The Nanro Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to Korean cuisine, announced on April 22 that it had wrapped up the third program of Nanro Academy, its education initiative for traditional hansik culture.
Nanro Academy is the foundation’s flagship program, offering chefs in-depth theory and hands-on training in traditional Korean food culture. About one hundred chefs have taken part to date.
The third program was held under the theme “Korean Fermentation” at the Kim Myeong-seong Fermentation Institute in Yeongam, South Jeolla Province, with fermentation master Kim Myeong-seong teaching across three sessions. The curriculum was structured to walk participants through the country’s traditional fermentation cycle end-to-end — beginning with making meju in December of last year, moving on to jang-담그기 (setting up the jang) in February, and finishing with jang-가르기 (separating soy sauce from soybean paste) in April.
Around 70 people joined the jang-separation session — chefs from restaurants spanning every genre (Gucci Osteria, Geumdwaeji Sikdang, Dresden Green, Mater, Euljiro Boseok, Bonyeon, Soul Dining, Yun Seoul, Imok Smoke Dining and Choidot among them), along with industry figures in F&B, wellness and IT.
Because the way ganjang and doenjang are separated can introduce a bitter or astringent note, the class paired technical theory with hands-on practice. Beyond the separation itself, participants learned from master Kim how to care for jang crocks and joined a specially arranged spring kimjang session.
“The Korean culture of jang-making has been drawing global attention since its inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” said Chef Choi Jung-yoon, Chair of the Nanro Foundation. “We designed this program to shine a fresh light on the value of Korea’s traditional fermented foods.”
In previous editions, the first Nanro Academy was led on Jeju Island by Kim Mae-soon — a hansik artisan known as the “Queen of Jeon” — who passed on the essence, meaning and techniques of Korean pan-fried delicacies. The second, led by Lee Sang-hui, director of the Tongyeong Food Culture Research Institute, focused on preparing and cooking Tongyeong ingredients such as dried cod and hapja-jang.
The Nanro Foundation is a global exchange community and education institution devoted to nurturing and supporting the next generation of hansik talent. It began in 2022 as an industry circle for the branding of Korean food, and was formally launched as a non-profit corporation in 2023.
· Original (Korean): realfoods.co.kr
