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Food and Drinks
LifestyleFood & Drink

How Asia’s fermented foods, from kimchi to preserved pickles, show parallels between the region’s cuisines

  • Top chefs from across Asia shared their experiences with fermented foods during the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 programme in Seoul
  • From fermenting chilli and anchovies in Vietnam, to pineapple and soybeans in Taiwan, chefs highlighted the commonalities between their foods

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Ha Mi-hyun, Korean author and CEO of Spoken Company, speaks during the 50 Best Talks session held during the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 event at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul, South Korea, on March 25, 2024. Talks from top chefs across Asia shed light on the region’s fermented foods, from kimchi and preserved pickles to fish sauce. Photo: SCMP
The Korea Times

By Park Jin-hai

Hansik, or traditional Korean food, is garnering increasing attention on the global culinary stage.

Reflecting this trend, the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 presentation ceremony was hosted in Seoul for the first time on March 26 and, as part of the programme, 50 Best Talks – held at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul – shed light on the fermented dishes of Asia under the theme “Food of the People” through a series of chef-led presentations.

Ha Mi-hyun, Korean author and CEO of culinary platform Spoken Company, opened the session by likening hansik to danji, a traditional Korean pottery vessel used for fermented food.

“You can’t tell what’s in a danji from a distance. Its true beauty and contents are only revealed when the lid is opened. Just like Koreans – who seem reserved at first, but once you get to know them, they open up – danji reveals a rich inner world of stories, life and food culture in it,” she said during her talk.

Ha has travelled across the country, covering some 620,000 kilometres (385,000 miles) since 2014, meeting local people and recording the undocumented oral recipes of the communities she encounters.

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