“I was given a mission from Heaven to unite Korean people in food”

By Vice Chairman Sion Khan

The mission given by heaven as a medicinal chef is to unite the Korean people with a motherly heart through healthy food culture and to save humanity.

We met with Chairperson Chung Young-sook, the Bibimbap rice performer who aspires after peace.

This writer met with Chairperson Young-sook Chung when she told me that BEXCO in Busan was holding a 'Gayagung Palace Bibimbap’ (Rice mixed with meat and vegetables) Performance' to celebrate the bidding for the 2030 World Expo Busan.

With several titles, including Chairman of the Korean Federation of Local Cultures, Director of the Korean Fermented Food Culture and Education Centre, and CEO of Jeong Lim Hanjeongsik (formal Korean meal), Chairperson Jeong has been cooking Korean and Yakseon cuisine for over 30 years.

When this writer was first introduced to Chairperson Chung, I was surprised to learn of her history and her resonance with society and humanity, and her willingness to serve society without expecting anything in return.

It was a performance where 33 different kinds of wild vegetables were added to a large griddle bowl with a diameter of about 2 meters made by herself, and the rice and Gochujang (hot pepper sauce) were mixed together with the help of 10 people using a large vessel, and the finished bibimbap rice was distributed to many people who visited the event, with enough rice for about 2,000 people to eat, and I also tasted the bibimbap on site.

As a performance artist myself, I found the bibimbap rice performance to be a great symbol of unity, harmony, and communication.

The 33 herbs used in making the Bibimbap rice symbolize the 33 Korean independence fighters who dedicated themselves to the world peace and the peace of their country. And the rice is the will and soul of many people. And so, mixing it with a large dipper was an extremely moving performance that signified unity, coexistence, and communication.

I've seen a lot of performances by a lot of artists, but I've never experienced a performance that was so dynamic, with so many people participating simultaneously and eating delicious food together.

The Busan Expo Promotion Fair, which was jointly organized by MADE IN BUSAN and KEIF JK Industrial Research Institute for the purpose of attracting to Busan the 2030 World Expo, and co-organized by the 2030 Busan World Expo Pan-Citizen Supporters (Co-Sponsor Chairman Jung Wook-ki) and Gyeongnam Daily (CEO Jung Chang-hoon) media outlets, opened on April 30, 2023 at BEXCO 1 Exhibition Hall in Busan.

The Gaya Gung Palace Bibimbap Demonstration, hosted by Chairman Jung Young-sook, was an event where 2,030 participants tasted bibimbap to pray for harmony and convergence and to promote the excellence of Korean food culture.

Through 'Gayagung Bibimbap', we met on a meaningful occasion to pray for the successful bid for the '2030 Busan World Expo' in Busan, which contributes to the unity of the Korean people around the world and global branding as a tourism resource, and to declare the globalization of Korean food.

Through the 'Gayagung Bibimbap Performance', Chairperson Jung Young-sook said, "Through various changes in my life, I have gained wisdom to realize the order of life and the reason of nature." "With a mother's heart full of love, I hope that Gayagung Bibimbap will become a grain of wheat for the globalization of Korean food as a K-food," she said, adding, "Through this event, I will do my best to do my duty to attract the 2030 Busan Expo, which is the desire of Busan citizens.

Chairperson Chung also attempted to enter the Guinness Book of World Records in 2013 by making 11,000 servings of bibimbap with 33 different kinds of herbs to honor 33 representatives of the Korean people at the 'Korean Food Day' event held at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul.

I think that now that Chairman Jung, who is over 50 years old, has succeeded as a businessperson and has fulfilled her mission of spreading healing and health happiness to many people as a medicinal chef, she should take the lead in becoming the mother of many people who are sending messages for peace on the Korean Peninsula and world peace.

This writer was so impressed by Mrs. Jung's actions that I immediately proposed a bibimbap performance for world peace. I suggested that we make bibimbap with various products collected from the Five Oceans and Six Continents of the world and eat it with 10,000 people.

Every human being has a destiny and a calling. And you have a mission from Heaven that you must fulfill in your life.

Just as we are born with natural human rights when we are born, Myung-Sook Chung has a natural human rights mission in that sense, and I think she has a mission to save people's lives and health, and to be the mother of all humanity, to promote human health, and to unite and harmonize humanity.

Chairperson Jeong, who runs Jeong Lim Hanjeongsik (Dongnae Gwan-ah, Dongnae Market, Dongnae-gu, Busan), was born in Yangsan and is the fifth of seven children of her family. Her parents were big orchard farmers. Her cooking was heavily influenced by her mother.

She says: “Looking back, I've loved cooking since I was a kid, and my mother made me marinate in gochujang and miso every year. That's when I started studying natural foods, herbal seasonings, and fermented foods, and I developed my interest in herbal medicine.”

Jeonglim Hanjeongsik (Traditional Korean Food) is a traditional Korean cuisine designated by the City of Busan, specializing in Korean traditional dishes typical of Busan and Gimhae.

