Kimchi enters European culinary education with regular class at top Dutch hospitality school

Kimchi is making inroads into professional culinary education in Europe.

On Tuesday, Hotelschool The Hague incorporated kimchi into its regular Regenerative Gastronomy course — going beyond a simple cooking demonstration to explore seasonality, locality, fermentation and the use of local ingredients.

The South Korean Embassy in the Netherlands and the Korean Food Promotion Institute organized the program as part of an overseas mission hansik competition initiative. Some 56 hospitality students learned about kimchi's fermentation principles and culinary heritage, then made kimchi themselves using Dutch seasonal vegetables and explored how the dish could be adapted to local food culture.

Hotelschool The Hague ranks seventh in the world and first in the Netherlands in hotel and leisure management in the 2026 QS World University Rankings by subject, making it one of Europe's leading hospitality education institutions.

The lecture and kimchi workshop were led by Kim Tae-yeon, director of the Kimchi Hansik Culture Education Institute and a global kimchi ambassador for the World Institute of Kimchi. A follow-up program focused on Korean fermented sauces and pastes is planned for October.

The South Korean Embassy in the Netherlands said hansik has moved beyond simple food introductions and is now expanding into a platform for future food culture and culinary education through partnerships with local academic institutions.

Kim said the program was significant because kimchi was featured as a case study in regenerative gastronomy within the regular curriculum of a world-class hospitality school.