Two ‘Busan Bansang’ meal sets featuring Busan ingredients and recipes make their debut

[Financial News] Busan City said on the 8th that it had newly developed two ‘Busan Bansang’ meal sets, bringing the city’s ingredients and food culture together on a single table using 72 ‘Busan Food Recipes’ developed over the past three years.

The city began developing Busan food recipes using local ingredients and food culture in 2023. It developed 23 dinner-style recipes in 2023, 25 bansang-style meals in 2024, and 24 bite-sized dishes last year.
This year, instead of adding new individual recipes, the city decided to focus on developing ‘a meal’ using existing recipes and Busan ingredients, with an emphasis on putting the recipes it has accumulated to broad use in real-world settings. Its goal is to create signature Busan food content that can be used at restaurants and in tourism programs.
This year’s approach is to build on the Korean-style bansang format, combining Busan ingredients with a variety of cooking methods and additional ingredients to bring the city’s natural environment and food culture together on one table. Sixteen trainees from the ‘Korean Cuisine Expert Course for Chefs’ at the BCL (Busan Culinary Lab) Academy participated in the development. The academy is a talent-development program run by the Busan Economic Promotion Agency.
Chefs working in different fields, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Western cuisine, formed teams to analyze existing Busan food recipes and create new meal sets using Busan ingredients. Starting in July, they worked on team menus and cooking practice to develop four candidate Busan Bansang sets. They selected two of them, refined their flavors, composition and cooking methods, and completed the final two sets.
The completed meal sets are scheduled to be presented to the public at the Busan International Food Expo, taking place from the 9th to the 11th. During the event, a tasting and evaluation program will let visitors sample the Busan Bansang sets and share their feedback.
Based on the evaluation results, the city plans to distribute and promote the recipes so they can be used in the restaurant and tourism sectors in the future.
Cho Gyu-yul, head of the city’s Citizen Health Bureau, said, “The Busan food recipes we have built up over the past three years have advanced another step this year into ‘Busan Bansang,’ which residents can experience more easily as a meal. We will work to ensure that Busan Bansang, featuring Busan ingredients and chefs’ creative cooking methods, is used in a variety of settings, including the restaurant and tourism industries, and becomes food content that showcases the flavors of Busan.”
[email protected] Byeon Ok-hwan Reporter