Collaboration dining event that invites chefs from abroad is getting popular (photography source. Michael by Haevichi x Atera official video).

As people take greater interest in gourmet dining, there are now people who visit cities where famous chef restaurants are located in, including Shanghai, New York, etc., to taste such great food. But in reality, it’s not so easy to travel just for food. What about an opportunity where you can enjoy food from around the world without getting on a plane?

These days we are seeing more world class chefs visiting Korea, as there are more and more ‘Collaboration Dining)’ events taking place in Korean hotels and restaurants where foreign chefs are invited to Korea.

Collaboration dining growing with hotels

Collaboration dining events are taking place around hotels (photography source. Michael by Haevichi x Atera official video).

Collaboration dining events which are also called Gala Dinner or 4-Hands Dinner have a long history beyond imagination. It’s not too much of an exaggeration when we say that it’s as long as the history of hotels. Collaboration dining events cost a lot more than you’d think. Thus, the hotels that have the monetary power to invite world renowned chefs have been able to lead collaboration dining events.

On the forefront, there’s Amber in Hong Kong’s famous hotel, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, which has operated ‘Friends of Amber’ project and continuously held collaboration dining events. They have so far invited Virgilio Martinez from Central, which was voted the best restaurant of Latin America, the French star chef Yannick Alleno, Martin Benn from Australian restaurant Sepia, etc., and last year the Korean chef Min-goo Kang.

Renowned chefs from around the world in the Haevichi Hotel and Resort

Collaboration dining events where chefs are invited to Korea are becoming a trend (photography source. Michael by Haevichi x Atera official video).

Since early 2010s, we have seen a surge of interest in traveling abroad and gourmet from the consumers. Many hotels first grasped this change in the consumers and based on their prestige and long-standing planning and execution capacity, started to hold collaboration dining events.

Haevichi hotel has been holding collaboration dinners each year with world renowned chefs since 2017. In 2017, they invited chef Jean-Francois Piege, who runs the prestigious Le Grand Restaurant and Clover in Paris, France and last year, in 2018, invited chef Pascal Barbot who runs L’Astrance in Paris to the Haevichi hotel, which was very well received by the participants.

It was an opportunity to meet chef Ronny Emborg’s dishes that include Nordic cuisine and molecular cooking, in Korea (photography source. Michael by Haevichi x Atera official video).

This year collaboration dining events were carried out not only in Jeju but also in Seoul. Haevichi Hotel and Resort’s American dining restaurant 'Michael by Haevichi' invited chef Ronny Emborg from ‘Atera’, a New American dining concept restaurant in New York. Ronny Emborg, a Danish chef, worked in world renowned restaurants including elBuli and Mugaritz in Spain and also was a personal chef to the Danish Queen Majesty. He’s known for showing his original style affected by Nordic cuisine and molecular cooking.

Gourmet dining boundaries are being expanded; the joy of collaboration.

you can experience gourmet trend in collaboration dining events (photography source. Michael by Haevichi x Atera official video).

Collaboration dining event is an opportunity where you can enjoy excellent foreign restaurant dishes in Korea. But as mentioned before, it costs a lot of money. But hotels continue to hold such events with the service mind of introducing a leading food trend.

In the past, it was a simple event where a foreign chef would visit and show off dishes from his/her restaurant. But nowadays it’s a trend to make use of the hosting country’s food ingredients and create a new menu. Or the hosting country’s chef and the invited chef would sometimes work together and create 2~3 new dishes together. This year, at the Michael by Haevichi ‘Michael x Atera gala dinner’, special dishes for Korean customers were introduced as well as Atera’s signature dishes. Now we can enjoy the invited chef’s original food as well as the unique, new dishes of the event.

Generally, the cooking staff and the chef are the ones visiting, but these days some bring their service staff as well. Thomas Suhring, who recently held a collaboration event in Korea, has said, “our food is only half as good without the explanation from our manager, who understands our food the best. Our service is required to fully introduce our food. The role of our manager is extremely important.”

As such, collaboration dining events create opportunities for the hotel and restaurant chefs, cooking team, and the service team to experience new culture and improve themselves. It’s not just about simply inviting a chef and having him/her cook here. It’s about talking about, using, and developing new ingredients, new cooking technology, and new service means together. This is how the dining scene is expanding its horizons.

Written by Na-young Kim (food columnist)

Majored in cooking and had worked as a food editor for a food magazine, L’amant. Since then, have been writing for various media including GQ and Olive Magazine on food.