as well as interactive programs. The culinary culture of Korean temples corresponded well to that of those countries, and people there were amazed and fascinated by it. Global interest in Korean temple food seems to have grown over time.

5. What are the characteristics of Korean temple food?

First, we use no meat or seafood as they are prohibited under the Buddhist belief that all life is precious. Second, we do not use osinchae, or the five acrid vegetables, including garlic, chives, green onions, wild chives, and asafetida. These vegetables stimulate desire for food and tempt people with their strong smell. Such ingredients are unsuitable for those who pursue an ascetic life. Third, temple food has medicinal effects. Using medicinal herbs gathered on mountains, temple food has developed over a long time with the utmost care. The herbs provide nourishment while preventing or treating illness. Temple food enables people to seek truth while being healthy, as it has a high nutritional balance. Fourth, only natural seasoning and condiments are used. Last but not least, temple food is based on seasonal vegetables.

6. You wrote the first English-language book on Korean temple food, Wookwan’s Temple Food: The Road to the Taste of Enlightenment, which earned a silver medal from the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) of the US in the cooking book category in 2018 and the IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin Award in 2019. Why did you write the book?

When I visited the US in 2017 at the invitation of the KCC in New York, a publisher asked me to write an English-language cookbook. I was glad to accept the offer as I thought it was a great opportunity. When I went to the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 2010, I decided to write a cookbook on Korean temple food as I failed to find one in English at the institute’s library. Since the book’s publication, I have heard that it received good reviews on Amazon as the first English-language book on Korean temple cuisine. When I visited Belgium last year at the invitation of the KCC in Brussels, a woman came to me with a copy of the book and asked for my autograph, which felt rewarding.

7. What are your plans and hopes for globally promoting Korean temple food?

I am now at the Mahayeon Temple Food Cultural Center. My little dream is to form a community in which people with the same mindset meditate and train to head toward the same direction, caring for their minds and bodies with temple food. I also hope to launch an international program to help even one person live a healthier life. I want to devote my remaining life to purifying the world, making it bloom like a flower, and sharing my merit with others.