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Strong-willed chef dishes on judging role

Strong-willed chef dishes on judging role

Chef Kim Sohyi judges a participant's creation on "Master Chef Korea".

With her tightly pulled back hair; thin, arched eyebrows and firmly closed lips, Chef Kim Sohyi surely looks like the last judge you would expect to compliment your food. In fact, she actually swept a participant's dish into a trash can in the first season of "Master Chef Korea" last year.

One episode after another, however, Kim has become probably the most beloved of the three judges on the reality cooking show that airs on O'live TV every Friday night.

The show has the highest ratings among hundreds of cable shows that hit the airwaves in the same time slot.

The 49-year-old chef spits straightforward and even biting comments in her heavy Gyeongsang Province accent whenever she evaluates the survival show participants' end products, but the audience knows all her bitter remarks are not meant to hurt the chef hopefuls. Every criticism she makes has a point, but shows that she really cares about the participants.

Kim has become famous with the reality show on her home soil but she was already a household name in Austria before the Korean show. Having five restaurants in Vienna, including Kim Kocht, which means "Kim cooks" in German, she is one of the busiest chefs in Europe and makes regular appearances in numerous cooking shows there.

Kim already has fame, money and people who love her food in Vienna. There was no reason for her to toil by traveling regularly between Vienna and Seoul merely for the Korean cooking reality show, but she does it by staying two weeks in Seoul and another two weeks in Vienna.

The Korea JoongAng Daily recently interviewed Kim and asked her questions about her judging job and her transition from a fashion student who never fried an egg to a chef.

On the day of the interview, Kim showed up carrying two loaves of bread. She said she just finished a bakery class on how to make chewy breads between her daily appointments.

Strong-willed chef dishes on judging role

Chef Kim Sohyi is probably one of the most beloved chefs in Korea. Provided by CJ E&M

Q. You already had your hands full in Vienna before "Master Chef Korea". Was there a critical moment for you to accept the role of judge, flying all the way from there to Seoul?

A. There is this producer named Ha Jeong-seok (the producer for "Master Chef Korea") and I fell in love with him when we met for the first time in Vienna three years ago. He contacted me to film a food show for the (O'live) channel. On the day before he flew to Vienna, he called me and asked if there was anything I needed from Korea. I had an urge to eat sirutteok (layered rice cake made of adzuki beans) so I told him to bring me some. When he arrived in Vienna, he gave me this huge Styrofoam box, inside there was this rice cake and I was deeply touched by him. Think about it. When the team of a TV show goes abroad, they have to carry so many things, but he got this just-steamed rice cake for me from Seoul to Vienna. When he asked me to be a judge for "Master Chef Korea", I had no choice but to accept it. It's so much fun to be part of this program and I learn a lot of things from the passionate participants.

The second season of "Master Chef Korea" has just started and its participants and their background stories are more varied than the previous season. One of them is a North Korean defector who lived as a child beggar up in the North. As a judge, isn't it sometimes hard for you to evaluate their foods solely based on their creations?

I try to assess their foods. I must do this because this is a cooking reality show. But it's hard not to be affected by their personal stories because I'm a human, after all.

How do you feel when you look at these chef hopefuls? Do they bring back memories from when you started cooking?

I've never seen a participant who is strong-willed like me. I learned cooking by myself. Back then, I practiced cooking as do or die. I get a stomachache when I eat milk fat but I ate more than three meals (containing milk fat) a day, went to a toilet, puked and then ate again because I had to learn. I also can't eat salmon because I practiced slicing raw salmon for 17 hours every day for a full month when I started cooking.

You went abroad to study fashion in 1983. Why did you suddenly decide to pursue a culinary career?

Being a fashion designer is a good job when you are young, but it was way too fabulous for an ordinary person like me. I wanted to live keeping my feet on the ground. My mother used to tell me that I won't starve if I run a restaurant. That's how I started.

For those who can't visit your restaurant, Kim Kocht, tell us about your food.

It's not Korean food by the way it looks but it tastes Korean because I use Korean ingredients such as red pepper paste, soybean paste, gim (dried seaweed), sesame leaves and herbal ingredients such as dong quai and licorice. No cheese, butter or cream in my kitchen. When a new member joins us, he or she is surprised to see there is no cheese, butter and cream. The reason I don't use them is they create gas in your stomach. Instead, I boil down herbal ingredients into sauce. I believe your food reflects your personality. Mine is not buttery and creamy but sweet, sour and clean.

Most good cooks grow up eating good food. What kind of memory do you have about your mother's home cooking?

She used to tell me about seasonal foods for each month and special taste that comes from your fingertips. She also made red pepper paste and soybean paste by herself. I didn't pay much attention to what she was doing back then, but now I remember all the things she did. And the memories help me a lot when I cook. It's my mother's legacy.

Many people talk about the globalization of Korean food. Some say we should stick to traditional recipes and plating while some others say we should modify them to serve wider customers. What is your definition of globalization of hansik or Korean food?

Before talking about globalization, we first need to know and learn more about foods of other countries. For example, Europeans don't eat squid. We can't force them to eat a squid dish just because it is hansik. We need to get a good grip on common sense of other foods before talking about globalization.

By Sung So-young [[email protected]]

Source from :koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com