From boat to table

How the best of local ingredients reach our tables at hotels

/ Graphic by Cho Sang-won

By Yun Suh-young

“A-oh, a-oh,” says the auctioneer, signaling the beginning of the first sales of the day at 8 a.m., Thursday, at the auction house at Daecheon Harbor in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province.

Gathering a mass of bidders who had examined the condition of marine products that arrived that morning in advance, the auctioneer began shouting out numbers.

“Ten, now 10! 69,000 won! Number 44!” the first batch of fishes went to bidder No. 44 who was wearing a hat with his number on it.

“Now shrimps! Now crabs!” the auctioneer would shout without a pause, introducing a new auction item as soon as products were sold. The bidders signaled the numbers with their fingers when an item was called out. One box of monkfish was just sold to bidder No. 38 for 48,000 won.

When the product was sold, a tag with the number of the bidder was placed on top of the product.

A fishing boat arrives at Daecheon Harbor in Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province, carrying shrimps and baby octopuses to be sold at auction. / Korea Times photos by Yun Suh-young

The auction processed quickly and was a raucous scene with laughter and aggressive shouts from here and there. Some bidders were wearing jackets written “Boryeong Fisheries Cooperatives Broker/Wholesaler.”

“Give No. 2 to me, man. You gave it to me last time,” said a bidder to another.

To the dumbfounded reporter who was amazed at the unfamiliar scene, staff from the Westin Chosun Seoul explained how the system worked.

“The local brokers participate in the auction and transfer the products to retail and wholesalers across the country receiving a commission. The chain goes from fishermen to brokers to retail/wholesalers,” said Park Gi-beom, assistant manager of the Food and Beverage (F&B) Planning Team at the Westin Chosun Seoul.

Fishermen transfer their catch into a lift to be transferred from the boat to the dock via a crane.

The reporter was on a trip following the team on their regular “ingredient tour” to a local region in search of, and purchasing, fresh and new ingredients for their restaurants. This time, they traveled to Boryeong to purchase jumbo shrimps which are a seasonal ingredient that can only be obtained in September.

Selecting jumbo shrimps for the first time as their promotional item for September at Aria, the hotel’s buffet restaurant, the purchasing and F&B planning teams, and the executive chef set out on a tour to grab them firsthand.

To see how Korea’s oldest luxury hotel supplied their restaurants with quality ingredients and how it reached the tables of customers, the reporter spent 24 hours with staff to observe the entire process.

The purchasing team sets out on an ingredient tour like this regularly at least once a month and at most, twice a month.

Bidders gather around marine products that arrived that morning and examine their condition while the auctioneer shouts out items to be sold.

“It isn’t usual for hotels to set out on tours like this regularly. Most hotels purchase their orders via a middleman without visiting the regions of origin. Our hotel is one of the rare cases that make direct visits,” said Ryu Min-ji, assistant PR manager at the hotel.

The reason for setting out on tours like this is to get the rarest ingredients as a first mover.

“The purpose of these tours is to find new and rare ingredients,” said Kim Hyun-ki, leader of the purchasing team. “When we visit local harbors, for example, we can get products faster than in Noryangjin Fish Market in Seoul. We can buy them before others do. It’s meaningless if we use the same ingredients that others do after they have used them.”

Other than differentiating it from other hotels by discovering new and rare ingredients, another advantage was the direct transaction with the locals to receive the freshest products, said Kim. But because it was difficult to transact directly with the local sellers or fishermen, there was the need for a middleman like Lee Sang-chul, who owns a company dealing with transactions of fisheries. When the team visits a local region, they are at times accompanied by local experts such as Lee who can smoothly handle the process.

Jumbo shrimps bought by the Westin Chosun Seoul waiting to be transported to the hotel

“Local sellers have a hard time producing financial statements. If we contact them directly, they wouldn’t transact with us. So the role of a middleman like Lee is very important in the purchasing process,” said Kim.

Lee receives orders from six to seven five-star hotels. When he receives an order, he then orders the locals to send the products to him. This time, Lee accompanied the tour to help out in the purchasing of jumbo shrimps.

Just before the auction began, fishing boats started docking at the wharf. Fishermen transferred their catch into a large plastic bucket filled with water which was then lifted up from the boat via a crane to the dock. They were then poured into wooden boxes to be auctioned off.

From crabs, shrimps, halibut and gizzard shad to even rays, the auction house was filled with boxes of catch from that morning. The assistant to the auctioneer would flip the boxes from time to time to show how fresh the products were.

Executive chef Cho Hyung-hak demonstrates cooking jumbo shrimps on a grill.

“The ones with loose head were cheaper. But is that okay for cooking?” asked Kim from the purchasing team. “That’s fine. We don’t really need the heads anyway,” said Park from the F&B planning team who was a former cook.

“That’s right. Don’t worry about it,” said Cho Hyung-hak, executive chef at the hotel, who was also on the tour with the staff. Cho sets out on tours from time to time with the purchasing team to see what the local regions have for the season.

“Depending on our jobs, we see an ingredient from a different perspective,” said Kim who has had 25 years of purchasing experience. “The purchasing team sees whether an ingredient is suitable while the chefs start visualizing the ingredients as a cooked dish. For instance, if we consider how full the crab is with eggs, the chefs wonder what to do with the eggs.”

Grilled jumbo shrimps on platter

The hotel decided to use jumbo shrimps for the September promotional menu because it was a seasonal product available in autumn along with gizzard shad and crab. To maximize the texture of the shrimps, the promotional menu was decided on grilled shrimp for the hot dish and shrimp salad with pine nut dressing for the cold dish.

Back at the hotel, executive chef Cho demonstrated cooking the jumbo shrimps for the promotional menu.

First he roasted the shrimps on a hot grill and then transferred them into an oven to be cooked. The slightly burned shrimps were then placed with fruits and vegetables that match the taste of the shrimp. For the salad, various vegetables were mixed with the boiled shrimp in pine nut dressing.

“Because the season for acquiring ingredients in Korea is very short, we need to have a plan in advance to obtain the best and rarest ingredients as a front-runner,” said Cho. “Otherwise, it’s too late if we decide on an ingredient after the season starts.”

Shrimp salad with pine nut dressing ready to be served