YEOJU — Yeoju City's Agricultural Industry Joint Brand Promotion Center has launched a premium culinary program to showcase the value of "Daewangnimpyo Yeoju Rice" — a premium grade mark meaning "royal seal" — the city's flagship rice brand.
The center said on the 23rd that it will hold the "Yeoju Rice One-Pot Cooking Class" together with Fissler, the German kitchenware brand, and Gaon Gaok, a Korean fine-dining brand.
The event aims to present Yeoju rice not merely as a staple but as a premium ingredient. It will run three times from October through December.
Chef Kim Byung-jin will lead the program. Kim previously served as executive chef at Gaon, a Korean restaurant that held three Michelin stars in Seoul. He now directs Gaon Gaok, a casual Korean dining venue, where he presents contemporary interpretations of Korean cuisine.
The first class will be held on Oct. 27 in the seventh-floor lounge of Hwayo Group's headquarters building in Seoul. The theme is a tasting session featuring Yeoju rice pot rice with braised beef and eggplant.
Participants will watch up close as Kim prepares pot rice using Fissler pressure cookers and pots. They will also learn cooking methods that bring out the aroma and sweetness of the rice. A session for open discussion with the chef about ingredients and recipes is also planned.
After the demonstration, participants will move to Gaon Gaok on the first floor. There they will taste freshly cooked Yeoju rice alongside gomtang, a beef bone soup that is the restaurant's signature dish, experiencing the texture and flavor of Yeoju rice firsthand.
The dish featured that day is Yeoju rice pot rice with braised beef and eggplant. It combines tender braised chuck flap tail with chewy dried eggplant, designed so that the stickiness and subtle sweetness characteristic of Yeoju rice complement the flavors of the other ingredients.
Kim developed three pot-rice recipes for the collaboration. They include the braised beef and eggplant pot rice, a sticky corn and Yeoju peanut pot rice, and a mushroom pot rice served with soybean paste and tofu. Each dish highlights seasonal character and the balance of ingredients.
The partnership brings together the strengths of the three brands: the quality of Yeoju rice, Fissler's cooking technology and Gaon Gaok's Korean culinary expertise. The center plans to raise brand awareness by letting consumers taste and experience the product directly.
"The value of good rice shows best when it is cooked," a Yeoju City official said. "We will continue to work with a range of culinary brands to promote the excellence of Yeoju rice."