Korea recently saw the inaugural launch of its very own Michelin Guide-style top 50 ‘best’ restaurants ranking guide in the country, KOREAT. With the aim of creating an authoritative ranking of Korea’s top restaurants for locals and tourists, KOREAT is the first ever organised restaurant ranking guide in the country. It is the result of an extensive poll that surveyed a 100-strong panel -comprising of food-related experts ranging from chefs to food columnists, consultants and restaurateurs- to arrive at the unprecedented list representing the best of Korea’s culinary scene. A KOREAT Festival featuring the top 50 restaurants will also take place on Jeju Island, Korea’s leading tourist destination from 29 October to 1 November.
“Seeking out both trendy and tasty eateries has in recent years become a key pastime for Koreans, allowing Seoul to quickly rise as an epicurean city; but there has been a gaping hole in terms of ranking restaurants through an organized process,” said Cho Youmi, head of the KOREAT organising committee and CEO of advertising agency Welcomm Publicis/Leo Burnett.
“Restaurants have gained popularity through the blogosphere, lifestyle magazines or word of mouth but the sources tend to be sporadic. With KOREAT, we are looking at creating an authoritative ranking of restaurants such as the Michelin Guide which is what we benchmarked against.” added Cho at the launch event for Koreat at Terreno, a Spanish restaurant featured on the list.
KOREAT – What is behind the Name?
The name KOREAT is a compound word of ‘KOREA’ and ‘EAT’ which convey the meaning of ‘to let the Korean diners as well as the world know, eat, and share Korean food culture’.
The Panel
The panel included 30 chefs, 37 media personnel, and 33 restaurant owners and food industry officials with a mix of local and foreign panelists at a ratio of 9:1. The entire panel list is available to view online at www.kor-eat.com in an effort to ensure transparency.
The Criteria and Category
The criteria for the panel is based primarily on taste, but additionally takes into account each venue’s level of recognition. There are no other particular standards although there were guiding criteria such as the "most delicious," "most memorable," "most representative of Korea," "recommendable to friends here and abroad," and "enhanced the level of Korea's food industry." The food category includes traditional Korean cuisine as well as Modern Korean, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese and other diverse cuisines that are present in Korea. In order to focus the evaluation solely on ‘taste’, the voters were requested to list ‘the best dining places – restaurants, bars, public houses, cafes, bakeries – they visited during the past one year.
Results
This drew a total of 481 candidates, from which 53 venues were picked for the top 50 list – with 3 of them jointly ranked. Please see full list here. Based on this year's survey, "Modern Korean," "owner-chef," "French cuisine," "Pyongyang naengmyeon," and "specialist" were key words that summed up the key trends spotted on the list. Nine of the restaurants included on the list categorized themselves as "modern Korean" while 15 restaurants in the top 50 were French. Over half of the restaurants were owned by the head chefs themselves and seven "owner-chef" restaurants were on the top 10 list.
The top 50 list will be made available in Korean, English and Chinese.
KOREAT FESTIVAL | Jeju Island I 29 October – 1 November 2015
Over four days on Jeju island, the KOREAT organising committee will hold a festival that will feature restaurants from the KOREAT list to introduce their cuisine to local and visitors via a variety of activities including food trucks, live cooking shows as well as a gala dinner. Cookware and cookbooks will also be on sale.
Food Trucks
Dishes (served tapas style) from top restaurants in the KOREAT list will be available at 5,000 won a plate from 10 food trucks that will travel around to three designated spots on the island –including Iho Land, Haenyeo Museum and Haevichi Hotel- over four days of the festival.
Chef Live Show
Three venues from the KOREAT list including Jin Jin, OKitchen and Le Chamber (the only bar on the top 50 list) will prepare their signature menus / cocktails live for up to 40 diners across three seatings.
Gala Dinner
The KOREAT top chefs, Chef Paolo De Maria of Paola De Maria and Chef Yoon-geun Eo of Ristorante Eo, will pair up to create a unique harmony of flavours for a special gala dinner as they share culinary stories, behind the scenes anecdotes in the kitchen.
American Express' "Taste" will be used as a marketing channel to broadcast KOREAT's selections. To participate in the KOREAT festival 1,800 Chinese tourists will visit Jeju Island through a tour program via Ctrip, a Chinese tour agency, which is one of the participating sponsors.
