Last year, W Seoul-Walkerhill's Irish Cuisine Director Ciaran Hickey arranged a dinner event in which he introduced some Korean cuisine of his own making.

It came after two years of working at the five-star hotel that Hickey decided to try out a hansik dinner. Many people expressed caution, telling him that Korean food can go seriously wrong.

The menu included the two popular Korean dishes "samgyetang" - steamed chicken soup stuffed with sticky rice and ginseng - and "maeuntang" - spicy seafood broth.

The presentation of the dishes was different from the traditional way.

Samgyetang came with a glutinous soup and the meat was sliced. As for maeuntang, the soup was prepared separately and poured over the fish and vegetable after they had been cooked.

"The dinner was low attendance-wise, but was successful and well-received ... It sparked a lot of debate (as to whether it is really hansik)," Hickey said, adding that some people had a hard time perceiving it as Korean food.

In particular, the concept of maeuntang being served neatly as a dish, rather than a big pot of boiling fishy soup for sharing, seemed to be hard for most Koreans to understand, Hickey said.

However, simplifying and neatly presenting hansik were Hickey's main intentions. In fact, the chef believes pushing traditional hansik will not work in making it popular to foreign nationals.

"Everything has to adapt to where they are - the Japanese, Chinese and Italian food here does not resemble the ones eaten at home, because otherwise people won't eat them. Koreans also have to get used to trying to make changes and playing with their food," he said.

Hickey cited French cuisine as an example, saying that dishes like bouillabaisse started from everything cooked together in one pot but have since evolved into a simple, sophisticated cuisine.

Nevertheless, many participants acknowledged the originality and simplicity of Hickey's unique creations and the chef is considering adding some of the dishes to the everyday menu of the hotel's Kitchen, the all-day dining restaurant best known for its "Bubbly Sunday" brunch.

"We're going to take the gourmet hansik menu and just see how it goes, although even my staff call them 'concept' menu, and probably add some more regular Korean dishes as well," he said.

<scRIPT language=Javascript src="/khjs/banner/article_340.js"></scRIPT> Although W is very contemporary and Koreans, who comprise more than 80 percent of their total customers, rarely come to the hotel to have a Korean meal, Hickey said that they should have some elements of hansik in their menu to do their part.

For now, Kitchen mostly offers Western food such as pizza and pasta as well as course meals, plus a few Korean dishes like "bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetable)" and jjambbong (Korean-style Chinese spicy noodle).

Hickey said that Kitchen suffers an identity problem as it has to cover a versatile menu to make up for the lack of restaurants at the hotel.

"We started off aiming at home-style food from heart but the menu had to evolve," Hickey explained.

There are only two other restaurants at the hotel - Japanese restaurant Namu and organic spa restaurant Tonic, which sells healthy beverages and food. Other five-star hotels in Seoul average five to eight restaurants.

As a food expert, Hickey said he generally has a positive outlook for hansik becoming popular worldwide.

However, he predicts that the process will eventually happen and not in a speed that Koreans want it to, because the country was slow to start such efforts compared to other countries.

In respect to everyday Korea foods, Hickey said "tteokbokki," or rice cake in hot sauce, has great potential to appeal to a lot of foreign nationals.

"It is cheap and cheerful, and very similar to Italian gnocci - adaptable with different sauces although it's chewy (a texture not favored by many foreign nationals)," he said.

Hickey said that despite having numerous dishes that can appeal to non-Koreans, Korea only has either two extremes regarding its food - cheap and easy street food, or five-star hotels' palace course meals, not much in between the two. Hickey said that other restaurants only sell one or two specialized dishes like "galbi" or "samgyeobsal," and do not usually offer a menu that features appetizers to main dishes and desserts which most Westerners are used to.

"Even Chinese chain restaurant Ho Lee Chow, which sells generic Chinese food, has everything - from appetizers to noodles and stir fried dishes. There are no Korean chains like that," he said.

Moreover, Hickey asserted that instead of trying to promote Korean cuisine internationally, it is important to make the food more accessible to the (expats) here first.

Although the expat community here is very interested in Korean food and how to make them, there are just not enough ways to explore and learn more about it, he said.

"I still feel lost when walking around the Jamsil area because I don't understand what they sell at a certain restaurant. We (foreign nationals) fear that it might accidentally be 'dog,'" he said.

Thus he said English menus or explanations about a dish should be provided for foreigners, not to mention the need for restaurant employees who can speak English.

Korean food festivals, cooking demonstrations and cooking classes for foreign nationals here can also be received very well, Hickey added.

"Recently I attended one and saw a lot of people who were very knowledgeable on hansik. A lady next to me knew where (in the country) to get which ingredients from," Hickey said.

Informing foreign customers how to eat a certain Korean meal could be very helpful, according to Hickey, since usually "there's so much going on" at a Korean dinner table.

"I love 'doejigalbi (marinated pork rib) so much, but the so many side dishes - onions, lettuce, kimchi and a pot of kimchi jjigae - all comes to me as confusing and I really don't know what to eat first or how to eat them," he said.

The most mysterious thing for Hickey is why Korean restaurants always have so many kinds of kimchi and are served with kimchi-jjigae.

"From a chef's point of view, we're looking at things in terms of 'balance.' And different kinds of kimchi does not compliment the kimchi soup," he said.

Hickey said he is glad that the government stopped promoting hansik with only kimchi now. He said that kimchi is a side dish like ketchup and thus not many people would want them for their everyday meal.

Bringing in more tourists, versus those who come for business, to the country is crucial to make hansik more known to the world, Hickey also said.

International events like World Design Capital Seoul 2010 and World Congress of International Chefs Association 2012 in Daejeon will hopefully be able to contribute to that, Hickey said.

"I also think serving bibimbap on Korean airlines is a very smart idea to introduce Korean food to travelers," he said.

Prior to coming to Korea, Hickey has been a head chef at Radisson St. Helens Hotel in Dublin.

But Hickey built up his career mostly at Four Seasons hotels - in London, New York, Istanbul and Bahamas - and grew to become a star chef. He has gained a lot of experiences, ranging from all-day dining and fine dining hotel restaurants to large-scale cater events.

When Hickey was at the Four Seasons Istanbul, the restaurant he led was selected as the best restaurant in Istanbul by prestigious restaurant guide book Zagat.

(youngaah@heraldm.com)

By Koh Young-aah