Chef Balances Ingredients for Well-Being
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The hottest phrase in the culinary field for 2010 may be "well-being." Balancing people's diet for weight control, anti-aging and many other purposes is now becoming increasingly important in modern life.
Macrobiotics is one of the well-being trends rapidly gaining its momentum in Korea. The word comes from the Greek words macro (large, long) and bios (life.)
The main theory of the macrobiotic diet is to consume whole foods from the root to the fruit; to eat locally produced ingredients; and to avoid eating highly-processed or refined foods. Therefore, eating whole grains as staple food alongside vegetables, beans and other fresh natural ingredients is recommended.
Chef Rah Byeong-joon of Grand InterContinental Seoul's Marco Polo restaurant explained that macrobiotics involves a balancing act between yin and yang.
"The regimen categorizes all ingredients into yin and yang. For example, meat, especially red ones such as pork or beef, are considered to be strongly yang. Cheese and other dairies are strong yin-foods. Therefore, if you want to eat one of them, it is better to have one from the other side as well," he said.
Rah is now presenting some of his macrobiotic dishes at the restaurant through end of February.
He has scrapped the use of all meats and dairies, saying, "If you use tastes that are too strong, it is hard to strike a balance," he said.
He tried to draw up the menu according to yin and yang. In the case of yang ingredients, he tried to use them raw or steamed. For yin foods, he saut?ed or baked them.
Through these methods, some of the most interesting dishes were created, including soybean cheese caprese salad with vegetable ratatouille; Korean black rice risotto with eggplant, pine nut and balsamic reduction; green spaghetti served with anchovies, mushrooms, tomato and Kalamata olives. Each dish has its own effect on the human body such as helping to prevent heart disease and providing essential fatty acids that are good for the brain among.
"I first came across macrobiotic foods last year and thought such dishes might not be tasty. After all, when a restaurant gives up cooking meat, it must come up with something really good to make up for that," he said.
But the dishes are selling well. One hot item is the whole root and soymilk cheese salad, which is being praised as innovative and intriguing.
The soybean cheese caprese salad's flavorful soy mingles with the concept of cheese and goes well with the freshly sliced tomatoes. And the vegetable ratatouille and its balsamic sauce are in perfect harmony.
The cereal "steak," made of a variety of grains and served with morel mushroom sauce, is a good alternative to meat. Instead of stuffing ones stomach, the dish gives people more time to chew and enjoy the original taste of brown rice, beans, potato and more. The texture is softer than that of steamed rice but still requires a lot of chewing.
The dishes all have a signature style. It is, however, best to consult with the waiter or chefs before ordering, because you may not want to take a risk on dishes that cost well over 20,000 won each.
So, taking into account that we do not all have the knowledge and technique that Rah does, is it possible to calculate the yin-yang balance for our homemade macrobiotic menus?
Rah said it is quite easy. "Just think of what your mother or grandma used to make for you when you were really young. They would serve several vegetables with roasted fish for a meal and some steamed potatoes with little salt. How healthy and balanced is that?" he said. "Sometimes, it is amazing to go back to the 'old school' and see what we are truly missing," he added.