Author Chris van Laak
Photographer Jason Chen
There are plenty of dining options to discover in Taipei, especially at the upper end of the spectrum, where young chefs create new experiences. Getting the best out of century-old traditions is one thing they seek to master, while experimentation and discovering new frontiers is the other.
Some Michelin-starred innovators in the kitchen descended on Taipei last month for the International Chefs Summit 2024. In between exploring Nanmen Market and the Dadaocheng area with My Taiwan Tour, two of them sat down with Taiwan Scene for an interview. They are Jun Lee, who runs Soigné and Doughroom in Seoul, and Ken Sakamoto, who runs Cenci in Kyoto.
Taiwan Scene: In terms of fine dining, how do Seoul, Kyoto, and Taipei compare?
Jun Lee: Fine dining really took off [in Seoul] in the past 10 years, but until about 2019, a lot of restaurants just tried to copy what had been done before elsewhere. Nordic Cuisine for example, or Chinese styles. But nowadays we’ve got to a point where young chefs go back to explore Korean styles.
Fine dining is all about respecting history and culture. But that’s only half of the story; the other half is chasing new opportunities and telling new stories. Korea is in a pretty cool position, because we can learn, for example from Japan, where this is already well-developed. We can take up influences and recreate experiences in the Korean way. In Taiwan, I see similar efforts.
It’s important to remember though that fine dining is not just about making traditional elements fancier.
Ken Sakamoto: In Kyoto, the situation is a little bit different. The city’s unique way of fine dining has actually been around for over 100 years. However, other popular styles, for example Korean, are only slowly making an impact on fine dining in Kyoto.
In the first place, local chefs have a broad knowledge of Kyoto’s culinary traditions, and they use that to create their own style.
Global bibimbap
Taiwan Scene: Both of you merge East Asian cuisines with those from places that you have explored for yourself, where you have lived or studied. Is that typical for fine dining chefs, especially in East Asia, or is that something new?
Jun Lee: I think so. Before, there was no such thing as fine dining as a genre in this part of the world. There were just cheaper, mid-range and expensive restaurants. But fine dining is really a different way of enjoying food. It tells stories, often in many courses.
My cuisine is not typically Korean; my approach is quite different. Most people know Korea from movies and TV; they know soju, Korean barbecue and kimchi. But I don’t want to use certain obvious elements. I don’t believe putting kimchi on top makes a dish Korean. For example, I find it more important to study people’s relation with food. Look at bibimbap—Koreans love to mix the elements of a dish themselves. In other cuisines the chef finishes the dish and the guest enjoys the result. But Koreans want to interact with the dish. By observing how Koreans eat, I learn a lot about them, not just about their way of eating.
I often use non-Korean ingredients and flavors, but if I leave it to the guest to finish the dish, it’s Korean-style fine dining.
Ken Sakamoto: Most people call my style Italian, but the only typical elements I use are prosciutto and certain kinds of pasta. I use them in non-traditional ways though. I use lots of ingredients that are typical for Kyoto, but I tend to use techniques from other culinary traditions to prepare them—Italian, Korean, Vietnamese and so on.
Local ingredients such as dashi are important to me and I hope that my guests can appreciate that. For example, even when people immediately know that I prepared something in a Singaporean way for a change, they should be able to taste Kyoto behind it. I was born in Kyoto and I studied cooking there. I mostly use Italian techniques; I have been to Italy many times, but I’ve never actually lived there. Kyoto is my identity.
Reshuffling traditions
Taiwan Scene: You developed your approach through a lot of experimentation. Do you have a philosophy or principles that guide you? Is there anything a hobby cook such as myself can learn from your approach?
Jun Lee: Imagine you visit an art museum. You know every piece in the exhibition is important. Maybe some pieces don’t look important to you on their own. In a museum, it’s the curator’s job to tell the exhibition’s story and help you understand every piece’s significance. For us, it’s similar; our job is to help our guests understand our philosophy.
When you travel, for example to a city like Kyoto, you might eat a lot of traditional food, but you might also encounter restaurants that are different, for example a restaurant that is as much Italian as it is Kyoto-style. You might be confused at first. Fine dining is a bit more challenging, especially if you want to get inspired for your own cooking at home. It’s a bit like going to university. Before that you have to go to elementary, junior-high and high school.
Taiwan Scene: What do you find inspiring about Taiwanese food?
Jun Lee: Taiwanese food is pretty mild. This is interesting to me because it reflects how people are. There is this famous phrase, “You show me what you eat and I show you who you are.” You walk down a street in Taipei and it will likely be very busy—as busy as many places in Korea or China—but it is much calmer.
Taiwan Scene: Is this maybe because of the influence Japan had on Taiwan?
Ken Sakamoto: Surely. There’s a lot that our food traditions have in common. Sometimes there are differences, sometimes there is something extra or something missing.
Jun Lee: Exchanges with and experiences of a different culture are very important to me. Nowadays, many foreigners visit my restaurant, including people from Taiwan. My guests have had very different food experiences, but it is important that I stay true to myself and serve them food that allows them to understand my philosophy and background.
For example, my second restaurant serves Italian food, as I studied Italian styles in New York City. But many of my guests enjoy it in the Korean family dining style; they share all the dishes on the table with each other. Korean food usually has more sauce, and there’s a bigger focus on soup. Therefore my approach differs from Italian traditions. I don’t want to be Italian, because, frankly, I’m not. I know my guests expect Italian food, but their stomachs secretly ask for a Korean twist.
Ken Sakamoto: Japan’s take on pasta is almost a category on its own. Some people say you can find the world’s best innovative pasta in Japan. This is because Japanese chefs have always focused on perfection, on the perfect amounts, the perfect texture, the perfect ingredients and so on.
Jun Lee: Japan is good at taking things and making them fully Japanese. Korea is good at taking things and giving them a Korean twist to try to make them a bit better.
