Profile | He’s a Hindi-speaking Korean chef in India whose Instagram fusion-food videos have gone viral – Kim Jiyeol on how cuisine ‘brings people together’
- Kim Jiyeol is official chef of the South Korean embassy in New Delhi, but is better known for the social media videos of him cooking kimchi parathas and more
- The chef, who is promoting Korean cuisine in India and beyond as K-pop culture surges in popularity worldwide, says food helps break down geographical barriers
South Korean chef Kim Jiyeol is cooking up a storm in India, gaining fans for food that combines Indian and Korean flavours.
Kim posts about his culinary explorations on his Instagram account @cook_oranji, which now has almost 100,000 followers.
But he’s not a full-time food influencer – rather, Kim is the official chef at the South Korean embassy in New Delhi, where he landed in 2019 after professional cooking stints across Europe and Australia.
Now the passionate cook’s home is India, a country he finds “colourful” and its people warm. He ranks paneer palak, dal, dosa and chole bhature (a dish of chickpea curry with a fluffy fried leavened bread) among his favourite Indian dishes.
Throughout his culinary research, he has also found overarching similarities between the cuisines of India and South Korea, and their peoples’ obsession with spices and gravies.
