Rediscovering North Korean Cuisine: A Learning Session with Chef Choi Ji-hyung at LEEBUKBANG, Seoul

Explore LEEBUKBANG in Seoul, where Chef Choi Ji-hyung revives North Korean food traditions like Sikhye, North Korean kimchi, and sundae. A culinary journey of memory, heritage, and modern reinterpretation.

A Learning Session with Chef Choi Ji-hyung at LEEBUKBANG

A Culinary Revival in the Alleys of Seoul

Tucked away in a quiet alley of Seongdong-gu, Seoul, LEEBUKBANG is not your typical Korean restaurant. It’s neither a rustic folk eatery nor a sleek contemporary bistro — it’s something far more nuanced. At the heart of LEEBUKBANG is Chef Choi Ji-hyung, a culinary artisan who is reviving and reimagining the forgotten flavors of North Korean cuisine, placing them back onto modern Korean tables.

Chef Choi Ji-hyung: A Journey Through Time, Art, and Flavor

Before entering the culinary world, Chef Choi studied fine arts. Yet his active nature led him to pursue cooking, inspired by his mother’s encouragement. While studying culinary arts in college, he simultaneously trained in Japanese cuisine at a local restaurant, hoping to someday establish a career in the U.S.

That ambition came to life. After graduating, he worked at a Mexican fine-dining restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton, eventually becoming sous chef. He deepened his studies at Johnson & Wales University, then moved on to acclaimed restaurants such as Marea (2 Michelin stars) and Eleven Madison Park (3 Michelin stars), where he trained under Chef Bryan Lockwood, a Bocuse d'Or silver medalist.

“It felt like standing on a cutting board every day,” he recalls of his time in New York. “But it was the golden era of my culinary life.”

Now, he’s focused on something vastly different: North Korean dishes like Sikhye, North Korean-style kimchi, and North Korean sundae — not for trend, but to trace culinary memory through food.

LEEBUKBANG: Not Reproduction, But Reinvention

LEEBUKBANG doesn’t just recreate traditional dishes — it reconstructs them. Drawing from old texts and oral histories, Chef Choi blends authenticity with modern refinement. Each plate is restrained yet aromatic, simple in composition yet deeply moving in flavor.

Learning North Korean Cuisine: A Cultural Workshop

Recently, LEEBUKBANG hosted a special North Korean Food Learning Session. Attendees included chefs, food writers, and international guests eager to understand a rarely explored side of Korean cuisine. The workshop focused on three signature dishes:

1. Sikhye – Fermented Fish, Not a Sweet Drink

In South Korea, "Sikhye" typically refers to a sweet rice drink. But North Korean Sikhye is a savory, fermented dish made from fish, glutinous rice paste, and radish.

Prepared without garlic or red pepper, the fish (often yellow croaker or pollock) ferments with julienned radish and rice porridge, developing a subtle tang and tender texture.

“Sikhye was the refrigerator of the North,” explained Chef Choi. “It’s how people stored protein during the winter. Fermentation is the heart of North Korean cuisine.”

2. North Korean Kimchi – Subtle, Deep, and Balanced

Unlike its southern counterpart, North Korean kimchi is less spicy, with little to no use of fish sauce or red pepper. Instead, it leans on the natural sweetness of cabbage, radish, and Asian pear, seasoned modestly with salt.

During the class, participants learned to make whole cabbage kimchi and diced radish kimchi (kkakdugi). The result? A crisp, clean flavor profile that left international guests calling it “delicate, elegant, and surprisingly refreshing.”

One attendee noted:

“This is the kind of kimchi I could eat every day — even for breakfast.”

3. North Korean Sundae – A Refined Blood Sausage

Forget the street-style sundae stuffed with glass noodles and blood. North Korean sundae is closer to a meatball. It’s made by stuffing pork casing with minced meat, tofu, mung bean sprouts, garlic, ginger, and sesame salt — no blood involved.

Once steamed and sliced, the cross-section is neat and uniform.

“It’s labor-intensive and time-consuming,” says Chef Choi. “But that’s how our mothers and grandmothers cooked. That’s where the soul of the cuisine lives.”

“Food is a Layer of Memory”

This session was more than just a cooking class. It was a journey through memory, an exploration of a fragmented heritage, and a revival of stories nearly lost.

“Food is a geological layer of memory,” Chef Choi reflected.“Within each North Korean dish lies history, hardship, and resilience. My mission is to preserve it — and share it.”

In a divided peninsula, these dishes are symbols. Borders may split nations, but taste transcends them. A meal at LEEBUKBANG is not just nourishment — it’s an act of cultural restoration.

Tradition with a Global Future

Chef Choi doesn’t aim to cook "old food well" — he seeks to reimagine tradition for modern lives. He’s currently working on educational materials to teach North Korean cuisine in English and is planning future collaborations with international chefs.

“Ironically, it’s often foreign guests who are most curious. Our own people sometimes don’t know these dishes exist. But North Korean cuisine has global potential.”

Remembering Through Taste

North Korean cuisine isn’t heavy or flashy — it’s defined by subtlety, restraint, and memory. What Chef Choi Ji-hyung is building at LEEBUKBANG is more than a restaurant. It’s a living archive of a culture that still has much to say.

Maybe the food we need right now is exactly this:Food that remembers. Food that heals.