Opening of the Korean Slow Food Symposium – shedding new light on Korean food
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- Writer 총관리자
- 보도일자 2010-01-15
The Korean Slow Food Symposium was held from 10 A.M. on 28 September on the 6th Floor at the Shinhan Bank Hall in the Sookmyung Centennial Building.
One hundred and fifty participants including people from the food industry and academia shared opinions about effective strategies for success in globalizing Korean food and slow food. Korean food has a healthy food culture because it is based on the idea that medicine and food share the same roots, and Korean families’ healthy food cultures have passed down from generation to generation for millions of years. The purpose of the symposium was to push ahead their plans to globalize healthy Korean food after they realized its values as slow food through the symposium.
"Koreans define 'eating' as 'embracing the cosmos and,'"Youngsil Han, President of Sookmyung Women's University emphasized superiority of Korean food which is based on the Yin-Yang and Five Elements philosophy at the keynote speech of the symposium. She also said that the original form of slow food is seen in Korean food when we make Kimchi. She said, "Koreans wait until earth embracing a jar of Kimchi which gives the jar its energy and nutritive elements." "We should keep the spirits of our traditional food which has been together with festivals and feasts by restoring its own unique cultural code," President Han emphasized at the end of her speech.
Jongmi Lee, President of the Noongsim food culture center, who spoke on the topic of the symposium said, "the culture of Korean food is found in its slowness, gourmet taste, beauty, and native local specialty."She continued her talk, "it is our responsibility to globalize Korean food abroad."
The event was held with the world's gourmands such as Andrea Petrini, a journalist and critic at Omnivore, the best gourmet magazine in Italy, and Andrew Salman, a journalist of the Washington times. After the symposium, participants moved to the Institute of Korean Food and participated in a banquet organized by President Han.
Seoul Metropolitan Government, together with the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, co-hosted the "World Feast of Gastronomy 2009 - The Amazing Korean Table." It is planning to invite the world's famous chefs and to give the public a chance to experience a feast of gourmet foods from 28 October to 1 November.