KFPI to hold hansik contest in 13 countries
As part of South Korea's initiative to expand the reach of "hansik," or Korean cuisine, the Korean Food Promotion Institute said Tuesday it would jointly host hansik cooking contests abroad with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and in collaboration with 13 overseas diplomatic missions.
For this year's edition, the competition will focus on creating a dish using Korean jang, or fermented soy-based sauces, to celebrate its inclusion on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list in December last year.
In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, the competition will take place at the Korean Cultural Centers in Nigeria and Hong Kong, as well as the Korean Embassies in Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey.
The same contest will take place at the Korean Embassies in Costa Rica, Peru and Chile, and at the Consulate General in Seattle for those in North and South America. In Europe, it will be hosted by the Korean Embassies in Ireland, the UK and Romania, and at the Consulate General in Barcelona.
Detailed schedules for the competition will be announced at a later time by each diplomatic mission. More information is available on each overseas diplomatic mission's official website.
The KFPI said the event would be a great opportunity to allow people in other countries to come up with their own takes on hansik by putting a local twist on them or sticking to traditional recipes.
"(We) hope that the contest will help spread the unique flavors of traditional jang and Korean cuisine to a global audience. The KFPI will continue teaming up with overseas diplomatic missions to promote hansik and encourage cultural exchanges," Lee Gyu-min, president of the KFPI, said via press release.
The KFPI has been organizing cooking contests every year since 2011 in countries such as the US to promote Korean cuisine. For example, the Consulate General in Seattle and the KFPI jointly held the "Culinary Class Wars in Seattle" contest in November last year.
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