Why does culinary diplomacy matter?

Lee Hyuk
The author is a former ambassador to Vietnam.

Cuisine is arguably the most powerful soft power as humanity cannot skip food even for a day. With the age of affluence continuing, humanity is paying more attention to what to eat than just filling the stomach.

The United States has long dominated the fast food market with its global armada of MacDonald, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Food experts jokingly attribute the U.S. supremacy in the snack field to the need for the founding fathers to quickly finish a meal with so much work to do for the independence of a fledgling democracy. Others cite the unique manifestation of American entrepreneurship in the fast food front, too.

For the French people, each meal is an important part of their life, as it is a great source of happiness. Experts say that while the Anglo-Saxons are inclined to an austere way of life, the French are more open to the pleasure of eating delicious foods and beverages, or smoking. After eating a meal, Americans often say, “I am full,” but the French say, “La nourriture était délicieuse,” or “The food was delicious.”

Turning to Northeast Asia, Japanese food made a global boom, as seen in the amazing spread of fast foods like sushi, ramen, tonkatsu, and soba around the world. Expensive Japanese table d’hôte — or a Japanese set meal — attracts global attention as a top-class cuisine for guests.

What we must notice here is the superb quality of food in the Chinese and Western restaurants in Japan. Some of them even receive higher scores than their original counterparts — primarily thanks to their unstoppable pursuit of the best taste, visual beauty, and service for their customers. Japanese culinary industry has an abundance of top-caliber master chefs. Japan’s strength in such analogue-based apprenticeship required of the food service industry may have played a part in helping the country emerge as a food hub.

Chinese food has lost much of its reputation after it was found to use too much oil and artificial condiments, when customers pay more attention to healthy food. Nevertheless, Chinese food — such as dumplings and sweet & sour pork — enjoys steady global popularity, partly thanks to the 50 million Chinese immigrants in foreign countries, who successfully localize their food wherever they go.

Korea’s food standard also rose sharply in tandem with its economic advancement. Thanks to Koreans’ interest in foreign cuisine, you can taste international food right here. While kimchi, bibimbap, samgyetang, bulgogi, tteokbokki are attracting increasing popularity overseas in sync with the Hallyu wave, upscale Korean restaurants for guest invitation also increased noticeably. But Korean cuisine, except for a few items, has a long way to go in its global spread.

I don’t agree with the over-the-top globalization of Korean food. What matters is for Koreans to have the capability to make globalized food — such as Western, Japanese, Chinese and Middle Eastern cuisines — on par with the global standards. Korean jajangmyeon is Korea’s, not China’s. If Koreans can eat delicious sushi, spaghetti, steak, rice noodles and kebab in Korea at reasonable prices, Korea will become an attractive country.

Food plays a pivotal part in tourism, too. As the Covid-19 pandemic is nearly over, many Koreans visit Japan to see wonderful places and eat delicious food — in even more numbers than Japanese tourists visiting Korea. Korea must compete with Japan, a tourism powerhouse. In that race, travel cost, tourist destinations, hospitality and food matter, but food is the most important factor. If Korea cannot serve unforgettable cuisine to foreign tourists at affordable prices, they will not visit the country again.

We must create an attractive food-serving ecosystem where diverse international cuisines can be offered at low prices. We should wonder why Japan’s popular restaurants have been crammed with Korean tourists. Given the growing share of tourism profits in the economy, we must make Korea a country with competitive cuisines.

Food can play a critical role in diplomacy as well. In a rare episode, President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife — and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife — had dinner at a restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo and at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul for their summit. Nothing can build personal friendship and trust with other leaders more than a meal.

Japan has the tradition of engaging in a well-choreographed culinary diplomacy to deepen personal relationship with other heads of state. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited U.S. President Barack Obama to a famous sushi restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo after a summit. When playing golf with President Donald Trump, Abe brought the chef/owner of a renowned hamburger house over to the clubhouse to make a burger the picky U.S. president liked. Abe’s food diplomacy certainly would have contributed to bolstering the chemistry between the two leaders.

Japan’s presence as culinary powerhouse can be acutely felt through the food diplomacy of a number of its embassies. Diplomats around the globe appreciate Japanese embassies for offering excellent Japanese cuisines. That’s only possible when backed by a variety of delectable dishes, experienced cooks, and sufficient budget.

As ambassador to the Philippines and Vietnam, I tried hard to show the excellence of Korean cuisine with the belief that our embassy can represent it. But regrettably, it ended up a mission unaccomplished — due to the relatively weak infrastructure for culinary diplomacy. An embassy does not exist for the ambassador. I hope for an increase in embassy budgets to help create a fresh environment for food diplomacy.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.