Scoring food

Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul

In search of definitive food guide

Government plans to create the Korean equivalent of the Michelin restaurant guide, but is this really a job for public servants?

By Baek Byung-yeul

At one point or another, everyone has been disappointed by a restaurant, whether by poor service or unpalatable food. To avoid repeating their mistakes, people consult food blogs, dining guides or even other diners to learn more about a restaurant before going there.

Koreans are serious about getting good food and there has been growing complaints about the paucity of dining guides that are professional and impartial.

Restaurant reviews here are often media sponsored. Blogs and social media are no longer reliable as sources of honest opinion as restaurants and food companies learn to use them as marketing tools.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs offers a straightforward solution to the issue ― create Korea’s equivalent of the Michelin Guide, the world-renowned France-based food and travel guide.

“According to several of our own surveys, the customer satisfaction rate in dining out is at only about 65 percent. In an attempt to improve quality in the food-service industry, we will implement a restaurant evaluation system in cooperation with private sectors, much like how the Michelin Guide does things,’’ said an official from the ministry, which announced the plans for the guide in March.

Tourists taste “bibimbap,’’ or rice with vegetables, meat and red-pepper paste, at a Korean food promotion event in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, in October last year. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The Michelin Guide was first released in 1900 by brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, who are also the founders of the Michelin tire manufacturer.

The guide’s two editions ― the “Green Guide,” which focuses on traveling destinations, and the “Red Guide,” which focuses on restaurants and hotels, and awards them one, two or three stars ― are respected by tourists and food-lovers around the world.

It would be nice for Korea to have its own, reliable restaurant guide. But it is debatable whether the government capable of authoring one.

Readers want restaurant reviews that are smart and impartial, and this requires the writer to be judicious. This is probably not a job for a civil servant.

This is not the first time the Korean government, enthusiastic in promoting the country’s food and beverages sector, attempted to create a definitive national guide on restaurants. Policymakers are trying again because the previous effort did not work and there seems little reason to think the results would be different this time.

It was in 2009 when former President Lee Myung-bak ambitiously launched the “Korean Cuisine to the World’’ project aimed at making “hansik" (Korean cuisine) one of the "world’s five healthiest cuisines."

Kim Yoon-ok, wife of former President Lee Myung-bak, appears on a CNN program introducing Korean traditional food in 2009. / Korea Times file

Although it was unclear such a list could even exist, the government was adamant about getting on it and have this honor published in Michelin’s Red Guide.

That was a curious goal considering that Michelin has yet to publish the Red Guide on Korea, although it released the Green Guide on the country in 2011.

The Green Guide provided information on tourist attractions and 194 restaurants in the country, but did not rate them.

Park Geun-hye, the current president, has also been promoting Korean food. Last year, she even called for Michelin to publish a Red Guide on Korea.

However, critics such as Park Tae-soon, an influential food blogger better known as Gundown, voiced skepticism about the government-led efforts for a food evaluation system.

"The government is equating this with Smart Consumer, the Korean version of Consumer Reports, launched by the Fair Trade Commission a few years ago,” said Park.

“Though the government launched the website in order to provide fair information about products, most people don’t consider the reviews there as a major factor when purchasing. It is just one of many review sources.

“Scoring food also differs significantly from scoring products on Smart Consumer. One man’s meat is another man’s poison ― everyone has different tastes in food. This is why criticizing a restaurant must be subjective.’’

More than 36 million Internet users have visited Park’s blog since he started in 2006 as the author has gained a reputation for his informative and often scathing reviews of restaurants.

Park thinks that policymakers lack a basic understanding of the principles of critiquing food.

"Do you know what the Michelin Guide emphasizes the most? It is neither the taste of the food nor the cleanliness or food safety of the restaurant. It is the consistency of the restaurant.

“To become a Michelin-star restaurant, I’ve heard that the quality of the service should be consistent among the various critics who visit the store at any time,” he said.

“That’s how I evaluate restaurants, too. Though I don’t give stars or numbers, I care about consistency. I doubt that the government understands this basic principle.”

Park regards the idea of a state-authored Michelin clone as unwise and claims it is best that the government stays out of the world of food criticism entirely.

“Needless to say, even the Michelin Guide cannot satisfy everyone’s taste, but people trust the French gourmet guide because the information it provides is clear and impartial,’’ he said.

“Instead of commenting on taste and experience, the government can comment on restaurants’ quality of ingredients and the cleanness of their shops and cooking spaces. But they have already invested in an evaluation system for that ― the Good Restaurant System ― but failed miserably in promoting it.’’

Park was referring to the Good Restaurant system implemented by the government in 1989 in a bid to improve the cleanliness, food safety and service quality of restaurants.

Under the provision of the food hygiene regulation, the government gives good-quality restaurants a plaque that reads “Good Restaurant,” which they can display for customers.

Though over 30,000 restaurants in the country have received the plate as of 2010, Park pointed out that they are “meaningless ornaments.”

“This is the regulation that we should fortify ― we should address inadequate articles. I’ve noticed a slew of restaurants that display the Good Restaurant plate at their entrances but have food sanitation violations. I don’t understand why the government doesn’t endeavor to beef up this regulation,” he added.

Like Park said, there are also a few unbiased restaurant guides already available.

The gourmet guide, “Story of Land, Story of Taste,’’ voluntarily written by some 4,000 employees of the Korea Cadastral Survey Corporation (KCSC) who share their restaurant experience, is widely read.

KCSC employees travel a lot due to the nature of their jobs. As they travel all over the country to survey land, they are able to visit many restaurants. The guide contains their reviews on about 400 restaurants.

The guide was released only in PDF format at first, but the KCSC decided to release it in print in January because of the digital version’s unprecedented popularity.

The 387-page print edition reviews the best restaurants in the country, many of which aren’t even known to locals.

Park said we need to “encourage people to keep writing about their experiences after eating at a restaurant.”

He added: “Becoming a critic is not that hard. Anyone can convey his or her honest feelings. We have to respect the voices of ordinary people instead of disregarding them.”