Cultural delegates: two chefs, one passion
By Ines Min
The Culture 20 (C20) kicks off today with delegates from the G20 member countries gathered in Seoul for three days of cuisine, concerts, clothes, cinema and communication. The event, hosted by the Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), is designed to create natural ambassadors of culture from the iconic names coming here for a truly Korean experience.
The Korea Times sat down with the delegates from the United Kingdom and India — both chefs — for an inside look at their thoughts and opinions on national cuisine and their personal experiences.
United Kingdom
Judy Joo is a slim figure, dressed in a peaked-lapel blazer and dangling earrings. Her handshake is as strong as her confidence and her easy-flowing, purposeful speech: a mile a minute.
Joo, a Korean-American living in London for the past five years, will represent the United Kingdom during the C20, making a return visit to her native country. The 35-year-old graduated from Columbia University with a degree in the sciences before heading off to Wall Street to work with Morgan Stanley. However, the call of spices and seasonings soon pulled her to the French Culinary Institute in New York, where she reconnected with her love of food.
Since then, the dauntless figure has made it an aim of hers to help spread the reach of “hansik,” Korean cuisine, through her work.
“Nobody really knows about Korea in terms of its culture, everybody knows Korea as a technology place. The names that are associated with Korea the most are Samsung, Hyundai, and LG,” Joo told The Korea Times in an interview Monday. “I think a lot of the culture gets lost. Whereas people know about Japanese culture, they know about Chinese and Thai culture. I think most people can point out what a Chinese mandarin dress looks like, and a kimono, but they have no idea what a Korean hanbok would look like. The same with the food, I feel.”
Joo currently works as a freelancer, writing culinary books, articles and even ghost writing. “Just pitching articles to food editors for some of the biggest food magazines (in London),” she gave an example, “I get an email back ‘Oh, we just did a story on Vietnam, we’re not returning to Southeast Asia right now.'"
Just last year, Joo was featured as one of four Iron Chefs for the TV program’s U.K. debut. Though the demanding show was one of the most challenging experiences she’s ever faced, the cool-headed professional still managed to portray her personality and background, creating such dishes as “crab gimbap,” fusing Korean with Western-styled influences.
Though she was born in New Jersey and raised Stateside, Joo grew up under the deep influence of hansik, with the help of her mother providing limitless authentic dishes throughout her youth.
“She used to drive for hours and pick up ingredients in New York City and really make everything from scratch, because she had to,” Joo said, adding with a laugh that she and her sister were often employed to make mounds of “mandoo,” or Korean dumplings, and pick sesame leaves from the garden.
The chef, who has had experience in both the West and the East, believes one of the most surprising elements of the culture summit for visiting delegates will be the distinct personality and flavor palette of Korean cuisine.
“Despite having so many wars here and being occupied, Korea has really remarkably maintained its unique culture: language, people, food, and everything,” she said. “So even though it’s a small country, I think that people will be surprised at how different it is from Japan and China.”
She added that in Japanese cuisine, the focus is heavily placed on the ingredients, using the freshest fish and using the naked components. Chinese food, on the other hand, is often about the sauces, although the greasy connotation is often just a result of Western influences.
“Korean food, I feel, is in-between because it’s healthy but it’s full of pungent flavors,” she said. “I also feel that it reflects the people, kind of like this ‘what you see is what you get,’ because Koreans tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves.”
“I think culture is always reflected in the food, and Korean food is always balanced — just look at bibimbap, all the different colors and all the different textures.”
One of the best ways to export the food to other countries, Joo explained, is through accessibility and showing how the food can be used. C20 will be helpful for those foodies looking to explore new ground, such as the trip to Noryangjin market at dawn on Thursday.
“I think that, particularly for the other chefs on the trip, for them to really embrace Korean food, not only do they have to taste it, but they have to learn about the ingredients.
“After they take the techniques and the ingredients or the flavors that they have learned here, perhaps they can use them in their own countries.”
She added: “That’s what globalization of food is. It’s about trying the food and introducing people how to make the food.” The best way is to take it one small element at a time, updating a typical dish and introducing the flavor of another country in an unexpected twist.
“It’s also less scary, because it’s something that they know with something that they don’t know.”
India
Hemant Oberoi is an impossibly busy man, but not one to forget courtesies or rush things. Calm by nature, Oberoi speaks in a steady voice, making one almost forget that he manages 24 luxury hotel restaurants across the globe, from Calcutta to Boston to London.
The soothing manner of Oberoi might stem from a strong sense of self and a firm belief in destiny. The 56-year-old originally wanted to be a doctor, then an army official and then a hotel manager. However, after mishaps, obstacles and disappointments, Oberoi decided to try his hand as a “chef,” following the suggestion of a professor. It led him to become one of India’s most well-known names, catering scrumptious meals to heads of state from the Middle East to the United States.
“Nothing is easy in life,” Oberoi told The Korea Times in an interview Tuesday, a couple short days after his arrival in the country. “It’s a lot of hard work and I wanted to be on the fast track.”
Now, after years of traveling many countries and working 20-hour days, the self-taught chef has seen his way to become executive chef at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, continues opening restaurants across the globe (Cape Town, which opened last month, is his latest), and still manages to find time to create all of his own menus.
Though his restaurants specializing in Lebanese, French, Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine, one of his greatest claims to fame has been helping reinvent the concept of Indian food.
“I wanted to change the myth of Indian food, that Indian food is heavy and very spicy,” he said. “I wanted to create food that is lighter.”
Reducing the cream content by nearly 70 percent in his recipes, Oberoi brought a new level of fine dining to his native country’s dishes as well, focusing some restaurants on luxury.
“(Patrons) must eat with their eyes. The food must be eye-opening. The rest is in the taste, of course.”
Not to overlook his small-town roots, or the colorful culture of India, his chain of Masala restaurants (Masala Art, Kraft and Bay) offers both local and regional specialties. The dishes at Masala Art, the first of the series, are served in a tiffin box, a metal lunchbox ubiquitous in India.
“I do research on various areas and I like to see forgotten foods,” he said, explaining his love for the recipes made by generations past that are largely dying out.
“People can eat the food, go back and work, and I want to give them the feeling of home-cooked food, like our mothers and grandmothers would do.”
Yet, fusion is probably what Oberoi does best, creating new dishes that combine elements from the East, West and everywhere in between. A particularly favorite hobby of his is to concoct entire menus based on single ingredients. He once created an asparagus-based selection, which ranged from tempura to vichyssoise.
“The customers get fed-up with the same thing over and over; they want a change,” he said, adding that he is constantly jotting notes for new ideas while on flights across countries. “Today, if you want to be a leader, you have to change ahead of the times — otherwise somebody else will do it.”
Oberoi is also looking forward to incorporating the domestic tastes with his menus back home. (The first time he tried hansik was in Hong Kong, which led to a kimchi and tuna based roll.)
“I think the ginseng stocks are good,” he said. “Let me see what best I can think of doing with ginseng. I’m going to carry a lot of the chilies and the chili pastes from here.”
“I was already speaking to the chef of (the Grand Intercontinental Hotel) this morning and I told him, ‘Can you give me samples of all these?’ so he’s going to vacuum pack them for me,” Oberoi said with a smile. “And I’m going to take them back and try to experiment.”
The C20, he added, will be an opportunity to learn and see more about other places in the world.
“There is no better platform than this to bring all the cultures together,” he said, adding that he looked forward most to interacting with locals and the other delegates. “People are traveling, people are learning about cultures now, and we must respect each other’s cultures.”