By John Okeke
Participants and beneficiaries in the recent cultural integration programme organised by the Korea Cultural Centre (KCC) in Abuja, judged the event as the best impactful way for a country to maintain and deepen relationship with another country and its people. They also said the programme set the South Korean government relationship style apart.
The KCC in Abuja, apparently in a bid to sustain the existing relationship between Nigeria and South Korea, took the initiative to equip Nigerian chefs with the cooking skill of Korean dishes. The initiative gave the chefs an edge among their peers in the competitive world of food business. According to their testimonies.
It was gathered that the cooking event was part of the series of tutorials on Korean dishes benefited by the different categories of Nigerians in the past. But to make a sustainable impact, the KCC in collaboration with Chefs Association of Nigeria, shifted the target to the professional chefs in the country: the people that actually have the capacity and opportunity to mentor others and most importantly, prepare the dishes in restaurants across the country.
The Centre revealed that 16 professional chefs were trained in the sessions. They were tutored on simple Korean dishes that can be easily replicated by a professional chef any time in a any kitchen. Sharon Pwavi Babale, Chef Instructor, as the event said.
Bae Sungjin, a KCC official, who was the cooking training Program Officer, said the tutorial was strategic engagement of the Centre to afford Nigerians taste of Korean dishes and as well equip the chefs with more skills in continental dish preparation for their different places of business. He added that the event was carefully planned to coincide with South Korean thanksgiving festival, hence it was a cultural integration programme.
“Because the Centre promotes culture, we decided to hold a Korean cooking class to commemorate our thanksgiving and give the chefs an advantage opportunity in their career. So while we give Nigerians the opportunity to have a taste of Korean food, we equally provide the people who cook in the restaurants with new dishes to add in their menu.
“We know that many Nigerians watch Koreans films and may have experienced other Korean produce but not our food. Meanwhile there are no Korean restaurants in the whole of Abuja, so we thought its best we do something about it. So we are using the opportunities to introduce our dishes to Nigerians through a collaboration with Chefs Association of Nigeria, hoping that they will impact to others what they have learn from the class.”
Chef Nass
I am very excited to be a participant in the programme because as a chef for the past 4 years now, this programme offered me an opportunity to learn and make Korean dish and as well have a taste of it. It is such a wonderful experience for me. I joined in making the dish which is something I am very proud of. This opportunity has also ignited my interest in leaning more about Korean dishes and that of other countries. As chef, being able to make continental dishes is a huge plus both here in Nigeria and outside. It gives you an edge in the community of chefs. So I call this an introduction and it came at the right time for me. I can confidently replicate the dishes we prepared here today. So I thank the Korean Cultural Centre and urge them to do more cooking section like this.
Chef Obla
Actually I like the fact that the Korean Embassy through its cultural centre decided to give us opportunity to learn about their culture, in this case their food. It is a rare opportunity, different from what I have heard or seen before. I am very impressed by this opportunity. We practically learn how to cook their food and it was fun. I like the taste of their food we cooked today and I hope more opportunities like this will come my way. Before now when I watch their films, I wondered how their food taste but to my surprised today, their food actually taste good. I would not mind making their food a choice in an restaurant I see it. And with what we learn here today, I can confidently cook this exact dishes we were thought today. For me, this experience has added to my intercontinental dishes resumé.
Sharon
We are having a cooking class for a Korean festival where new harvest is celebrated. It is a time when family bond. Basically, those in the cities come to the village to celebrate with their family members. So we decided to teach some professional Nigerian chefs from the Chefs Association some Korean dishes. So we thought them Sogogi Muguk and Modeumjoen.
This is being held by the Korean Cultural Centre. The job of the Centre is basically to promote Korean culture, to drive mutual understanding between the two countries. Hence we felt Korean culture is mostly known and seen in Nigeria and other African countries only in their movies. And a lot of Korean dishes are being seen in movies. So we felt it’s best we introduce Korean dishes to Nigerians because you can hardly see Korean restaurants in Nigeria, that is why the Centre thought that to teach Korean dishes to the chefs is the best way to have more Nigerians experience some of the food they see in the movies.
So Korean dishes are pretty straight forward to learn. This is just a one day class in two sets. What we thought them was the recipes that are very easy to catch. And after the class we wrote down the recipes and earlier buy some of the ingredients and gift them so trials when they get to their various kitchens where they work. Intentionally, we used ingredients that are available in Nigeria markets so they equally go to the market and buy in any case they want to replicate the dishes.
Actually this is not the Centre’s first cooking class for Nigerian chefs this year, and we have been doing it for a couple of years. This year we chose chefs. It was diplomats, couples, housewives, and young people at different other times in the past. And the idea is to teach cross section of people so as to have a multiplying result. And we are sure the purpose is actually yielding the desired result.
