The Korean Food Promotion Institute and the Korean Embassy in Türkiye announced that they successfully held the ‘Korean Cuisine Contest’ in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye, on August 20th.

This event was held under the theme of ‘Korean cooking contest using Korean soybean paste’ in hopes of promoting Korean soybean paste culture to be registered as UNESCO. The nine participants who advanced to the finals showed off their passion for Korean food by presenting a variety of dishes, including cold cucumber soup, tteokbokki, soybean paste stew, and bibimbap, and then taking the time to explain them to the judges.

As a result of the judging, first place went to Elif Simsek, a participant who created a set menu of tteokbokki, cold cucumber soup, sujeonggwa, and soy sauce stir-fried eggplant. Second place went to Nese Taskıran, who harmoniously presented soybean paste stew, bean sprouts, and rabokki, and third place went to Semanur Sozen, who served shrimp soybean paste stew, cucumber sobak, and grilled mackerel as side dishes.

Elif Simsek, who took first place, said, “I have always been interested in Korean culture. I especially like Korean food, so I often cook Korean food at home, so I am surprised and very happy to have won first place today.”

Jeon Hae-woong, Secretary General of the Korean Food Promotion Institute, said, “It is meaningful to hold a local contest using the soybean paste that forms the basis of Korean food.” He added, “As we are making efforts to promote soybean paste culture to UNESCO registration this year, we will continue to promote the taste and excellence of our soybean paste.” “We will promote various programs to help achieve this,” he said.