Kindred spirits come together, inspire each other, and — through remarkable rapport — arrive at a single, unmistakable color.
Bound by an unusual love and eye for Korean food culture, four figures gather here: Han Choong-hee, CEO of UGD; Park Soo-kyung, head of Geumdwaeji Sikdang (Golden Pig BBQ); Choi Jung-yoon, Chair of Nanro; and Chung Dong-woo, CEO of Meat POPO. United under the community “Nanro-hoe,” they have proved themselves through passion and skill on the vast sea of hansik — and there is still a long road ahead for them to walk together.
Nanro-hoe (煖爐會) was a winter barbecue gathering enjoyed by yangban scholars of the 18th-century Joseon court. Records survive of King Jeongjo hosting such feasts alongside the era’s greatest silhak thinkers — Park Ji-won, Jeong Yak-yong — and officials of the Seungjeongwon, Hongmungak and Gyujanggak, composing poetry in nature over shared food. Revived in 2022, today’s “Nanro” draws on that same spirit of sharing good food and exchanging culture, this time in service of taking hansik to the world.
Choi Jung-yoon researches Korean food as head of Sempio’s Woorimat Research Center. In parallel, she serves as Chair of Nanro and the Nanro Foundation — non-profit organizations whose community brings together experts across fields to build up the hansik industry. Today’s Nanro was born in 2022, while she was serving as Vice Chair for Korea & China of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
“We call our crew ‘friends of the Nanro universe.’ We lead Nanro together, but each of us is pouring in time, money and talent. Korea lost its sovereignty under Japanese colonial rule, and was reduced to ruins by the Korean War. I think the drive to prove that we overcame those times on our own and reached where we are today — that Korean pride and grit — is what keeps this community going.”
Nanro meets on no fixed schedule. A host sets a theme, and friends who fit the theme come together. Over roughly forty gatherings so far, more than 300 people — Korean chefs, restaurant owners, and experts from IT, design, art, finance and research — have joined to study Korean food culture and debate how the industry should evolve.
Nanro 2024, held April 29–30, is the group’s global hansik symposium, formally titled Nanro Insight. Under the theme “The Future of Gastronomy: On Hansik,” domestic and international experts are invited to discuss where Korean food is headed and how to take it further into the world — how to turn today’s global K-food wave into a lasting industry.
The program also includes a “Heritage Tour” that seeks out regional specialties across Korea. In Tongyeong, for instance, there is a sauce made from mussels called hapja-jang; the group studies how ingredients like these can be shaped into stronger hansik content. Nanro Academy, meanwhile, is a program devoted to preserving disappearing artisan techniques and passing them on to the next generation.
· Original (Korean): noblesse.com
