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Victoria Burrows

At Koan in Copenhagen, Korean-Danish chef Kristian Baumann serves a dish called Sundae, named after and inspired by sundae, blood sausage that is a popular street-food snack in Korea.
But Baumann’s version transforms the simple sausage on a stick into something more exquisite: he uses pork from black-spotted pigs raised at Troldgaarden, an organic farm in Denmark’s Jutland region, along with aromatic rice and spices.
The “sausage” is deep fried in a tempura shell, encircled by a ring of perfect discs of dried blackcurrant and served on a brushed gold plate.
Dishes such as Sundae not only helped Koan earn two Michelin stars within 10 weeks of opening, but also helped Baumann feel less “lost”.

Baumann was born in Seoul and grew up in Copenhagen after being adopted by Danish parents. He trained in classic European cooking and worked at some of Copenhagen’s best-loved Nordic restaurants, including Noma, Manfreds, Relae and 108.
At Koan, he began to fully articulate his identity for the first time, blending European and Korean cuisine with Nordic ingredients.
“It was an acceptance of being adopted, of being ‘in between’. The cooking I do at Koan feels entirely natural. It has made me feel at peace,” he says.
Koan opened in April 2023. Baumann is well aware his timing is fortuitous and that his fine-dining restaurant may not have been a success a decade ago, before Copenhagen – and much of the world – opened its eyes to Korean culture and its palates to Korean cuisine.

Today, the world has most certainly become hungry for all things Korean.
Noteworthy progressive Korean restaurants have opened in other cities, bringing the world of jang – the health-boosting fermented soybean sauces that are the essence of Korean flavour – to a huge new international audience.
Then, of course, there is the hit television show Culinary Class Wars, which became a global sensation, topping the Netflix foreign-language (non-English) rankings. It has made international stars of critic and restaurateur Paik Jong-won and chef Anh Sung-jae – both legendary in their home country already.
The latter runs Mosu, Seoul’s only three-Michelin-star restaurant (which is temporarily closed while a new venue for the restaurant is completed). The restaurant’s Hong Kong outpost opened in 2022.
Kang Min-goo opened Mingles in 2014. The two-Michelin-star Seoul restaurant ranked 44th on the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The chef says things were “completely different” when he opened the restaurant, with far fewer international guests and far more risk associated with opening a fine-dining Korean restaurant outside Korea.
It was not until six years after the opening of Mingles that he opened sister restaurant Hansik Goo in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan neighbourhood. Then in July this year, he took his mission to spread Korean food to Paris, where he opened his casual, fried-chicken-focused Setopa (its name is a shortened form of “Seoul to Paris”).
He also published his first English-language cookbook, Jang: The Soul of Korean Cooking, this year.
Some restaurants are only following the trend for Korean food … these restaurants won’t last long
Kang Min-goo, chef-owner of high-end Seoul restaurant Mingles
Like Baumann, Kang began his career cooking in the Western culinary tradition and working in top kitchens around the world, including at three-Michelin-star Martín Berasategui in Spain’s Basque Country. He was also the youngest ever head chef at Japanese restaurant Nobu’s Bahamas outpost, on Paradise Island.
Under the tutelage of Cho Hee-sook, considered the godmother of Korean cooking, and Buddhist monk Jeong Kwan, who is renowned for her soulful temple cuisine, he dug deep into his heritage. At Mingles, he received plaudits for blending European cooking with traditional hansik (Korean cuisine).
“Some restaurants are only following the trend for Korean food and have little knowledge of the cuisine,” Kang says. “In my experience, these restaurants won’t last long. Chefs need to find their own way in appealing to a younger audience, but it’s important that they respect tradition and culture.”
Two-Michelin-star Atomix, in New York, ranked sixth on the 2024 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list – the highest ever for a Korean restaurant. It is also ranked the best restaurant in North America.
The chef behind it, Junghyun Park – known as JP – was born and raised in Seoul, and has a similar take to Kang.
“It’s essential to deeply research and understand the identity and flavours of traditional Korean food while maintaining those roots and incorporating modern elements to make Korean cuisine accessible and attractive to more people,” says the chef, who, along with his restaurant manager and wife Ellia Park, has become the unofficial ambassador for Korean food in the United States.


While Park’s cooking at Atomix and his more casual restaurant Atoboy is Korean at its core, it is tied to New York and evolves with the city.
“Seeing how Korean cuisine is being embraced by more people, interpreted in diverse ways and continuously evolving here, I feel that I’m growing alongside it,” he says.
“Working in a global city like New York, where various cultures and cuisines intersect, I have countless opportunities to try new things and express my creativity through Korean cuisine.”
In Los Angeles, husband-and-wife team Mina Park and Kwang Uh are putting their own cultural intersection on the plate at Baroo – not least with their home-made XO sauce.
Before Mina Park moved to Los Angeles in 2018, she lived in Hong Kong and ran a private kitchen called Sook. She then opened Hawkr, a Southeast Asian takeaway concept, with branches in the city’s Quarry Bay and Admiralty neighbourhoods.

