F&B director to upgrade culinary experience

Banyan Tree’s newly appointed Food and Beverage Director Leo Kang / Courtesy of Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul

By Yun Suh-young

Often described as Korea's Gordon Ramsay, Leo Kang had been a harsh and brutally honest critic while serving as one of the three judges on the "Master Chef Korea" series aired by a local cable television channel.

A year has passed since the last airing of the third series and now the acclaimed chef has taken a new turn as the F&B (food and beverage) director at the Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul since September.

"It was a position difficult to resist," said Kang, in an interview with The Korea Times. He briefly worked with the hotel back in 2010 as the head chef for the hotel's opening. His previous spots include running his own restaurants "Doha" and "Hwasumok by Kang Leo" and he has worked at Michelin-starred restaurants of world-renowned chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay and Pierre Gagnaire.

Since joining Banyan Tree as part of the regular staff, Kang immediately made moves in adding authenticity and creativity to the stagnant culinary scene. One of the moves was to introduce the "Taste Odyssey," a gourmet event held once a month with a different theme. The first two Taste Odyssey promotions involved Korean beef, and the third, which will be held Dec. 31, is a comprehensive culinary journey introducing eight course dinners using 16 local ingredients from 16 different cities.

A dish served at the second Taste Odyssey held in November at the Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul / Courtesy of Banyan Tree Club and Spa Seoul

"The concept changes every month. The reason why we organized this event was to offer entertaining culinary experiences to our customers. As the title speaks for itself, the program is like a gourmet journey. I'm using all my accumulated knowledge for the event from farming to purchasing ingredients," said Kang.

"Since I'm the director in charge of F&B, I don't have time to cook nowadays. So this event is an opportunity for me to cook for the customers."

Kang not only directs the kitchen but personally cooks during the Taste Odyssey event.

"With our last two events, we used different parts of hanwoo (Korean beef). The texture of the meat was different for all dishes. It was well received by our customers," he said.

He already planned the themes for the next two events to be held in January and February.

"In January, the event will be held at the ice rink. We will recreate the famous street food stalls of Jumunjin, Busan, Yeosu, Jeju and Gunsan. In February, we'll introduce appetizers, mains and desserts using chocolate," said Kang.

His new attempts are sailing smoothly so far.

"There's not much difference in working as an owner-chef and working in-house. Work is always difficult. What I wanted to do when joining this hotel was to think out of the box -- to break the rigidity and try new things," he said.

"Some are taking it well, others aren't. But customers are welcoming the change."

What the hotel lacked, he thinks, is its own uniqueness to stand out from the crowd.

"I think we were too sensitive about trends and changes in our surroundings. I don't want our hotel to be compared to others nor do I wish to compete with them. We will establish our own unique identity," he said.

"It's a pity we don't have a signature restaurant like other hotels -- ones that stand out on its own, just by the name itself. I hope to strengthen each of our restaurant brands so that they all can become representative in their own fields."

Plans are being discussed on ways to renovate the restaurants and to introduce new ones which won't overlap with the existing ones.

"They will be more approachable to ordinary customers and not just cater to high-end customers," said Kang.

He also plans to open markets on weekends at the swimming pool during the low seasons of spring and fall.

"I want to provide provincial governments an opportunity to promote their local produce in Seoul during the seasons when agricultural produce is abundant," he said.

"I think this would be meaningful because provinces which only promote to their residents get to directly market their products to Seoul citizens and residents here will finally get a chance to directly purchase fresh local ingredients."