CJ Foods' culinary platform Cuisine.K completed a three-day K-Seafood Cooking Program at South Seattle College (SSC) from November 5–7, co-hosted with the Korea Fisheries Association (KFA). The event brought Korean seafood ingredients — oysters, gim (seaweed), and anchovies — directly into a culinary-education setting, blending competitive cooking with hands-on consumer instruction.
The Competition
The program opened November 5 with a student cooking competition judged by Chef Yeon-ju Lee, a Cuisine.K alumna, owner-chef of JULIEAT Catering, and a contestant on Netflix's Culinary Class Wars Season 1. Student team Seoul Sisters — Foziya Robale, Deeqa Yusuf, and Shreya Pradhan — took first place with a menu of anchovy seaweed pasta, oyster bulgogi sambusa, and black sesame macarons, an eclectic fusion that underscored how Korean seafood can bridge multiple culinary traditions.
Classroom to Consumer
On November 6, Chef Lee and fellow Cuisine.K alumni demonstrated a Soy-Braised Oyster Rice Bowl and Gim Pancake for SSC students, connecting fine-dining technique to accessible ingredients. The final day shifted the audience to local consumers and content creators, who took part in hands-on sessions preparing Oyster Mini Gimbap and an Oyster Sandwich — deliberately everyday formats designed to illustrate repeatable home-cooking applications for Korean seafood.
That consumer-facing strategy reflects a broader pivot in how Korean food brands are approaching Western markets. Rather than relying on trend momentum alone, programs like Cuisine.K are embedding Korean ingredients into practical meal occasions — a model that parallels how Korean cuisine has been gaining ground on restaurant menus across the U.S. The Korea Fisheries Association, acting as an implementing organization for South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Overseas Market Development Program, used the event to demonstrate export-grade Korean seafood in live cooking contexts, a tactic increasingly favored over traditional trade-show exposure.
"Through Cuisine.K, we will continue to discover and nurture Korean culinary talent while creating opportunities for consumers around the world to experience and enjoy K-food culture as part of their everyday lives," said Sangmyeong Kim, Project Manager of the Hansik 245 Team at CJ Foods.
For foodservice operators and culinary educators watching the K-food category evolve, the Seattle event offers a template: pairing a credentialed chef with accessible techniques lowers the barrier for both students and home cooks, while the competitive format generates engagement and content. CJ Foods, which operates its U.S. business through CJ Schwan's across 20 domestic production facilities, has been methodically building the Cuisine.K pipeline as a talent-development and market-development tool simultaneously. The beverage and food industry's growing appetite for global flavors makes that dual function increasingly valuable for a brand looking to position Korean cuisine as an everyday pantry staple rather than an occasional dining-out experience. Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked similar internationalization plays across the broader specialty-food sector.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