“Baroo has always reflected Kwang’s, and now our, life journeys, and so we’re inspired by Cantonese and other regional Chinese cooking from my time in Hong Kong,” she says.
Baroo closed in 2018, but the couple reopened the Los Angeles cult favourite in September 2023. It recently won the Los Angeles Times’ Restaurant of the Year award for 2024.
Uh was trained at Noma and takes inspiration from his stint at the restaurant. He uses traditional Korean fermentation techniques – a bedrock of Korean cuisine – in new ways.


The menu at Baroo is unique; each course represents a different life stage according to the saju myungri, an astrological concept based on traditional Chinese beliefs.
The first course, Tae, represents the period before birth, continuing through to the last course, Jeol, which symbolises the line between death and rebirth.
Baroo’s ssam (“wrap”) course, eaten with the hands like a taco, features a bed of seasonal greens, perilla and shiso leaves topped with deep-fried sole in a parae (green laver) seaweed batter and served with a gooseberry emulsion, gim seaweed and gochunaengi (wasabi) remoulade.
“Kwang was inspired by British fish and chips and a regional ssam dish from Gwangju [a city in southwestern Korea] featuring tuigim, or fried foods, wrapped in fresh greens,” Mina Park says. “The dish has a Korean soul – it’s somewhat familiar to Koreans but also unique and fresh.”
Los Angeles has the largest Korean community in the US. It is served by numerous well-established traditional, casual restaurants. Fine-dining and experimental restaurants, however, remain rare.
In London, the Korean food scene is far smaller. The city is home to Sollip, the first Korean restaurant in the United Kingdom to earn a Michelin star. Its chef, Woongchul Park, says the English capital lacks the network of young Korean chefs present in other cities.

This is changing, however, with new restaurants including Seoul-born celebrity chef Akira Back’s eponymous all-day diner, and separate chef’s table, at the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair.
At Sollip, named after Korea’s national tree, Woongchul Park applies his French culinary training to Korean food using mostly British ingredients along with some of his favourite Korean products – including perilla oils, fish sauce, salted shrimp and chilli flakes – that he gets his mother to send.
“The common street food snack of tteokbokki [Korean rice cakes] in a soy-sauce base and smothered with cheese – is this Korean food? What about a bulgogi burger or budae jjigae [Korean army stew]? There’s no right answer,” Woongchul says.

He believes people are turning to Korean food because Japanese food is now well known.
“It’s still very good and people love it, and chefs are still inspired by it, but it’s nothing new any more,” he says.
Japanese food’s legacy of quality and its suitability for fine-dining compelled chef Dana Choi to offer both Japanese and Korean dishes at her new restaurant Jang, in London’s Royal Exchange.
“Generally, if people think about Korean food, they only consider street food, so we wanted to entice people with a touch of luxury, Japanese style,” Choi says. “That way we can provide guests with knowledge about Korean cuisine as well. Japanese food is more familiar to London diners so we wanted to ease people in.”

Alongside sushi and sashimi, Gwangju-born Choi offers dishes that draw on Korean royal cuisine but are presented with a modern sensibility.
Her Jang salad is inspired by tangpyeong-chae – mung bean jelly salad. In the dish she uses rice paper instead of mung bean jelly (which is difficult to find in London), draped over a salad of fresh greens or vegetables, depending on the season.
Taking inspiration from hwajeon, a Korean dessert topped with a flower, she embeds herbs and flowers in the rice paper. In the Jang salad, 21st-century London meets centuries-old Korean tradition.

The Korean Wave has been building for more than a decade, but many see recent developments as just the beginning. Chefs are optimistic about the future for modern Korean gastronomy.
“I look forward to seeing Korean cuisine evolve in even more diverse ways,” Junghyun Park says. “I’d like to see more chefs exploring and developing regional ingredients and cooking methods within Korea [in lesser-known regions] and showcasing this diversity on a broader stage.”


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Food and Drinks

How Korean food is rising across the world and the chefs transforming traditional cuisine

A dish at Baroo, in Los Angeles. Photo: Wonho Lee

A course at Baroo, in Los Angeles, fusing Korean and Chinese ingredients. Kwang Uh and Mina Park, the chefs behind the restaurant, are just two of those pushing the boundaries of Korean cuisine around the world. Photo: Wonho Lee

Kristian Baumann, the Korean-Danish chef behind Copenhagen restaurant Koan. Photo: Neve Q Photography

Sundae at Koan. Photo: NeveQ Photography

Junghyun “JP” Park of New York restaurants Atomix and Atoboy, and his wife and co-owner Ellia Park. Photo: Atomix

A dish at Atomix. Photo: Evan Sung

Mina Park and Kwang Uh of Baroo in Los Angeles. Photo: Silvia Razgova

A dish at Baroo featuring dried Korean wild mountain greens and rice served with an XO sauce made from dried scallops and shrimp, gochujang and doenjang. Photo: Wonho Lee

A chilled corn purée with apple, celery and cucumber, paired with a fermented red yeast makgeolli bread with nduja, Gouda, and lemon balm, at Baroo. Photo: Wonho Lee

