Dining Table for Our Planet — The Table That Saves Our Planet
Dining Table For Our Planet — The Table That Saves Our Planet
1 Our planEAT dives fearlessly into oceans, jungles, and remote wilderness in search of sustainable gastronomy. Along the way, they rediscover the essence of our dining table through the relationships between past and present, animals and plants, humans and nature — relationships we tend to forget while confined within gray concrete walls.
Interviewer Parc Jinmyoung
Interviewee Our planEAT
Photos Kim Yoonkyung
1 A food research lab that studies ingredients and local cuisine, translating them into diverse content. Chef Kim Taeyoon and writer Jang Minyoung, who run the lab, believe that change at the dining table is the fastest way to stand in solidarity with nature.
Chef Kim Taeyoon once ran ‘Ithaka,’ a restaurant centered on sustainability, while writer Jang Minyoung worked on the show ‘Korean Table.’
I’m curious how each of your experiences shaped Our planEAT.
Kim Taeyoon (Kim) Running a restaurant means there aren’t enough hours in the day. Preparing for service, cooking, cleaning up — the daily routine alone keeps you incredibly busy. A chef needs time to research and discover new ingredients, but I realized there was absolutely no time for that while also running a restaurant. I kept carving out pieces of my days off to travel, and it gradually became overwhelming. I thought it would be better to separate the restaurant and the research lab. The ideal model would be a restaurant equipped with its own research lab, but without that kind of capital, we compromised — focusing mainly on research and occasionally opening pop-up restaurants. We’re trying to get closer to that ideal, little by little.
Jang Minyoung (Jang) For over two years, I worked on ‘Korean Table,’ scouting filming locations and selecting what would make it into the broadcast. At some point, I wanted to plan broader, more diverse content stemming from that work. Afterward, I collaborated with various chefs, and that’s how the prototype of what I do now took shape. I met Chef Kim Taeyoon six years ago through a workshop dining event called ‘Memories of the Season.’ We set a single theme each time — I talked about seasonal ingredients and variety diversity, and Chef Kim presented dishes made with those ingredients. After running a few more pop-up restaurants together, we eventually opened 2 the lab. Chef Kim researches recipes using the ingredients I source, and it creates a great synergy.
What led you to become interested in sustainable gastronomy?
Kim Every chef wants to cook well — I’m no different. To make delicious food, you need good ingredients, and to produce good ingredients, they need to be grown in a healthy way. Once you start paying attention to that, you naturally come to know farmers who produce transparently and cleanly, in ways that benefit the environment. I think that’s how I naturally arrived here.
Jang I’ve loved food since I was young — enough to go to graduate school to study traditional food culture. After graduating, I wanted to experience in the field what I had studied, so I applied to be a writer for the cooking program ‘Korean Table.’ While making the show, I also wanted to document our disappearing ingredients and foods. Tasting rare heirloom ingredients and dishes all across the country, I realized that a sustainable life ultimately comes down to eating healthy ingredients. At Our planEAT, we run a variety of 3 programs — not only teaching ways to build a sustainable table, but also introducing the natural environment, ingredients, and food culture of different regions, and discussing plants and animals.
What did you focus on most when designing your programs?
Kim We thought hard about creating a format that even people with no interest in sustainable gastronomy could enjoy. That’s how Our planEAT’s flagship program, Local Odyssey, was born. Local Odyssey has a strong travel element, since it involves visiting a place directly to enjoy its regional flavors. Since everyone loves to travel, it appealed even to people who otherwise weren’t interested in environmental issues.
Jang Into the Wild is a program centered on the nature and wildlife we’ve personally experienced, lightly paired with local food. We once held an event themed around remote wilderness, and someone who was interested in orangutans ended up joining. We set a different theme each time and vary the price across programs, partly to create more points of contact with a wider range of people. Ultimately, what we intend is for people to first become interested in the Our planEAT brand itself, and then want to experience everything that unfolds within it.
2 Our planEAT occupies a building in Seochon that is over 100 years old. Due to the lack of technology at the time of construction, a boulder that couldn’t be removed still beautifully adorns one interior wall — blending naturally with Our planEAT’s ethos of embracing what’s natural.
3 The lab runs ‘Local Odyssey,’ which introduces the natural environment, ingredients, and food culture of different regions; the cooking class ‘Building a Sustainable Table’; ‘Into the Wild,’ which discusses plants and animals; as well as vegan pop-ups, anju (drinking food) pop-ups, and more.
It’s interesting that Our planEAT also tells you what ingredients to avoid and what to substitute them with.
