Controversy is growing after it became known that a restaurant inside the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, described kimchi as a "Japanese-style dish."
Suh Kyung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University, said on Apr. 4 via social media (SNS), "I learned about it recently through tips from netizens," and noted, "We checked with the restaurant Bistro Vincent and received a reply that they are selling a 'kimchi sandwich.'"
The item in question is "kimchi with spicy kaki hummus." In the menu description, the restaurant introduced it by saying, "We use the finest Dutch ingredients to add a Japanese twist to authentic French cuisine."
Professor Suh emphasized, "It appears the restaurant is mistakenly selling kimchi as a Japanese food," adding, "This must be corrected because it could cause tourists to misunderstand that kimchi is a Japanese food."
The restaurant appears to have used kimchi, a representative Asian food, to honor Van Gogh's artistic inspiration. In a letter to his brother Theo during his lifetime, Van Gogh showed his affection for Asian culture to the point of saying, "All my works are based on Japanese art."
However, criticism has emerged that the use of the term "Japanese-style" without clearly stating kimchi's Korean origins caused misunderstanding. A visitor to the restaurant wrote on Google Reviews, "For Koreans, kimchi is central to cultural identity," adding, "Given the historical background, this distorted description is very uncomfortable and misleading."
Professor Suh cited past cases such as German retailer Aldi introducing kimchi as a Japanese food and a Spanish company depicting a woman in a kimono on a bottle of kimchi sauce, and said, "We will do our best to correct kimchi that is misrepresented across Europe."