Woongchul Park of London Korean restaurant Sollip. Photo: Sollip

A beef tartare course at Sollip, featuring house-made aged gochujang red chilli paste, cured daikon and truffle cream. Photo: Sollip

Dana Choi offers both Japanese and Korean dishes at her new London restaurant Jang. Photo: Eleonora Boscarelli

Choi’s Jang salad is inspired by tangpyeong-chae, a mung bean jelly salad. Photo: Victoria Burrows

How Japanese chef of 3-Michelin-star restaurant Ta Vie in Hong Kong fell for French food

Chef Hideaki Sato of Hong Kong’s three-Michelin-star Ta Vie restaurant at La Table des Chefs, by Champagne brand Maison Mumm, in Reims, France. Photo: Maison Mumm

Hideaki Sato’s grilled pigeon with sesame oil and truffle at La Table des Chefs in Reims, France. Photo: Eric Vanden

Sato puts the finishing touches on a dish at La Table des Chefs in Reims, France. Photo: Maison Mumm

Sato with his wife and Ta Vie co-owner Hiromi Takano at the Michelin event in which Ta Vie received its third Michelin star, in April 2023. Photo: Charmaine Mok

The 19th-century mansion that is home to Maison Mumm, and La Table des Chefs, in Reims, France. Photo: Maison Mumm

Sato’s grilled pigeon with sesame oil and truffle is served at La Table des Chefs. Photo: Eric Vanden

Koreans read books while sipping cocktails at a bar in Seoul, hip to the ‘text hip’ trend

A book by Murakami Haruki at Chaeg Bar in Seoul. K-pop stars like NewJeans’ Minji are making reading cool – as is the bar, where you can read, relax and drink at the same time. Photo: Instagram/chaegbar

A toast goes up at Chaeg Bar, owned by Chung In-sung, in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Instagram/chaegbar

Books for reading at Chaeg Bar, a space where you can read, reflect and even create while enjoying a drink. Photo: Instagram/chaegbar

Minji, a member of the group NewJeans, is seen reading The Age of Innocence in the music video for their song Bubble Gum. Photo: YouTube/HYBE

Chaeg Bar has become a popular destination for experiencing the concept of “text hip”. Photo: Instagram/chaegbar

The Vegetarian by Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang can be found at Chaeg Bar. Photo: Instagram/chaegbar

Shanghai food writer turns to YouTube to bring ‘amazing’ Chinese cuisine stories to world

A dumpling master preparing the dough for Chinese soup dumplings. Photo: Sheila Zhao

Christopher St. Cavish is a household name in Shanghai, and has been called “the Bourdain of China”. Now the food writer known for his Shanghai Soup Dumpling Index is telling hidden food stories from across China on YouTube. Photo: Sheila Zhao

St. Cavish in Kaifeng city, in China’s Henan province. He is revered for his expert knowledge of Chinese food. Photo: Graeme Kennedy

Xiaolongbao soup dumplings are an obsession for Christopher St. Cavish, who released his well-received Shanghai Soup Dumpling Index in 2015. Photo: Sheila Zhao

Christopher St. Cavish took four measurements of dumplings for his viral Shanghai Soup Dumpling Index: their weight, that of the soup and of the filling, and the thickness of the wrapper. Photo: Sheila Zhao

St. Cavish used calipers and scales to take measurements for his Shanghai Soup Dumpling Index. Photo: Sheila Zhao

Workers quickly fold xiaolongbao for the steamer. Photo: Sheila Zhao

A “dumpling master” prepares the dough for xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings. Photo: Sheila Zhao

Videographer and photographer Graeme Kennedy, who has previously collaborated with St. Cavish, works on the YouTube channel with him. Photo: Sheila Zhao

Hong Kong noodle history and the different noodle styles explained

Shrimp roe thick noodle lo mien from Kwan Kee Bamboo Noodle in Hong Kong. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Roast goose with lai fun rice noodles from Yung Kee in Hong Kong. Learn about the different kinds of noodles served in the city, how they are traditionally made, and the foods they are typically paired with. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Wheat noodles originate in Northern China, while rice noodles have Southern Chinese origins, says Dr Siu Yan-ho, a lecturer in Chinese language and literature at Baptist University. 

Marco Li Ka-chi of Kwan Kee Bamboo Noodle balancing on a bamboo pole to make noodles. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Shrimp roe thick noodle lo mien at Kwan Kee Bamboo Noodle. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

 Cheung Wing Kee started making noodles in the 1950s, producing small quantities using labour-intensive methods.

Roast goose with lai fun rice noodles. The thicker, neutral-tasting noodles are perfect for absorbing the flavours from the roast goose and broth. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

With many Michelin stars between them, these chefs are blending Korean cuisine with modern elements at their restaurants


With many Michelin stars between them, these chefs are blending Korean cuisine with modern elements at their restaurants.


South Korea

Asian diaspora

How Korean food is rising across the world and the chefs transforming traditional cuisine

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With many Michelin stars between them, these chefs are blending Korean cuisine with modern elements at their restaurants

With many Michelin stars between them, these chefs are blending Korean cuisine with modern elements at their restaurants