The 28th Gwangju World Kimchi Festival was successfully finished for the safety of citizens and the legitimacy of the Kimchi Festival. The Gwangju World Kimchi Festival was filled with a variety of services to enjoy, such as the Kimchi Market and Kimchi Academy.

In particular, in the ‘28th Korea Kimchi Contest’ and ‘Kimchi Applied Cooking Contest’, the representative programs of the Gwangju World Kimchi Festival held from Oct 29 to 30, various and ingenious types of kimchi and kimchi-applied dishes could be seen.

In the '28th Korea Kimchi Contest', which selects the leading character who will inherit and develop the cultural and functional tradition of kimchi, the national representative food, 20 people who passed the document screening went through the first contest on 15th with aged kimchi, a designated item, on 29th, the second contest was held with the designated item, Poggi napa cabbage kimchi, and the free item, free choice kimchi.

In particular, from this year, as the World Institute of Kimchi hash hosted the event, and in order to accurately grasp the capabilities of a traditional kimchi expert, has limited the materials that can be used in the production of napa cabbage kimchi, a designated item, to 16 types.

A judging committee composed of food-related experts comprehensively evaluated professionalism and excellence, and selected one grand prize (Presidential Award, 5 million won in prize money) winner and two first prize (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 2 million won each) winners and presented them with awards.

The grand prize (Presidential Award) of this Kimchi Contest was awarded to Myeonghwa Shin (Gyeonggi-do) for 'Kohlrabi and Ograkji Meet!', and Kyung-hee Kim (Kimhae) to 'Gyeongsang-do Grandma Agu Ring' by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Award, and Lee Young-sook (Gyeonggi-do) received the Minister of Culture and Sports Award for the 'Crab Apple Flower Jar' respectively.

▲ [Grand Prize] Presidential Award, Kohlraby and Ograkji meet! (Master Myunghwa Shin)

In addition to the award-winning dishes, various dishes were presented from white kimchi made with Shine muscat grapes to eggplant kimchi, Caragana Sinica water kimchi.

▲ Left) Shine muscat Grape Kimchi

▲ Right) Caragana Sinica Water Kimchi

Meanwhile, the 'Kimchi Applied Cooking Contest', which was held to provide an opportunity for kimchi to be reborn as a new food that will captivate the taste buds of people all over the world, also finished in great success.

‘Kimchi Applied Dish’ is a dish made using kimchi, in this contest, the amount of kimchi use must exceed at least 20% of the total ingredients. This contest evaluated the originality of recipes using kimchi, the convenience of cooking methods, and the harmony of cooking, and prizes were awarded to 1 team for the first prize (Gwangju Mayor’s Award, 1.5 million won in prize money), 3 teams for the excellence prize (Gwangju Superintendent of Education Award, World Institute of Kimchi Research Director Award, Gwangju City Council President Award, 1,000,000 won each in prize money), and 3 teams for the encouragement prize (Gwangju World Kimchi Festival Chairman Award, 500,000 won each in prize money).

▲ [The first Prize] Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor Award, Harmony of Korean Taste and Southeast Asian Cuisine (Ji-hoon Oh, Du-hyun Kim)

The long-awaited first prize of this Kimchi Applied Cooking Contest was awarded to ‘Harmony of Korean Taste and Southeast Asian Cuisine’ by Ji-hoon Oh and Doo-hyun Kim, who grafted with kimchi to capture the unique flavor and greasiness of Southeast Asia.

Recently, our kimchi has captured the taste buds of people all over the world, and through this cooking contest, we hope that kimchi will become known as a food that has captured the taste buds of more people around the world.