Five renowned South Korean chefs will team up with two American cooks to host a series of collaborative dinners in New York City next month under the theme of fermentation, the event's organizer said Monday.
British magazine Restaurant will join hands with Seoul-based gourmet magazine La Main to host "Korea NYC dinners" from June 9-11.
On the first night, two Korean chefs, Jang Jin-mo of A&ND Dining and Choi Hyun-seok of Elbon The Table, will host a dinner with Brooklyn-based chef Carlo Mirarchi of Blanca.
Another Korean duo, Kang Min-goo of Mingles and Tony Yoo of 24 Seasons, will work with Dan Barber of Blue Hill in Greenwich Village to present dinner the next day.
All four Korean chefs will collaborate with renowned chef-restaurateur Yim Jung-sik to create a gala Korea NYC Dinner at Jungsik's New York branch in Manhattan on June 11.
The list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2016 will be announced on June 12, and the chefs will hold an after-party following the awards ceremony on the next day.
Participants will also gather for a conference on June 12 to discuss the theme of "Korean fermentation," an essential part of Korean cuisine.
"There are many celebrity Korean chefs who can introduce fine Korean cuisine to the world, but they had very limited opportunities to stand on the global stage," Jang Eun-sil, the event's organizer and chief of editor at La Main, said during a press conference. "I hope this collaborative dinner series will give them a chance to promote Korean food and fermented cuisine."
Jung, who runs the two-star Michelin restaurant, hoped that the event will help widen the base for interest in Korean food, or hansik, in the global market.
"There were fewer than 20 Korean restaurants in Koreantown in Manhattan 10 years ago, but now, there are over 100 Korean restaurants. You can't eat at famous restaurants in dinner time without standing in line," Jung said. "Several Michelin-starred restaurants in New York use kimchi and ingredients. I think hansik will draw more attention through various cuisines and interpretation."
Preparing for the event, the Korean chefs have toured across the nation to discover new ingredients and craft a fresh way to present the cuisine.
"Although Korean chefs are good at cooking, Korean cuisine is relatively lesser known in the global market," said Choi, who cooks at the Seoul-based Italian fine restaurant. "I will reinterpret Korean soy sauce in Italian cuisine to familiarize foreigners with the fusion dish. I will focus on making a dish that can create more interest in hansik."
The most distinguished characteristic of Korean fermented food is the variety of ingredients, mostly vegetables.
"There is no other country that uses this wide range of vegetables for fermentation, which turns into various forms of side dishes," said Kang Min-goo, whose restaurant ranked 15th among The World's 50 Best Restaurants last year.
In 2013, the annual practice of making kimchi before winter, known as "gimjang," was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List.
Other typical fermented foods are sauces, or jang, of all kinds, including ganjang (soybean sauce), gochujang (red pepper paste) and doenjang (soybean paste).
The list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants is selected based on a poll of international chefs, restaurateurs, gourmands and restaurant critics. The restaurants are often forerunners of molecular gastronomy, with most of the restaurants serving haute cuisine. (Yonhap)