Jang When we talk about sustainable seafood and say, “Eat all the sea urchin your wallet allows,” everyone loves it. We consciously avoid negative wording like telling people “don’t do this.” Instead, we suggest, “Let’s try eating this.” Chef Kim once said, “We have three chances a day to change the world.” Making sure to eat three meals a day matters more than anything, and how you fill that time — deliciously, diversely, and enjoyably — can change your daily life and the world. That’s what we want to communicate. There’s such a wide, delicious array of ingredients out there, so pick and choose among them. Once you start encountering a variety of ingredients, you naturally become interested in species diversity too, which eventually leads to the idea that we need to protect the ecosystem. Isn’t it both obvious and refreshing to realize that three meals a day can influence the planet’s virtuous cycle?
Kim Our approach to veganism follows the same logic. To talk about veganism, you inevitably have to talk about eating meat. But rather than saying “stop eating meat,” we say, “try this delicious vegetarian dish.” Then we try to break down the assumption that vegetarian food is bound to be plain and naturalistic. For example, we serve Mexican tacos on neon-colored plates or plate colorful vegetables together in a maximalist way to spark curiosity. Telling people not to do something doesn’t feel sustainable in itself. How many people would approach food as something to be endured, like an ascetic practice? We thought an approach like “Want to try this?” would be far more effective with the general public.
Are there any misconceptions about sustainable gastronomy?
Kim When people hear ‘sustainable gastronomy,’ they mostly think only of environmental protection. But that’s not all there is to it. The most important thing is relationships — the relationships humans have lost while living busy, convenient lives. In the era of self-sufficiency, seasonal ingredients mattered, so people were sensitive to weather and seasons, and you could tell at a glance where the food on your table came from. Because food was so precious, animals were never slaughtered carelessly. In this way, countless relationships — between producer and consumer, nature and humans, plants and animals and humans — surround our food. I think sustainable gastronomy is about rediscovering the senses we’ve dulled and the connections we’ve lost while living urban lives. Even I experienced this. When I worked at a restaurant, I only cooked with the ingredients that were supplied to me. Looking at packaged meat, I never thought of the cow it came from; looking at fish, I never thought of the living creature that once swam in the water. But seeing and touching living creatures up close on a farm makes you reconsider — ‘ah, it was an animal, it was alive,’ ‘someone made this with their sweat and effort.’ You rediscover the connection you had lost. The key is restoring relationships. Because food ultimately comes from nature, and almost always passes through human hands. There is no ingredient or dish that exists outside of relationships.
Jang We try to naturally pass on the stories we hear at our filming locations. Stories from a grandmother who still cooks with heirloom plants, or a haenyeo (female diver) who has been diving for decades, are the kind of stories that feel approachable to anyone.
I'm curious how you conduct research when you travel somewhere in search of ingredients.
Kim Rural areas usually change slowly, so everyday life there can feel a bit dull. That's why local elders really love talking with new people. Once you get them talking, you often end up staying for quite a while. It's a chance to get information that's far more accurate and alive than anything you'd find on the internet or in a book.
Jang Visiting the senior center is the surest way to go about it. It never fails. The elders even tell you to stay and eat before you go. (laughs)
It really looks like something you do because you love it.
Jang Because it's fun—meeting people, trying new things.
Kim We've set a kind of goal between ourselves: let's not treat this like work.
Don't you ever feel stressed or worried?
Kim My definition of success is not doing things I don't want to do. It's physically demanding, but I almost never find myself doing something I dislike. If anything, the problem is that there's too much I want to do.
Jang I was thinking the exact same thing. There's so much I want to do, but having only one body is the real source of stress.
Kim You could call that a healthy kind of stress, then.
I understand that Jang Minyoung's childhood growing up in Geochang, Gyeongsangnam-do had a big influence on her path as a food explorer.
Jang I grew up feeling the change of seasons vividly in the countryside. I still remember clearly going out with my father to taste seasonal food whenever the season changed. It's not an exaggeration to say that growing up in the countryside made me who I am today.
Kim I grew up right in this neighborhood where Our Planet is located, Seochon. I think it's the most nature-friendly place in Seoul. I often hiked Inwangsan with my father and that's how I came to experience nature. But more than anything, my mother is an excellent cook. Most of my childhood memories involve helping my generous mother prep ingredients. So when I first stepped into cooking as a profession, it didn't feel awkward at all. It felt more like I was simply approaching cooking a bit more seriously than before, not like I was doing something entirely new.
Jang Then and now, nothing's changed—I'm still out looking for new things to eat, and Chef Kim Taeyoon is still cooking. (laughs)
Is there an ingredient you discovered while traveling that stands out most in your memory?
Kim There are so many. Most recently, I was surprised to see elders in Gijang, Busan eating sea anemones. I had only learned two weeks earlier that sea anemones were even edible. They make spicy stew with them and add them to steamed fish, too. After seeing that, I tried frying sea anemone myself.
Jang There's a wild plant called wanghojang that grows on Ulleungdo. I tried it and was truly amazed—it has the exact same texture and taste as rhubarb, which is widely cultivated in Korea these days. Like rhubarb, wanghojang's stems turn red as it ripens. Ingredients have trends too, you know. Whatever vegetable happens to be popular at a given time gets planted, while everything else gets treated like a weed. As people plant wild garlic (myeong-i) in the spot where wanghojang should be, this ingredient is gradually being forgotten. But a healthy ecosystem depends on many different species coexisting. We need to be the ones who seek out and remember these ingredients—only then will producers plant and harvest them again.
