On the morning of the 15th, preparations for making kimjang were in full swing in the outdoor garden of Myeongwolgwan, the Korean restaurant at Vista Walkerhill Hotel in Gwangjin District, Seoul. Dozens of people in white chef's jackets and aprons bustled around in front of workstations set with ingredients for kimjang. The age range was diverse, from elderly couples and young mother-daughter pairs to young people who came alone.
Walkerhill Hotel & Resort held a "kimjang day" event for two days starting that day, targeting about 180 participants including VIP customers. It is an event where participants make "SUPEX kimchi," sold by the hotel, themselves together with the head chef. It first began in 2014 to commemorate the inscription of kimjang culture on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, and this year marks the ninth edition.
Kim Jae-hak, Walkerhill Hotel's head kimchi chef, said, "This year's event applies, for the first time, a recipe revised for exports to the United States and elsewhere," and noted, "Until last year we used brisket broth, but considering meat export regulations and vegetarian demand, starting this year we are adding a secret vegetable stock brewed with three kinds of mushrooms."
Chef Kim introduced the ingredients that go into kimchi and demonstrated the kimjang process while explaining the recipe. On the workstations of the chef and participants were prepared salted napa cabbage, shredded radish, powder-form red pepper flakes, Green Sweet as a sugar substitute, Shinan solar salt with the bittern removed, freshwater black shrimp, top-grade salted shrimp (yukjeot), and vegetable stock.
In 1997, Walkerhill became the first five-star hotel to introduce its own kimchi brand, SUPEX kimchi, and in Oct. of this year it became the first in the industry to begin exports to the United States. The kimchi exported this time is "Walkerhill Hotel kimchi," the second brand of SUPEX kimchi, and SUPEX kimchi is also planned for export early next year.
Walkerhill Hotel said SUPEX kimchi is less pungent than kimchi sold in the general market, making it suitable for targeting overseas demand. The late Choi Jong-hyun, former chairman and father of Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, is known to have instructed, when the hotel first began making kimchi, to make a kimchi that anyone could enjoy anytime.
Chef Kim said, "Powder-form red pepper flakes, one of the keys to making kimchi that is not excessively salty or spicy, also came from the advice of the former chairman Choi," and explained, "The coarser red pepper flakes used in ordinary kimchi can get stuck in the teeth or leave a foreign-body sensation, so they were deemed unsuitable for international events and business meetings."
Competition in kimchi among hotels, including Walkerhill, is growing intense. The number of so-called "kimpo tribe," who give up kimjang due to high inflation and labor burdens, is rising, and demand for packaged kimchi continues to grow not only domestically but also overseas. For hotels, it diversifies revenue centered on room sales and also helps attract new customers to their membership programs.
Although Walkerhill is the originator of hotel kimchi, industry assessments say that in terms of size (sales scale), Josun Hotels & Resorts, which entered the market in 2004, is the largest. Since 2023, the latecomer Lotte Hotels & Resorts has been accelerating its business expansion, and last year and this year Paradise Hotel and Seoul Dragon City also launched their own kimchi products.