Pop-up dinner at NYC’s NARO restaurant helps young chefs go global, promote Korea’s culinary heritage
CJ CheilJedang’s Cuisine.K Project recently hosted a pop-up dinner at NARO, an acclaimed Korean fine dining restaurant in New York City, with local reporters in attendance along with opinion leaders in the U.S. restaurant industry. CJ CheilJedang sponsored the event, both to support Korea’s young chefs in advancing their careers and to promote K-cuisine worldwide.
Two Michelin chefs, Park Jung-hyun and Park Ju-eun, led a culinary team that also included two young chefs (Baik Kyoung-rok, Lee Seung-hyun) from Cuisine.K Project. Park Jung-hyun owns NARO as well as Atomix, a Korean restaurant in New York City with two Michelin stars; and Park Ju-eun owns Michelin-listed Restaurant Jueun in Seoul.
The chefs presented full-course meals featuring traditional Korean ingredients such as deodeok root, pine nuts and a fermented soybean paste called doenjang. The desserts included yakgwa, a Korean-style deep-fried pastry, and a fish-shaped pastry filled with sweet bean paste.
“It was an excellent opportunity to gain skills and experience, working alongside star chefs who are leading today’s fine dining trends,” said one of the young chefs from Cuisine.K. “As a K-cuisine ambassador, I see it as my responsibility to introduce Korea’s culinary heritage to the rest of the world.”
The pop-up dinner was the most recent event in a series of initiatives undertaken by CJ CheilJedang as part of its Cuisine.K Project to raise global awareness about Korean cuisine and expand its influence. In November, it supported a Michelin star chef’s Korean pop-up restaurant in Vienna by providing traditional Korean fermented sauces manufactured by CJ CheilJedang.
About Cuisine.K Project
Cuisine.K Project is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative that CJ CheilJedang established to discover and nurture young chefs, as well as to promote the development and globalization of Korean cuisine. It operates Korean pop-up restaurants, hosts cooking competitions, trains young chefs to provide Korean fine dining experiences, organizes master classes on Korean ingredients, facilitates study abroad opportunities at prestigious international culinary schools and establishes culinary education programs in Korea.
