Yesterday’s leftovers become tomorrow’s culinary vanguard

There is no dish like a bowl of bibimbap to keep you healthy and full, said chef Kang Yun-sook at the Grand InterContinenal Seoul hotel in southern Seoul, as she cut beef chuck into thin slices and seasoned them with soy sauce and pepper.

Kang, who has more than 15 years of experience as chef, spoke about the long history of bibimbap with Didier Beltoise, the hotel’s general manager. Explaining all the ways the dish can be made, using seasonal ingredients to taste, Kang said that in the past, Koreans would gather all the leftover side dishes and herbs and mix them with rice and pepper paste in December to avoid keeping the food in the new year.

“Korean food doesn’t waste ingredients,” she told Beltoise, who seemed to understand what she was talking about.

“When it comes to French cuisine, I believe the dishes create much waste of ingredients,” he said. “Korean food, however, seems to save and utilize the ingredients.”

Beltoise has advised the Korean government to “take note of the advantages of its cuisine, including bibimbap, and promote the Korean food market more proactively to help create business opportunities both in Korea and overseas.”

Promoting bibimbap will be easy, Beltoise said, because “the dish isn’t restricted to certain ingredients. There is no single recipe, but everybody has his own, and it can be changed according to local conditions.”

In Southeast Asian countries, for example, where rice is an important part of a meal, bibimbap could be served with local basmati rice to fit the majority taste. In the United States and European nations, however, where people enjoy eating meat, bibimbap could be full of beef, followed by other vegetables.