North Korean Cooking Class with Defector: Food & Personal Stories
Description
Meet Chef Se eun Choi, who was born and raised in North Korea before starting a new life in South Korea from 2017. She now shares the stories, culture, and everyday life of her homeland through food, creating meaningful cultural exchange through cooking. After graduating from the Department of Culinary Arts in Seoul and gaining experience in restaurants and hotels, she presents North Korean cuisine in a warm, approachable, and modern way. This unique cooking class is more than just making food. Together, you will learn to cook authentic N Korean street foods while hearing personal stories about life in North Korea, her journey to South Korea, and the deeper meaning behind each dish. It is a rare opportunity to understand a divided nation through taste, conversation, and human connection.
Tour Options
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(8)
I will be recommending this experience to anyone and everyone. I brought a student group to this cooking class and while it was a wonderful class that taught us about preparing traditional North Korean food, it was also a profound experience to hear about Chef Se Eun and Jun’s lives. We all left feeling moved, educated, and incredibly grateful. I will never forget this experience! THANK YOU Se Eun and Jun for sharing your stories with us. If you are in Seoul and you only do one thing, this should be it!!!!!
This is one of those landmark moments in your life that you never want to forget. We just came from doing a DMZ tour in the morning so everything was very real and visceral in our minds. Highly recommended to pair the two. We had a group of 11 teenagers and 4 adults. Every single person was impacted by the stories our hosts shared of life in NK, their incredible escape, history of the area, their current lives, and hopes for the future. We were on a 2 week Japan/Korea trip and out of that whole 2 weeks, this may have been the absolute pinnacle experience.
Jun and Se Eun were amazing hosts. Hearing them tell their stories was so emotional and thought provoking. They answered all our questions with thoughtfulness and positivity. It was also a tremendous experience to combine all of that storytelling with food that connects culturally to all that we learned. 100% would recommend.
Hard to put into words the emotions I felt. Incredible and one of the highlights of this year.
I had an amazing time learning about North Korean food and cooking techniques! Wisung was exceptionally friendly and clearly guided us through each step. The food was delicious and I left having learnt a great amount about North Korean culture!
An experience of Korea is incomplete without an understanding of the North Korean community's contributions to K-culture. Making dububap and injongogibap with our guides was a unique, moving, and informative time. Experiencing a culture through its cuisine, especially what ingredients are available and how food is prepared and shared, offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of the people. I'd recommend this experience to anyone who wants to learn about North Korean life beyond nuclear narratives and see how individuals find joy in sharing meals. As a bonus, it's all amazing vegan food! Plus, our guides were open about their stories from life in North Korea and provided context about the food we made together.
I had such a great time at this cooking class! Getting to make the food from scratch and eat it right away was honestly the best part; everything tasted so much better knowing I made it myself. I loved that I was involved in the whole cooking process from start to finish, so I actually came away with the recipe and feel like I could make it at home! What really stood out to me was that it wasn't just about learning how to cook — it was about connecting through food and culture.
I've eaten North Korean street food before but this was my first time making it. I was a bit nervous as I've never participated in a cooking class before, but the teachers did a great job at explaining the ingredients and cooking methods. They also patiently answered any questions we had. Everyone who participated in the class came from different countries so it was also interesting to share about our hometowns and the foods we eat there. I would definitely attend again and bring along more friends!
