'Culinary Class Wars' chef Ven. Seonjae shares secret recipe

Seungso, also known as jatguksu, a dish of vegetable noodles and dumplings in pine nut soup, is prepared by temple food master Ven. Seonjae during a media promotion event at the Korean Temple Food Center in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" Season 2 turned temple food into a highly competitive global spectacle, bringing Ven. Seonjae a flood of offers to capitalize on her newfound fame.

Instead, Korea's first designated master of temple food refused the commercial hype to educate international and younger audiences about the unique cuisine, which is rooted in mindfulness and ecological concerns.

"I stopped my lectures in June last year and I am currently unemployed," Ven. Seonjae joked Thursday ahead of a cooking demonstration at the Korean Temple Food Center in Jongno District, Seoul.

"Others suggest I should capitalize on the momentum with variety shows and advertisements, but my way of acting is educating younger generations about our food culture to protect it and teach wisdom."

The event marked the first media promotion hosted by the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism under the Jogye Order since its launch in 2002. The organization said its goal is to make the value and spirit of temple food better known so that the cuisine is not consumed merely as a passing fad.

Temple food master Ven. Seonjae holds a bowl of seungso, a dish of vegetable noodles and dumplings in pine nut soup, during a media promotion event at the Korean Temple Food Center in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

Temple food philosophy

"I don't know if everyone cooks at home. Seeing you smile, I guess you can't because you are busy," Ven. Seonjae said. "In Buddhism, a meal is called 'gongyang' (offering), but what does that mean? It means sharing food with the body, and using it to fix our mind on wisdom."

The featured dish was "seungso," a pine nut soup with vegetable noodles and dumplings that she presented on the hit Netflix series. Ven. Seonjae personally proposed the demonstration menu, which drew high praise from star judge chef Anh Sung-jae during the show.

She explained that seungso means "the dish that makes monks smile." More commonly referred to as jatguksu, its preparation requires grinding pine nuts with water to extract the nut milk.

Despite suffering from shoulder discomfort after recently slipping on a snowy road, the nun demonstrated strict attention to detail while receiving occasional assistance from her students.

"The dough is wet because it was covered with a wet cloth," she noted during the event. "We need to pour a little more water into the broth."

Reporters participate in a cooking session at the Korean Temple Food Center in Jongno District, Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism

Food as medicine

The finished dish, garnished simply with cucumber, black sesame seeds and melon, drew immediate praise. The mild seasoning elevated the natural flavor of the pine nuts without masking the core ingredients.

Following the demonstration, journalists from 15 media outlets attempted to replicate the dish. When one reporter struggled with their dough for over an hour, Ven. Seonjae offered corrections and encouragement.

"Temple food is not simply about eating, but communicating with all life in nature," she said.

When asked to name the most important virtue in cooking, the nun called it a difficult question.

"Who I am serving," she said. "A cook is like an interpreter who makes ingredients into food that becomes medicine, tailored to the person who will eat it."

That philosophy extends to ingredient sourcing. When asked if cooks must insist on using domestic organic produce, she anchored her answer in environmental harmony.

"You become healthy when you eat what is grown without damaging nature," she said.

Seungso, a dish of vegetable noodles and dumplings in pine nut soup, presented by Ven. Seonjae to reporters, Thursday / Courtesy of Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.