A few weeks ago, I attended a dinner gathering where a discussion on the globalization of “hansik,” or Korean cuisine, concluded the evening. The guests included several Korean restaurateurs and foreign hoteliers, making for a lively conversation.

The globalization of hansik is a topic that stirs up passionate debates, as the goal is as elusive as ever as that evening’s discussion showed. Promoting Korean food abroad was former first lady Kim Yoon-ok’s pet project and thus gained much traction during the Lee Myung-bak administration. The government set out an ambitious goal ― an overly ambitious goal, it may be said ― of putting hansik on the map as one of the world’s top five cuisines by 2017. A foundation was duly established to realize the goal and billions of won were poured into the project.

Three years shy of that target year, the concerted efforts seem to have paid off with increased awareness abroad about Korean food and the hansik globalization project has not been abandoned, despite the change in government, although making it a top-five cuisine is no longer discussed.

An interesting suggestion made by a foreign general manager of a five-star hotel in Seoul at the dinner caught my attention. He put forward the idea of using the international networks of hotel chains to promote Korean cuisine. It makes sense ― after all, hotels in Korea regularly hold promotions on food from around the world. In fact, until a few years ago, hotel promotions were the only occasions where you could taste the more “exotic” cuisines. For example, many years before Turkish restaurants began popping up in Seoul, driven by the demand by Koreans who had developed a taste for Turkish food during their travels there, hotels in Seoul were holding Turkish food festivals.

That evening, I recalled how Corea Image Communication Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting Korea abroad, was invited by the Taj Mahal, a top hotel chain in India, to organize a hansik promotion event several years ago. A team from the Grand InterContinental Seoul flew to New Delhi and then to Mumbai to present Korean food to the hotel guests as well as to VIP guests at a special gala dinner. CICI also brought along a martial arts performance team to showcase a bit of Korean culture. While the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel boasted an internationally acclaimed Japanese restaurant and a Chinese restaurant, this was the first time for it to host a Korean food festival.

Seated at my table during the gala dinner were Indian restaurateurs and businessmen, as well as Indian executives who had experience working in Korea. There was a chat about having to serve nonbeef dishes in India and observations were made about how the Korean meals served with “banchan,” or side dishes, and soup were not so strange for Indians whose meals are traditionally served as a “thali,” a round platter containing rice and bread in the center and little bowls of curries, lentils and yoghurt placed around the rim. The opinion leaders and lifestyle leaders at the gala dinner that evening in Mumbai were a well-traveled and worldly lot, open to new experiences and tastes. The expectation was that by targeting these leaders, a trickle-down effect would be created.

After years of bringing Korean food abroad, the Korean Food Foundation has now turned its attention to promoting Korean food here in Korea. This may seem odd at first, but it is a sound idea. Hansik has been relegated to humble meals at home: Rarely do we go out to dine at Korean restaurants, preferring instead Japanese, Chinese, Italian or French restaurants. Exceptions are made for entertaining foreign guests or for formal occasions when we dine at high-end hansik restaurants. As a well-known Korean restaurateur once said, how can we expect foreigners to like our food when we ourselves don’t enjoy it?

Another reason to promote Korean food on its home turf is the relative ease with which hansik can be promoted to visitors. When these travelers have a good Korean meal during their stay, they will naturally talk about it to folks back home and chances are they will take their families and friends to a local Korean restaurant ― a ripple effect.

The popularity of K-pop abroad is seen as a golden opportunity to promote Korean food and with it other aspects of Korean culture. However, we have yet to find effective ways to promote Korean food to the world.

While seeking advice from world-class chefs, as has often been done, is not a bad idea, do we really think that these foreign chefs can answer the question ― “How can we globalize Korean food?” ― when they do not really know Korean food, as their experience is often limited to a few days in Korea? Perhaps we can ask them about the food culture of their countries, what their countrymen like and dislike, so that we can formulate strategies for specific countries. For example, the decision to promote tteokbokki abroad was an ill-considered one, given Westerners’ dislike of tteok’s sticky texture and the mouth-numbing spiciness of the sauce. It might be Koreans’ favorite street food but if foreigners had been consulted on the matter, they would probably have vetoed promoting tteokbokki overseas.

The answer to how to globalize hansik really rests with Koreans, and it is something for us to discover. And in order to do that, we have to be familiar with and appreciate hansik ourselves. We also have to bear in mind that promoting food culture is a slow, ongoing process, not one that can be accomplished by a deadline. 

By Kim Hoo-ran 

Kim Hoo-ran is an editorial writer at The Korea Herald. She can be reached at khooran@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.