By Oh Young-jin
Michelin star-studded chef Gordon Ramsay left with one pledge unfulfilled.
Ramsay vowed to give a kick to the British journalist who had dismissed the taste of Korean beer in disagreement with the chef's positive "beer of the people" review.
There is no indication that the two met during Ramsay's short visit to Seoul this week for the filming of a reality show and promotion of Cass, Korea's top-selling beer from OB, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian multinational.
Therefore, there had been little chance that physical contact between the two had taken place. The journalist in this case is Daniel Tudor, who wrote that now-famous article, "Fiery food, boring beer," as a correspondent for the Economist magazine in 2012. He no longer works for the magazine and instead advises the presidential office thanks in no small part to his boring beer article.
I phoned up Cass and asked how the Ramsay promotion went. A spokesman sullenly (it could be an affectation) said that it could have gone better, if the Guardian newspaper had spoilt it (he didn't mention the publication specifically).
If Ramsay and Tudor sought to settle their beer dispute by force, here is a chaser. The two may have said the same thing with a slightly different twist in flavor.
About Tudor's article that is now five years ripe, he unwittingly complimented Korea's beers if it is taken in the context of yin and yang. Would you have fiery food with fiery beer (I don't believe that there is such a thing as fiery beer)?
The gist of the Tudor article was not about the taste of the beer but more about the duopoly of the Korean beer market ― Cass vs. Hite. Still, the two dominate with a little bigger presence of imported beers. Whether it was his call or his editor's call, that article had a hot-button element that never fails to get Koreans excited ― North Korea. He claimed in the article that the North's Taedonggang Beer was better than Cass.
Tudor couldn't be a fair judge ― as he revealed in the article, it was made with British help. So here was a Brit home away from home who tasted the taste of home. Victory hands down was preordained, wasn't it? Then, he went into beer business with his purpose being one of the following three: giving his "real beer taste" to Koreans, making a fortune or both.
Now five years later, an invitation is long overdue ― asking Tudor whether he stands by his observation. By now, he has been more accustomed to Korean cuisine ― no longer surprised by the Korean delicacy of chopped live small octopus wriggling in sesame oil with finely minced scallion.
Let's consider what Ramsay said. "When I have Korean food, I don't look for a wine list with the most expensive beer to go with it. I want a beer that's easy, fresh, and something I can drink without having to show off. I think that was the important thing." In other words, Cass, the Korean beer, fits Korean food. So are British beers for fish and chips.
So Ramsay as a chef spoke articulately about the complementary role of food and drinks. Tudor caught the drift of it and fell short of saying it in a complete sentence, so to speak.
Now what does the Guardian article leave those anonymous Cass naysayers and Ramsay haters? Were they all British? Or did they include anti-Cass fifth columns recruited from its rival Hite? I wouldn't want to know.
There are a couple of afterthoughts.
One is about Ramsay stirring the pot to give us better drink for thought: Is one drink necessarily better than the other? Does insisting on as such a make one a yokel? When will Koreans overcome a tendency to believe what they are told and act as if they are part of a herd?
Back to the taste of Cass, it is not a Korean beer. Jinro, Korea's top distiller, had production operations for the popular liquor soju and beer made with the help of Coors, the U.S. brewery. When it went bankrupt, it sold in parts ― Jinro to Hite and Cass to OB, which is now under the Belgian multinational. True, Cass has developed over the years more to Koreans' liking. But it was originally born as American pale lager. So Ramsay was both right and wrong when he complimented Cass. The Cass spokesman said that his company didn't pay a large sum to Ramsay ― the usual sum for a celebrity plugging.
Was it a British-American battle under the guise of Cass bashing? A long ago when they fought, it was about tea. Surely, what you drink is what you are. Right?!
Korea Times chief editorial writer Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@ktimes.com, foolsdie@gmail.com) wrote this.
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Ramsay vowed to give a kick to the British journalist who had dismissed the taste of Korean beer in disagreement with the chef's positive "beer of the people" review.
There is no indication that the two met during Ramsay's short visit to Seoul this week for the filming of a reality show and promotion of Cass, Korea's top-selling beer from OB, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the Belgian multinational.
Therefore, there had been little chance that physical contact between the two had taken place. The journalist in this case is Daniel Tudor, who wrote that now-famous article, "Fiery food, boring beer," as a correspondent for the Economist magazine in 2012. He no longer works for the magazine and instead advises the presidential office thanks in no small part to his boring beer article.
I phoned up Cass and asked how the Ramsay promotion went. A spokesman sullenly (it could be an affectation) said that it could have gone better, if the Guardian newspaper had spoilt it (he didn't mention the publication specifically).
If Ramsay and Tudor sought to settle their beer dispute by force, here is a chaser. The two may have said the same thing with a slightly different twist in flavor.
![[POLL] Do you like Korean beer?](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/K2018030600012-590(0).jpg/dims/resize/84/optimize)
About Tudor's article that is now five years ripe, he unwittingly complimented Korea's beers if it is taken in the context of yin and yang. Would you have fiery food with fiery beer (I don't believe that there is such a thing as fiery beer)?
The gist of the Tudor article was not about the taste of the beer but more about the duopoly of the Korean beer market ― Cass vs. Hite. Still, the two dominate with a little bigger presence of imported beers. Whether it was his call or his editor's call, that article had a hot-button element that never fails to get Koreans excited ― North Korea. He claimed in the article that the North's Taedonggang Beer was better than Cass.
Tudor couldn't be a fair judge ― as he revealed in the article, it was made with British help. So here was a Brit home away from home who tasted the taste of home. Victory hands down was preordained, wasn't it? Then, he went into beer business with his purpose being one of the following three: giving his "real beer taste" to Koreans, making a fortune or both.
Now five years later, an invitation is long overdue ― asking Tudor whether he stands by his observation. By now, he has been more accustomed to Korean cuisine ― no longer surprised by the Korean delicacy of chopped live small octopus wriggling in sesame oil with finely minced scallion.
Let's consider what Ramsay said. "When I have Korean food, I don't look for a wine list with the most expensive beer to go with it. I want a beer that's easy, fresh, and something I can drink without having to show off. I think that was the important thing." In other words, Cass, the Korean beer, fits Korean food. So are British beers for fish and chips.
So Ramsay as a chef spoke articulately about the complementary role of food and drinks. Tudor caught the drift of it and fell short of saying it in a complete sentence, so to speak.
Now what does the Guardian article leave those anonymous Cass naysayers and Ramsay haters? Were they all British? Or did they include anti-Cass fifth columns recruited from its rival Hite? I wouldn't want to know.
There are a couple of afterthoughts.
One is about Ramsay stirring the pot to give us better drink for thought: Is one drink necessarily better than the other? Does insisting on as such a make one a yokel? When will Koreans overcome a tendency to believe what they are told and act as if they are part of a herd?
Back to the taste of Cass, it is not a Korean beer. Jinro, Korea's top distiller, had production operations for the popular liquor soju and beer made with the help of Coors, the U.S. brewery. When it went bankrupt, it sold in parts ― Jinro to Hite and Cass to OB, which is now under the Belgian multinational. True, Cass has developed over the years more to Koreans' liking. But it was originally born as American pale lager. So Ramsay was both right and wrong when he complimented Cass. The Cass spokesman said that his company didn't pay a large sum to Ramsay ― the usual sum for a celebrity plugging.
Was it a British-American battle under the guise of Cass bashing? A long ago when they fought, it was about tea. Surely, what you drink is what you are. Right?!
Korea Times chief editorial writer Oh Young-jin (foolsdie5@ktimes.com, foolsdie@gmail.com) wrote this.
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