Seoul's top chefs host online cooking classes for hallyu fans

Chef Kang Min-goo, right, hosts a cooking class for hallyu fans abroad at a kitchen studio in Gangnam, Seoul, Saturday, with Italian TV personality Alberto Mondi helping him as a translator. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

By Bahk Eun-ji

Dozens of Italians paid keen attention to how beef and fish was cut and seasoned, as Korean chef Kang Min-goo was making “yukhoe” (A Korean-style beef tartare) and fish dumplings, asking the chef to show the ingredients more closely.

They were participating in an online cooking class for hallyu fans abroad, which was organized as a part of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's contactless culinary events, “Taste of Seoul,” which ran last week.

Kang, who runs Mingles restaurant here, and another top chef, Cho Hee-sook who runs the Korean Cooking Studio, provided recipes for Korean food using traditional sauce to epicures, social media influencers and hallyu fans in Brussels on Friday and in Rome on Saturday.

In Saturday's class offered by Kang, he chose yukhoe with soy sauce, and fish dumplings with red pepper paste sauce mixed with truffle oil. Both are traditional Korean dishes but Kang said he recreated the recipes with some foreign ingredients, such as truffle oil, reinterpreting the royal food.

“Yukhoe is the dish that I enjoyed a lot almost eight years ago in Europe,” Kang said in an answer to the question why he chose the dish for the cooking class.

“So yukhoe, similar to Western beef tartare, is a familiar dish that it is easy to obtain ingredients for locally. The goal of my restaurant, Mingles, is to show a new style of Korean cuisine by exploring new techniques but with familiar ingredients. Fish dumplings are a famous Asian dish but can be a totally different style of dish with a little bit of an extra touch,” he said.

Participants actively joined the classes and some of them made notes so as not to miss the tips the chefs gave. Kang said everyone in Brussels and Rome was amazed at the use of fish bones when making a marinating sauce.

“It was interesting for me as well that they were surprised at the fish flesh becoming dumpling skin. They were also wondering how to use the red pepper paste and sesame oil in various dishes,” Kang said.

Alberto Mondi, a popular Italian TV personality in Korea and a Seoul honorary ambassador, helped the chefs as a translator for the class in Rome.

Chef Cho taught about making pickled vegetables with soy sauce, as well as “jeon,” a traditional pancake made with fish or meat, often served with soy sauce and pickled vegetables.

Cho said she chose the dishes as she thought the participants abroad would have easy access to the ingredients.

“Although it is not a main dish, pickled vegetables can be used with mains easily. The European participants are familiar with pickled vegetables so I thought it will be great to show how to make Korean-style pickled vegetables,” Cho said. “I hope the participants sensed the difference between soy sauce of Chinese, Japanese and Korean origin, and become familiar with the taste of Korean soy sauce.”