Chung's food is never seasoned. There are no seasoning jars. Sweetness is achieved with Jocheong (traditional Korean man-made honey), an orphaned grain, and sourness with vinegar made from persimmons or plums. The meal includes brown rice, dwenjang bean paste soup, assorted pickles, and salted fish. All the food is enzymed and aged for years.

Fermented foods are a traditional part of Korean cuisine that is good for you. Kimchi and traditional fermented sauces (soy sauce, miso, and gochujang) are priceless foods to pass on to future generations.

In 2013, she performed at the Korean Food Day event at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, Korea, using 33 different herbs to make 11,000 servings of bibimbap.

The 33 namul (edible vegetables) are in honor of the 33 national representatives who read the March 1 Declaration of Independence at Tapgol Park in Seoul, a record that has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records. It was the largest Korean-themed event in history, and the bibimbap was prepared in a specially made container that was 1.5 meters wide and 150 meters long.

The herbs alone weighed 7 tons and the rice weighed 16 tons. All the cooking and preparation was done by host organization’s staff members for 10 days and nights. It is very difficult financially and organizationally to hold a large-scale performance without any special sponsorship as an individual, but Chairperson Jung was able to do it because the public significance of the bibimbap performance was so great that she promoted it with a sense of mission. The symbolic meaning was a great performance that symbolized unity, harmony, and communication.

Chairperson Chung has never slept for more than three hours a night and she went to the farmers' market at 3 a.m. to buy the best ingredients. The best ingredients, such as rice, are contracted from farmers all over the country. The idea is not to make money, but to make healthy and wholesome medicinal dishes.

The tradition of doing things that benefit people like this should continue for 100 years, 200 years, and beyond. That's what the Korean people, as a nation, should be pursuing, spreading the ideology of Hongik Human Principle (giving benefits to all the people) to the world.

'Gayagung Bibimbap', the main menu of Jeonglim Hanjeongsik next to the tomb of King Suro in Gimhae, is made with more than 40 ingredients. It is a bibimbap that Chairperson Jung Young-sook developed with confidence, and she wants to sublimate it into the culture of Garakguk, the culture of Korea, by making food that the body wants with eco-friendly natural ingredients.

Chairpersons Jung wants to put the history of Garakguk in 2000 into bibimbap with various ingredients and use it as an opportunity to promote the globalization of our culture and create a multicultural society that communicates and harmonizes through food.

Gayagung Bibimbap is about unity, communication, and internationalization of Korean food. It is the ambition of Chairperson Jung to introduce the brilliant Geumgwan Gaya and its culture to the world to showcase the excellence of Korean food culture.

The history of Gimhae is a traditional culture that has been passed down from Geumgwan Gaya, and Gaya Palace Bibimbap is meant to tell the world about the glorious history and culture of the Gaya Kingdom, which dominated the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.

Since ancient times, Korea has been called the land of angels. It is the kingdom of herbs, where mysterious herbs from all over the world are gathered. The grass, trees, soil, and stones that grow on this land are priceless treasures for everyone.

Yakseon is a culture and cuisine based on medical theories and created through the careful selection and fusion of herbal medicines and other ingredients with high medicinal and nutritional value, which originated from the human desire to live a long and healthy life and developed along with a long history of food culture. Everything comes from the culture of the table.

Table culture is etiquette, and food is a transmission of heart and soul. If our table culture is disappearing, it means that our manners are disappearing and the national soul is disappearing. We should keep in mind that meal culture is the shortcut to protecting our health in the centenary era.

There's a saying that if food doesn't cure what ails you, no medicine will. The idea that the most common thing is the most precious, and making food with care from common ingredients is the medicinal sages. In order to make the table a place where food becomes medicine, you need to value the most common things and make them with all your heart.

We believe that food is responsible for the diseases we experience today. The wrong food makes you sick. Medicine is about making food that the body wants.

Experiencing the flavorful and elegant cuisine of Yakseon meal makes people feel proud of our food. A simple meal carefully prepared with wildflowers and local produce is a medicine.

Just as people have different faces, plants have different properties and benefits that are either compatible or opposed to each other. Fermentation and medicinal cooking are the source of medicinal food, and it is sad that young housewives seem to have forgotten this very common fact.

Chairperson Chung is a native of Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, and has served as the President of the Korean Food Association and the Executive Committee Chairman of the 1st Korean Food Day Promotion Committee. She was awarded the New Intellectual Award by the Korea New Intellectuals Association and the Prime Minister's Award for improving food culture. She received the Liaoning Growth Achievement Plaque and the Kirghiz Presidential Award for the 20th anniversary of the Korea-Kirghiz diplomatic relations for 4,000 bibimbap. She is currently the director of the Korean Fermented Food Culture and Education Center.

In the future, Chairperson Jung Young-sook is planning to organize a bibimbap performance to pray for world peace with all the natural products of the five continents. She is preparing a tour in the United States and Europe, and is also preparing to hold a closing performance at the Olympic Games.