We couldn’t leave without having lunch, so we enjoyed a sampling of some of the best dishes that Seoil Farms had to offer at the restaurant. We had lotus root, garlic stems, bracken, kimchi, beans, fresh greens, rice, and a special bean stew called cheonggukjang. Cheonggukjang stew is often jokingly referred to as “stinky bean” stew- it did have a certain pungent odor here as well. The taste was rich and compelling much like a finely aged, cheese. It was delicious.

With the day done it was time to relax, so the chefs decided to end the day with some drinks. First stop was a cloudy rice wine restaurant famous for their green makgeolli (it had some mulberry leave powder mixed in). This was followed by more drinks at a ribs place and finally a trip to Kwangjang Market for crisp bindaetteok.

These chefs ate most of what Seoul had to offer in 36 hours. Hopefully, they will take what they learned and experience and add it to the menu’s on the different airlines around the world.

So was this tour a success? I asked one of the participants, Fritz Gross, Director of Culinary Excellence Asia Pacific, which foods he thinks would work on the airlines. He said, “Bibimbap is great for foreign tastes because it has lots of vegetables and nicely marinated meat the gochujang is not too spicy.” When I asked him if there were other dishes, he thought would work he said,”Korean stews would work well and so would bulgogi because it has a nice sauce and vegetables in it to keep the meat moist. I think that it’s a dish many people would like as well.”

When I asked Willi Woidera, Director of Product Development for FRA ZE- specializing in frozen foods, what he thought of the culinary experience, he answered, “It was a great experience because we got to see a lot, make a lot of different foods and ate a lot of different types of food. I think the Korean food and techniques can be incorporated into different cuisines and I definitely want to add these ideas into our menus. In the Kimchi factory, I learned about many new ideas- I especially enjoyed the new techniques for veggies. I can’t wait to incorporate them into what we do.”

Of course, I had to ask Alfred Rigler, the head of the LSG Sky Chefs why he chose Korea to do this Culinary Excellence Program.

“There were several reasons. First of all, we have a very large operation here in Korea. We work with many of the major airlines here. Second, we do a lot of business with Korean clientele and they have specific needs and tastes. But most importantly, we wanted our chefs to get a first hand experience in the Korean kitchen to learn the kitchen style and techniques. Korean cuisine is very different from Italian or French or any other cuisine. We need our chefs to be educated on this so they can share this information with other chefs in our network.”

This was a wonderfully, educational culinary experience. I think that this group of chefs will be able to share this experience with the countless other chefs in the company and spread Korean cuisine through the air.

Daniel Gray