- From the Slopes of Montmartre to the Spirit of Andong – How Culinary Heritage Becomes a Dialogue Between Korea and Europe
By MD.Moon hyung suk
- A Scene in Paris: When the Quality of a Festival Creates Persuasion
Every October, the Fête des Vendanges de Montmartre transforms the hill beneath Sacré-Cœur into one of Paris’s most beloved public celebrations. The programme unfolds in three main movements — the Decibels Vendanges opening concerts, the Wine Harvest Parade, and the gastronomic promenade known as the Parcours du Goût (“Path of Taste”).
In 2025, the festival adopted the theme of jeunesse (“youth”), encouraging participation across generations and regions. Over three days, from the 10th to the 12th of October, tens of thousands of visitors wandered among the pavilions that lined the cobbled streets of Montmartre, exploring the delicate balance of tradition and innovation.
Amid this vibrant scene stood a booth from Andong, Korea, hosted by the Korean Foundation for Cultural Heritage (KFCE) — a quiet yet magnetic counterpoint to the festival’s exuberance. More than a tasting stall, it was a storytelling stage for cultural diplomacy, where the aroma of Korean soy, sesame and slow fermentation met the fruit and tannin of French wines. Through this encounter, Andong demonstrated that cuisine can become a universal language linking heritage and hospitality.
- What Andong Brought to Paris – The Aesthetics of Suwun Japbang
At the heart of Andong’s presentation lay Suwun Japbang, a sixteenth-century culinary compendium preserved within one of Korea’s oldest noble households. It is both a manual of life-skills — preservation, ritual, hospitality — and an early treatise on pairing and proportion.
Through guided demonstrations, descendants of the original Andong lineage reinterpreted the manuscript’s principles: restraint in seasoning, harmony in texture, and the celebration of the ingredient itself. In contrast to the international perception of “spicy K-food,” these dishes embodied a terroir of moderation, an aesthetic that resonates with European gastronomy.
When paired with the bright acidity of a Loire white or the supple structure of a Burgundy red, Andong Hanwoo beef revealed unexpected affinities: soy and sesame mirroring balsamic depth, fermentation echoing maturation, and the notion of balance bridging two culinary philosophies.
- Why Andong? — Living Heritage and the UNESCO Landscape
Andong is often called “the spiritual capital of Korea.” It is home to Hahoe Village and 
the Confucian academies of Dosan and Byeongsan, both inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. These sites preserve not only architecture and landscape but a living moral and aesthetic order: the etiquette of learning, dining, and dwelling.
This ethical atmosphere naturally extends to jongga (ancestral-household) cuisine. A single table setting carries the grammar of harmony, gratitude, and intellectual contemplation. Thus, Andong’s gastronomy becomes an interpretive key to its cultural landscape.
Touristically, this translates into:
- Hahoe Village Living Heritage Tours — tracing the ritual spaces of ancestral homes,
with demonstrations of tea, traditional liquor, and seasonal dishes. - Confucian Academy Residencies — immersive stays featuring lectures, calligraphy, and the aesthetics of ceremonial dining.
- Suwun Japbang Culinary Workshops — combining annotated readings of the text with practical cooking sessions and pairing notebooks.
The strategic objective is clear: to convert the curiosity sparked in Paris into extended stays in Andong, thereby increasing both length of stay and visitor expenditure through education-based tourism.
- From Display to Understanding — The Evolving Andong Pavilion
Through consecutive participation over the past three years, the Andong pavilion has refined its method of communication. It has evolved:
- From simple tasting to curated experiential tasting;
- From dish listing to narrative explanation rooted in documentation;
- From product promotion to integrated storytelling connecting food, wine, and ritual.
This shift has transformed audience reaction from novelty to comprehension, generating spontaneous dialogue with European journalists, culinary schools, and wine academies. Montmartre’s fluid crowd flow — combining performance, parade, and promenade — proved an ideal matrix for such cross-cultural encounters.
- Europe’s Perspective — The Elegance of Restraint and the Allure of Story
European guides routinely describe Montmartre’s festival as “the largest urban harvest celebration in France,” emphasising the symbolic continuity of the Clos Montmartre vineyard revived in the 1930s. Within this context, Andong’s booth offered a rare counterpoint: a culinary tradition that replaces intensity with subtlety, and spectacle with narrative.
The key advantage lies in linguistic resonance. The French vocabulary of wine — équilibre, maturité, terroir — finds a conceptual mirror in the Korean lexicon of balancing, fermenting, ageing. By introducing soy-based fermentation as a cousin of viticultural ageing, Andong positioned itself not as exotic but as intellectually parallel to Europe’s own gastronomic humanism.
Furthermore, Andong’s story-driven, small-group learning experiences — etiquette, confectionery, calligraphy, and ceremonial meals — correspond precisely to the preferences of Europe’s millennial and senior travellers seeking immersive, knowledge-based tourism.
- A 12-Month Strategic Proposal — Turning “Parisian Memory” into “Andong Presence”
To transform festival exposure into a sustainable tourism pipeline, a five-fold strategy is proposed:
- Joint Branding: “Andong × Montmartre Terroir Sessions.”
Alternate editions in Paris (autumn) and Andong (spring), combining textual interpretation of Suwun Japbang with cooking practice and Burgundy-Loire wine pairing. The outcome: trilingual tasting notes and a shared digital archive. - Co-operative Campaigns with Airlines and Travel Agencies.
Integrate one-night-two-day Andong heritage routes (Hahoe + Seowon) into France–Korea itineraries. Track KPIs such as CTR, conversion rates, and growth in Length of Stay. - Premium Product Development.
Curate small-group stays featuring Confucian-house accommodation, a Suwun Japbang dinner, night lectures at Seowon, and local wine/traditional liquor pairing. - Academic and Media Collaboration.
Produce bilingual annotated brochures for festival distribution; co-host seminars with French culinary and wine academies; pre-arrange op-eds under the theme “The Recorded Taste of Korea.” - Accessibility and Interpretation Enhancement.
Standardise all signage, menus, and materials in French and English; link QR codes to micro-sites containing maps, booking options, and narratives to convert curiosity into reservations. - Maintaining the Balance of Identity
Success in Europe depends on a careful equilibrium between authenticity and contemporaneity. Excessive fusion weakens narrative integrity; excessive conservatism risks alienating modern audiences. The key mediator is the curator-interpreter, capable of translating historical documentation (Suwun Japbang) into the language of present-day hospitality.
Equally essential is compliance with European food safety and labelling standards — from allergens to hygiene protocols — given the festival’s tightly regulated public setting.
- Conclusion — From Record to Table, From Table to Journey
Montmartre’s festive cosmopolitanism offers an ideal stage for the elegance and depth of Andong’s ancestral cuisine. The next step is to convert admiration into visitation.
By weaving together Hahoe Village, Confucian Academies, Jongga Cuisine, Beverage Pairing, and Ritual Etiquette, Andong can evolve from the spiritual capital of Korean culture into a recurring destination for Europe’s cultural citizens.
Just as each vintage of wine deepens through time, the stories and flavours of Andong will mature within Europe’s collective memory — a reminder that diplomacy may begin not in a conference hall but across a shared table.
