The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureFood & DrinksShowsBerlin Film Festival 2017Interviews & Recipes

Chef’s Table Season 3: An interview with Jeong Kwan

Chef’s Table Season 3: An interview with Jeong Kwan
18 February 2017
Zoe Tamara
Avatar
Zoe Tamara
18 February 2017

Special event

Berlin Film Festival 2017

9th to 17th February 2017

A sense of holiness swiftly permeates the space as Jeong Kwan enters the room. The petite, soft-spoken nun doesn’t quite fit the archetype of a world-renowned chef but rest assured, she is a force of nature. As a Zen Buddhist, she lacks the ego of most high-calibre chefs and creates food that is deeply infused with nourishment for the mind, body and soul. We sat down with Jeong Kwan at the 67th Berlin Film Festival to talk about her time on Chef’s Table Season 3, temple food, and her newfound fame.

Hello, it’s a honour to meet you. We loved your episode. What made you decide to participate in this series?

It’s been ten years since the world has known about temple food. There was a chef from America who visited me, Eric Ripert. Together, we shared our energy through my food and afterwards he invited me to New York where I cooked a dinner for about 20 people. It was sharing passion with each other and we could communicate with each other. Temple food is not only vegetarian food, it’s energy food where you can share your minds together. I prepared about 20 different dishes that day.

Living such a quiet life for so many years at the temple, how does it feel now to be in the public eye as a trending chef?

Well, first of all, I’m not a chef. I’m a practicer of Buddhism. For me, making food is a kind of meditation. So being a trendy chef or an honoured chef, it makes me happy but moreover it makes me happy that I’m able to communicate and to share with a lot of people.

Do you feel like your food and your cooking and the work you do has brought you closer to enlightenment?

Enlightenment is something of one’s own mind. It’s not something that goes outside, it’s not external. If you eat something and it makes you feel calm, it’s one step closer to enlightenment.

Do you feel like the episode truly shows who you are and reflects you as a whole? Is there anything that was missing?

I was very moved when I saw the episode because it reminded me of something I forgot, parts of me that I forgot. When I saw it on the screen, I thought: this really does describe myself. I could see my inner self, which is normally not shown.

One part that I think resonates with a lot of people is when you stood up to your father when he said that a woman should be able to cook seven great dishes for her husband. Do you consider yourself a feminist in that sense?

Yes. I think what my father wanted to tell me when I was very little is that you have to go through certain stages. He was talking about the perfection of mankind or of a human being and how you can develop your own inner self. Nowadays I kind of understand what he meant at those times.

All of your temple food is vegan. How do people regard vegan food and vegan eating on your side of the world versus the Western world.

I think the difference between Western vegan and Asian vegan-style food is that in Asia, if you’re vegan and you eat a radish, you eat the radish as a whole. It’s a radish itself. But in Western style it’s more like you transform it into something else.

That’s really interesting. I know your mother was a very big influence on your life and on how you decided to take this path. I remember you speaking about how you cooked her noodles one time and that was maybe the beginning of everything. What’s something that she used to cook for you that you loved?

In the winter times she used to cook red bean porridge. You cook the red bean and add rice powder so it’s a kind of red-bean-rice-powder-porridge. And in the summertime she used to steam whole potatoes and we’d eat it just with salt. It was like a meal and a snack at the same time. And of course kimchi and soy bean paste.

Do you feel like you make your kimchi just as well today.

Yes. I’m good at it.

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Zoe Tamara

Chef’s Table Season 3 is available exclusively on Netflix from 17th February 2017. Read our review here.

For further information about the 67th Berlin Film Festival visit here.

Read more reviews from the festival here.

Watch the trailer for Chef’s Table Season 3 here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsberlin film festivalberlinaleinterview

More in Food & Drinks

Celebrate Margarita Day at home with these simple yet sophisticated cocktails

The editorial unit
Read More

From high-altitude service to high-end delivery: Daniel Hulme’s One Fine Dine packs gourmet flavours into a fun and fuss-free experience

Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Go global this pancake day with ten recipes from around the world

Rosamund Kelby
Read More

Last-minute Valentine’s Day gifts for an intimate at-home bar experience

The editorial unit
Read More

Opso at home: Impressive Greek-inspired dishes perfect for sharing

Alex Julie Woods
Read More

The best Valentine’s Day meal deliveries for a romantic night in

The editorial unit
Read More

Delicious Chinese New Year deliveries to welcome in the year of the Ox

The editorial unit
Read More

The best food and drink for an indulgent Valentine’s Day

The editorial unit
Read More

Spotlight: Vanessa Vaz on being a young restaurateur of colour striving for diversity and community spirit

Lilly Subbotin
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Special event

Berlin Film Festival 2017

9th to 17th February 2017

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Smith & Burrows – Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Creation Stories
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Gatsby at Cadogan Hall: An interview with Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild
    Theatre
  • Wrong Turn
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • My Wonderful Wanda
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Foster Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Your Honor
    ★★★★★
    other
  • Maximo Park – Nature Always Wins
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The most important inventions of the 21st century
    Tech & Sport
  • My Favourite War
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Typical at Soho Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Minari
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • West End Musical Drive In Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Chef’s Table Season 3: An interview with Tim Raue
Mimi Tran autumn/winter 2017 collection catwalk show | LFW