Into the history of Joseon-era grilling culture
Before setting out to reinterpret the nanrohoe for the modern day, the group wanted to actually recreate a nanrohoe as 18th-century Joseon scholars would have known it. What kinds of meat did our ancestors grill, and how? What did they talk about over the meal? How did they take their food, their drink, and their pungnyu — poetry and painting — together? Understanding that first, the group then turned to the harder question: how much of it could be carried into a nanrohoe for today.
A nanrohoe for shared research, in search of a new vision
People came together with their own studies and ideas in hand, ready to remake the nanrohoe. To the mix of discussion, cooking, and shared enjoyment that had defined the gathering, this was the start of adding serious research and scholarly weight. Chef Park Sung-bae of Onjium brought along and shared some of the poetry that Joseon-era scholars are said to have exchanged at their nanrohoe. Chef Cho Eun-hee of Onjium walked everyone through the jeollibtugol — one of the era's characteristic grilling tools. Professor Jeong Hye-kyung, a Hansik humanities scholar and author of The Humanities of Meat, traced the arc of Hansik culture from the past into the present. The point that quietly emerged here was this: the particularities we uncover in our own history are what will lay the ground for Hansik's global rise.
Professor Kim Ki-young of Sookmyung Women's University's Le Cordon Bleu Foodservice Management program gave a brief lecture placing Korean grilling side by side with grilling traditions abroad — how each has developed in its own style out of its own backdrop. He didn't leave out the question of branding: what will Hansik need in order to travel well? An Ji-won, Vice President of Rakkojae — the hanok hotel — spoke to how a cultural form carried down from the past reaches modern consumers most powerfully when it is well adapted for them. Cha Seung-hee, Head of Food and Beverage Planning at The Shilla Seoul, added how such historical grounding is shaping current Hansik content and trends.
