French chef adopted from Korea moves back to Seoul after falling in love with its flavors
A French chef adopted from Korea went from obtaining Korean food items to be “too spicy” to loving it sufficient to move to Korea to understand a lot more.
Born in Korea in 1986, Damien Selme, now 36, was adopted and moved to France at 6 months outdated. Right after finishing his culinary training in 2004, Selme went on to intern and later get the job done as chef at several Michelin star eating places throughout France.
After meeting a Korean intern when finding out at Les Cafe des Rois, Selme determined to travel to Korea in 2009 for a two-week family vacation. Through his visit, he determined to permanently go to Korea and began doing the job as a chef at the Korea Furnishings Museum in 2010.
Because then, Selme has worked as a chef at quite a few five-star motels, which include the Park Hyatt in Busan and the Park Hyatt in Shanghai and is now government chef at the Andaz Seoul of Gangnam. He was also preferred as the chef for the 2010 G20 summit luncheon held in Seoul.
Selme has been on a continuous quest to explore the flavors of Korean cuisine. In an job interview with The Korea Instances on March 4 at the Andaz Seoul Lodge- Gangnam, he shared his journey of heading from becoming not able to recognize Korean culinary society – locating every little thing “too spicy and red” and “very strong” smelling – to falling in really like with the cuisine. He explained typical Korean dishes this kind of as Gamjatang (pork again-bone stew) and Sundaeguk (soup of Korean blood sausage) as “healthy fast foodstuff.”
“You just cook, boil and you are carried out. There are not too several techniques and you respect the ingredients” Selme claimed, contrasting it with Chinese delicacies, “where every thing is significant, oil, and deep-fried.”
Selme described his journey to Korea as opening a “whole new chapter” in his career, introducing “another dimension of gastronomic expertise.” He expressed his desire in making an attempt out fermentation, which is a central system to several of Korea’s regular dishes together with kimchi and doenjang (soy bean paste).
On Selme’s particular Instagram page, he shares images of some of the most exquisite dishes, together with a roasted lobster tail with marinated pear, a kumquat pickle and maltaise sauce, plated fantastically in front of a h2o view from the Park Hyatt Lodge Busan’s dwelling space.
Selme at present heads a crew of 45 cooks at the Andaz, a department of the Hyatt brand found in the stylish location of Apgujeong-dong in Seoul.
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