Celebrity chef Edward Kwon has created 10 new Korean-Western fusion dishes for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics with local, accessible ingredients and easy-to-copy recipes.

The dishes, which were revealed at a press conference Tuesday, consist of traditional Korean cuisine with a Western twist, such as pasta made of buckwheat noodles, the quintessential Korean bibimbap with crispy fried rice and salad, and tortillas made with apples from the Gangwon region, where PyeongChang is located.

“We aimed at making flavors that were universally appealing to locals and foreign tourists alike, while preserving and promoting the taste of the region,” said Kwon, who previously served as head chef for the luxurious Burj al-Arab Hotel in Dubai and hosted the television show “Yes Chef.”

The project was undertaken in September by Kwon’s company EK Food, which specializes in various food-related ventures from convenience store-prepared lunches to menu development, by commission from Korea’s culture ministry and the PyeongChang district office. 

The result of three months of development, the full 10-item menu features: buckwheat pasta, dried pollack noodle soup, bulgogi with creamy sauce, salad bibimbap, fried buckwheat, apple tortillas, trout with rice, trout dumplings, rice cakes and a dessert made of cheonhyehyang, a type of crossbred citrus fruit. 

All of the dishes are not only tasty, the chef said, but also easy to re-create.

“Commerciality was a key factor we considered,” Kwon said. “All of the ingredients are locally sourced and can be easily acquired at relatively low costs. The recipes are easy to follow, so the dishes can be cooked quickly for large amounts of people.”

“We hope these menus will contribute to the local economy and continue to be a source of revenue long after the Olympics,” Kwon added. 

By Rumy Doo (bigbird@heraldcorp.com)