On October 31st, ‘K-Food Festival-Discover Korea’s Delicious Secrets’, sponsored by AT, Ministry of Agriculture, and Food and Rural Affairs, was held at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bellevue to promote Korean food to a wider market. This event went beyond just marketing Korean foods to the wider market and became a Korean food exhibition.
K-Food Festival earned favorable comments because this event was not an extension of Korean food being part of ‘Korean wave’ but was more like a successful convention that showed many different aspects, recipes, ingredients, and tastes of Korean food.
This event kicked off with opening and welcoming remarks from Hyuna Joana Chong, President of Korean American Chamber of Commerce WA, and Duk Ho Moon, Consul general of the Republic of Korea, and congratulatory remarks from Brad Owen, Lieutenant Governor of Washington State, and Walter Bronowitz, Trustee of WA State Chef Association.
Brief video on Korean food in general was shown to the attendees and cooking demonstrations from Soojin Kim, President of FnC Academy, and Jonathan Sundstrom, Owner of Lark, were held to show different ways of using Korean ingredients and sauces to cook delicious dishes. Chef Kim demonstrated how to make Kimchi and Bulgogi with prepared ingredients and chef Sunstrom demonstrated fusion-dish using pork belly and ssamjang.
These chefs showed how different Korean foods can be not only used as a great entrée but also be great munchies. Chef Sundstrom mentioned “Korean ingredients are becoming more popular and more Korean menus are being introduced to the wider audiences in the U.S.”
Many different kinds of Korean dishes including instant rice, vegetable side dishes, Korean pancakes, Japchae, Bulgogi, Kimchi, and so on were prepared by local restaurants such as Old Village and Palace were served as samples. Also, numbers of Korean food products including, ingredients, snacks, instant foods, beverages, and other Korean food products from H-Mart, Jong Ga Jib, CJ Food, CO-HO Imports, Sempio, Hanmi Wang Korea, Seoul Trading, Damteo, Palace, and Maeil were introduced to people to enjoy and purchase. All the attendees seemed to enjoy foods served in the festival and were surprised how common ingredients could taste so different and delicious.
VIP speakers including Hyuna Joana Chong, Duk Ho Moon, Brad Owen, and Walter Bronowitz all agreed that Korean foods and their ingredients became a new blue-chip trading item between South Korea and Washington State and praised every contributors of this event.
by Jay-Kwon J Park
