If you’ve eaten Korean food, you know it’s delicious. 

Whether you’ve flipped sizzling beef over a Korean barbecue, crunched down on a tangy piece of kimchi, or basked in the warm steam wafting off a bibimbap bowl, the experience is captivating. 

What you might not know, though, is that your meal likely came with a heaping side of government funds. 

In 2009, the South Korean government launched the $40m Korean Cuisine to the World campaign with the goal of improving South Korea’s global reputation through its food.  

In the years to come, the government would spend millions of dollars opening Korean restaurants abroad, developing and standardizing recipes, and working to make South Korea a culinary destination for international tourists.

But can food really help elevate a country’s reputation? And how much further can South Korea push its food campaigns?  

Diplomacy on the menu 

Gastrodiplomacy, a term first coined by The Economist in 2002, happens when governments try to increase the value and knowledge of their nation through food. 

Though the term was born in the 21st century, the tactic can be traced back to the Greeks and Romans inviting their adversaries to the table to break bread, drink wine, and settle arguments. 

Much later, President Richard Nixon’s attempt at using chopsticks in China led to a rise in Peking duck on American menus, while a dessert served in a shoe during a meal between Israeli and Japanese prime ministers caused an uproar. 

“Food’s universal importance makes culinary diplomacy effective everywhere in the world,” wrote Sam Chapple-Sokol in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. “A government can rely on the friendlier aspects of its image to appeal to foreign governments and populations.”

Nixon gives “chopstick diplomacy” a try in 1972. (National Archives)

Those friendlier aspects of a nation’s culture can be a welcome reprieve from the usual, more forceful tactics countries use to gain power, such as military or political agendas. 

“You don’t reach people through rational information. You reach them through emotional, trans-rational connections that come through music, food, art, dance, and culture,” Paul Rockower, a leading expert in gastrodiplomacy, told The Hustle.

Reaching people in this way is known as “soft power,” or a country’s ability to accomplish its goals through positive attraction rather than through exerting force. Rather than coming directly from government actors, it’s born from their collaboration with cultural sectors. 

Thailand was the first country to launch a formal gastrodiplomacy plan with its 2002 Global Thai campaign.

The campaign hinged on making it as easy as possible to open Thai restaurants abroad: Templates were made for opening different types of restaurants — from fast-casual to high-end — and assistance was given with sourcing authentic Thai ingredients and obtaining visas for chefs. 

When the program was launched, there were ~5k Thai restaurants globally. Today, there are more than 15k. Thailand also saw steady growth in foreign tourists over the years, peaking pre-pandemic with 40m visitors in 2019 who spent a collective $56.7B.

After seeing the success of Thailand’s campaign, other countries followed suit: Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Peru, and the Philippines have launched official gastrodiplomacy efforts. 

As did South Korea, which executed one of the most impactful gastrodiplomacy campaigns yet and ignited a cultural movement. 

Kimchi meets the world

In the late 2000s, South Korea had a problem. Despite being home to international conglomerates like Hyundai and Samsung, and an acclaimed film scene, the general public didn’t realize many of the country’s leading cultural and business exports were Korean. 

The Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index, an indicator of a country’s popularity for investment and travel, ranked South Korea 33rd out of 50 countries.   

“The nation brand was being cannibalized by the Japanese brand,” said Rockower.

Then-president Lee Myung-bak, a former CEO of Hyundai Engineering & Construction, was bothered by South Korea’s lack of recognition. He set a goal to move up to 15th place on the index by 2013. 

And Lee decided the quickest way to get there was through the world’s stomachs.

He vowed to expand the country’s international culinary footprint through a ~$40m campaign. Among his goals:

• Increasing the number of overseas Korean restaurants from 10k in 2007 to 40k by 2017

• Opening 100 top-tier Korean restaurants around the world by 2017

• More than doubling agricultural and seafood exports, from $4.4B in 2008 to $10B by 2012

The campaign got to work immediately. In 2009, the country registered gochujang (red pepper paste), doenjang (soybean paste), and ginseng with the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international organization that oversees food safety standards and guidelines that can elevate knowledge of listed foods. As of 2021, South Korea has established six Codex standards. 

While Rockower says gastrodiplomacy is a long-term tactic that takes years to show results, rankings and lists can serve as short-term outcomes that prove the efficacy of a country’s campaign. They can also help assert co