KFPI Sends Chefs to Overseas Hotels to Teach Korean Cuisine

The KFPI and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) conducted its first Korean cuisine classes for chefs at overseas hotels for 2022 in Jordan and Panama. This project has been conducted by the KFPI from 2010 through 2021 at 68 hotels outside Korea with the goal of raising awareness and increasing understanding of Korean cuisine. This year, chefs specialized in Korean cuisine will be sent to a total of eight hotels to: 1) educate local chefs on how to prepare Korean dishes and 2) oversee events at the hotel (e.g. Korean food gala dinner) and facilitate the addition of Korean foods to the hotels’ permanent menu.

The team sent to Fairmont Amman (chefs Kim Doseop and Kim Chunbae) demonstrated how to make royal cuisine, including chiljeolpan (“platter of seven delicacies”) and baekseolchae (salad made with pine nut sauce and apples), as well as “modern” dishes such as yangnyeom galbi (marinated beef ribs), dakgangjeong (deep-fried and braised chicken), and bibimbap. The most popular of the demonstrated foods were yangnyeom galbi and dakgangjeong for their sweet spiciness. Korean Food Night, an event hosted in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Jordan, was also very well-received, with the president of Fairmont Amman and many local opinion leaders showing an interest in Korean food.

The team sent to Sheraton Grand Panama (chefs Park Heedon and Jeon Jonghwan) showed local chefs how to make neobiani (marinated grilled beef slices), jjimdak (braised chicken), galbi sauce, samgyemari (jujube and ginseng rolled in chicken breast), and sikhye (sweet rice punch). After the class, participants said that the lessons were very helpful in improving their Korean food capabilities, with several expressing their expectation that Korean foods will soon be included on the hotel’s permanent menu. There was also a mini-Korean cuisine buffet operated in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Panama that was attended by approximately 170 locals.

KFPI President Yim Kyungsook said, “I hope that sending teams of Korean cuisine chefs to prominent foreign hotels to educate local chefs and raise local awareness of high-end Korean foods will contribute significantly to spreading a positive image of Korean food overseas.”

Countries and hotels (8) to conduct project in 2022

USA (Guam, Dusit Thani Guam Resort), China (Foshan, Courtyard By Marriott Foshan), Kazakhstan (Nur-Sultan, Ritz-Carlton Astana), Spain (Madrid, InterContinental Madrid), Jordan (Amman, Fairmont Amman), Brazil (Sao Paulo, Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi), India (New Delhi, Eros Hotel), and Panama (Panama City, Sheraton Grand Panama)

KFPI Co-hosts Korean Food Cooking Contest with Korean Embassy in Tunisia

The KFPI and Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) have-with the goal of promoting Korean food and expanding MAFRA’s influence and export volume-worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) since 2018 to host an annual Korean food cooking contest. This year’s contest had 13 participating countries from all over the world, including Tunisia, Thailand, and Germany, with citizens of each country showing their interest in Korean food in various ways. The contest’s effect is boosted by the simultaneous hosting of taste-testing sessions and promotional events for locals.

On July 2, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Tunisia hosted the cooking contest in the country’s capital, Tunis, with great success. Locals acquainted themselves with bibimbap, which was this year’s theme, in creative and fun ways. Furthermore, the fact that semolina (hard wheat particles), the main ingredient of Tunisia’s staple, couscous, takes approximately three hours to cook was used as the basis for promoting Korea’s instant rice and the technology used to produce it.

The first-place winner, Charaf Haddaji, is a 24-year-old prospective graduate of a Tunisian culinary school who currently works as a part-time team leader at a famous restaurant in Tunis. Haddaji said, “I have become even more interested in Korean food through this contest. I hope to develop dishes that make Korean food familiar to and popular with Tunisians.”

The K-Brunch event, which was held on the same day, had approximately 200 visitors. Chefs conducted on-site demonstrations of how to make kimchi and various other dishes, including japchae (stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables), chilled jumbo shrimp-andpine nut salad, and eight types of kimchi. The brunch was attended by not only representatives of Tunisia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Tunisians Abroad but also many upper-level government officials, including the mayor of Tunis. Attendance by representatives of a prominent Tunisian food processing company and management-level employees of major pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies highlighted the brunch as an invaluable cultural exchange opportunity for Korea and Tunisia.

The cooking contest, which was the first government-hosted event on Korean food held in Tunisia since the country’s establishment of a diplomatic presence in Korea, is significant because it was the first time that the Tunisian public was able to access Korean culinary culture in a free and convenient way.