"Traditional Baechu Kimchi Masters, Gather in Gwangju"

Gwangju City Calls for Participants in the 'Korea Kimchi Contest'
Applications Accepted from 16th to 25th... Presidential Award for the Grand Prize Winner

Gwangju Metropolitan City is recruiting participants for the ‘2024 Korea Kimchi Contest’.

The ‘Korea Kimchi Contest,’ the only nationwide cooking competition awarding the Presidential Prize, evaluates participants’ skills as traditional kimchi experts in the designated category of Baechu Kimchi (napa cabbage kimchi), and comprehensively assesses expertise, originality, and excellence in the free category, which includes family- or regionally-inherited kimchi recipes or those personally developed by the participant. Notably, the ingredients allowed for Baechu Kimchi preparation are limited to a maximum of 16 types to evaluate expert capabilities.

Applications are open from the 16th to the 25th of this month. After document screening on September 3rd, the final 20 teams will be selected on the 6th. These 20 teams will compete for the Presidential Prize in the preliminary contest on the 27th and the final contest on October 11th.

The grand prize winner will receive the Presidential Prize and a cash award of 3 million KRW. Two winners of the Excellence Award will receive the Ministerial Awards from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, along with 1 million KRW each. Two winners of the Merit Award will receive the Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor’s Award and 500,000 KRW each.

The winning works will be exhibited during the Gwangju Kimchi Festival (October 18th to October 20th) to widely promote the originality and excellence of the award-winning kimchi to visitors.

This contest was established to widely promote the excellence of kimchi, a fermented food of Korea, and to inherit its cultural and functional traditions.

Applications can be submitted by downloading the application form from the website of the 31st Gwangju Kimchi Festival or the World Kimchi Research Institute and sending it via email or postal mail.

Nam Taeksong, Director of the Agricultural Animal Policy Division, said, "We hope this contest provides various participants with an opportunity to demonstrate the tradition and creativity of kimchi at the Korea Kimchi Contest," adding, "We also hope it serves as a chance to raise interest and awareness about kimchi."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.