Chef blends Korean, Swedish flavors to celebrate IKEA Gangdong anniversary

Chef Song Hoon / Courtesy of IKEA Korea

Celebrity chef Song Hoon has created an exclusive menu for IKEA, available only at the global furniture giant's Gangdong store to mark its first anniversary, the global furniture giant said Monday.

The dish, Meatball Shakshuka, reinterprets Swedish meatballs — the signature menu item served at restaurants in IKEA stores worldwide — in a fusion style. Song, who appeared in season two of Culinary Class Wars, adds stir-fried kimchi to the classic meatball.

The company said the new menu “has collaborated two different culinary cultures to put them together on the same table.”

Meatball Shakshuka is sold for limited quantities — 50 dishes on weekdays and 200 each on Saturday and Sunday.

Song and IKEA Korea have also collaborated for new recipes using ingredients available at Swedish Food Market, an offline aisle inside the company’s five locations here — Seoul, Busan and three cities in Gyeonggi Province — and its online platform. The goal of this initiative is to extend the availability of the Swedish cuisines at IKEA restaurants in Korea to the home of local customers.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Song to propose a new way of experiencing foods at our store. We will keep introducing various programs to encourage customers to see our store from a fresh perspective and discover joy in their everyday lives," said Vesa Hurttila, manager of IKEA Gangdong.

Song, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, was a sous chef at a three-starred Michelin restaurant in Manhattan. He has consistently appeared as a judge and contestant in food-themed shows from 2016 in Korean TV networks including JTBC, SBS and tvN. He currently manages two fine-dining restaurants in Seoul.