Varun Totlani, José Avillez, JP Park and Supaksorn “Ice” Jongsiri. JMH_GALLERY

Atomix chef Junghyun “JP” Park runs the top-ranked restaurant in North America, but he says he still has a lot to learn. So last week, the Korean-born Park was back in Seoul, attending workshops about fermentation as part of the Hansik Conference.

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At Korea House, World Institute of Kimchi principal researcher Chae-lin Park and chef/”godmother of Hansik” Hee-sook Cho kicked off the workshops by discussing the history and significance of Korean vegetable fermentation. Guests, including El Bulli legend Ferran Adrià, took notes on themes like how kimchi was born out of necessity—as a means of preservation when refrigeration didn’t exist, and as a way to make the ritual of eating rice more healthful and palatable.

Attendees, including world-renowned chefs José Avillez of Lisbon’s Belcanto, Varun Totlani of Mumbai’s Masque and Supaksorn “Ice” Jongsiri of Bangkok’s Sorn, listened intently as the kimchi experts talked about how there’s no designated eating order when you are greeted with an assortment of banchan. Guests learned that you should make kimchi with fewer ingredients if you want it to last longer, and that the most important thing is thinking about how flavors blend. 

But what the Hansik Conference wants to emphasize, as it encourages chefs from all over........

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