Thinking about it, the role of media really does seem crucial.
Kim Media needs to point things in the right direction. The role of influential people matters a great deal too—they can ruin an ecosystem or bring it back to life. That's exactly why I take every opportunity I get to do interviews. It's a good thing if more people get to hear our story.
Where should we start if we want to practice sustainable gastronomy in everyday life?
Kim I think sustainable gastronomy refers to the entire process—from choosing ingredients all the way to disposing of food waste. Eating at the table isn't the only part of gastronomy. Once you start wondering where your ingredients came from while grocery shopping, that's when the world of gastronomy begins to expand. You don't even need to care about the environment or animal rights specifically—if you dig deep enough into what's healthy and delicious, you inevitably arrive at sustainability in the end. It all starts with interest. Without interest, there's no change. Say you're eating tuna sashimi. If you become curious about where that tuna came from, you'll eventually end up looking into the violent fishing practices of the tuna industry.
Why does it matter that the world of gastronomy keeps expanding?
Kim We talked about the same thing in our class just a few days ago. In class, we cooked rice using a native rice variety called jagwangdo. It's a heirloom rice that's been cultivated in Gimpo for a long time, with a rich sweetness. The people who joined that session tasted jagwangdo for the first time through our class. As the world of gastronomy expands little by little, it doesn't just grow in scale—it gains depth, too. I think that's what makes someone a true gourmet. Eating expensive food doesn't automatically make you one.
Is there a place you've traveled to that inspired your vision of sustainable gastronomy?
Kim Before opening Itaca, I took a trip to San Francisco. It's a place that realizes sustainable gastronomy in a truly ideal way. San Francisco's cuisine is called ‘California cuisine,’ but that term doesn't refer to a specific food or style—it refers to the community built around food. There are chefs at delicious restaurants, producers who collaborate with them, and customers who understand and support the chefs' cooking. Producers and consumers don't usually get to meet each other in daily life. Chefs act as the link between them, relaying customers' feedback about the day's ingredients back to the producers. The triangular relationship among chef, consumer, and producer is well maintained there. The most striking scene I witnessed was at a farmers market. A farmers market where producers and consumers can meet one-on-one isn't a culture that was built overnight. It first began in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when farmers, unable to sell their crops, started selling their harvested produce directly. Starting in the early 2000s, the concept of local food spread in earnest across the country. Because American farmers markets were built through prolonged effort by both producers and consumers alike, they now have a fairly stable system in place. It was wonderful to witness that firsthand. You can even run into famous chefs at farmers markets—seeing them chat and check in with producers while they work was such a lovely sight. I admit I felt a bit envious, too.
Jang I was deeply inspired by Sri Lanka, where I went to see blue whales. After seeing a blue whale, my perspective on the ocean, the environment, and living creatures changed a lot. It even gave me a sense of duty to protect such awe-inspiring beauty. In New Zealand, too, I loved seeing how animals and people lived together. Respect for coexisting life forms is woven into everyday life there.
Kim Oh, while going through footage from my New Zealand trip, I found a moment where I locked eyes with a dolphin. I didn't realize it at the time, but in the footage, the dolphin is gliding past while gazing steadily at me. Look, isn't that so moving?
Jang This is the moment we should all be crying! (laughs) Dolphins approach you while making sounds. Even thinking about it now, it's overwhelming how moving that is. The dolphins we saw in New Zealand are an especially social species—when they spot people, they circle around, leap out of the water... they're incredibly lively. But I don't think we need to feel guilty because of experiences like this. We should still eat fish, still eat meat. I just hope we don't get too greedy about it. Problems arise because we try to consume too much. I think it's enough to simply realize that they, too, are living beings just like us.
Lastly, please share any personal tips or know-how you have for practicing sustainable travel.
Kim I like to join tours organized by local communities. Traveling with a local guide lets you explore a region more deeply, and things like watching local performances or buying handmade crafts help support the local economy. If there’s a program where travelers and locals can benefit together, I always want to take part. I also try to stay at eco-friendly accommodations. There’s the environmental aspect, but honestly, being in a space made of natural materials just puts my mind at ease.
Jang I hope people get to meet those who live slowly, in tune with nature’s own rhythm. Just watching them can help us recover senses we’ve forgotten living in the city, and reconsider relationships we’ve lost touch with. I also hope people experience nature more. I really love the sea, and when I swim in the water, I get to meet damselfish and hairtail. One day, Chef Kim Taeyoon said something to me — that fish are wild animals too. Once you realize they’re wild animals living freely in a vast space, you start to reconsider your relationship with them. That changes the way you look at ingredients, and it changes what ends up on your table as well.