Hwang Hye-sung's Lifelong Mission to Bring Royal Cuisine Back to Life

“The food is about sincerity, personal touch, and care.”

“Royal cuisine is not a luxurious food; it is a scientific and beautiful food. This is because it is made with the finest seasonal ingredients and with delicate fingertips.”

-Hwang Hye-sung

Hwang Hye-sung was born in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, as the only daughter of a family with a small number of children. Until the addition of a younger brother when she was 10, she grew up under the care of many mother figures, including her biological mother, grandmother, wet nurse, Upboon mother (“Nanny”), and a monk who she called “Kakka mom” (bald mom).

Baby Hye-sung, just before entering Cheonan Primary School (left in the front row), grandmother (right in the front row), mother (left in the back row), and relative (right in the back row).

Upon graduating from Kyoto Girls’ Vocational School and returning home, Hwang Hye-sung got a job as a teacher at Daedong Girls’ High School in Daejeon. This young 20-year-old teacher was passionate, teaching cycling and gymnastics and even supervising the dormitory. In 1943, she was hired as a professor at Sookmyung Women's Vocational School to teach Joseon cuisine at the suggestion of Principal Oda, and it was the first time she learned of Changdeokgung Naksunjae royal cuisine.

Prior to an event to promote silk-farming, Empress Sunjeong (Empress Yoon) (1889-1972) took a commemorative photograph with guests and the court ladies. The last queen of the Joseon Dynasty, Empress Yoon continued the culture of the Joseon Dynasty while residing in Naksunjae after Sunjong passed away in 1926. When Hwang Hye-sung first visited Naksunjae in 1943, the court ladies who attended to Empress Yoon were carrying on the tradition of royal cuisine.

Court lady Han Hee-soon (1889-1972) in a court dress. Han Hee-soon was the last court lady of the Joseon Dynasty and the Korean Empire, who served Gojong, followed by Sunjong and Empress Yoon. She was thoroughly acquainted with all the recipes of royal cuisine, from Surasang, the king’s daily table spread, to food served at feasts and rituals.

For 30 years from 1943, when Hwang Hye-sung first met court lady Han Hee-soon at Naksunjae until 1972 when court lady Han passed away, Hwang had knowledge of the Joseon Dynasty royal cuisine handed down to her. In a tight atmosphere in which she could not ask any questions and was not allowed to interrupt by saying, “Let me try for once,” while making food, she wrote down the entire process in a notebook and addressed court lady Han as “Your Highness Court Lady.” Through her efforts, the ingredients, decorations, seasonings, and terminology of royal cuisine remain on record.

Hwang Hye-sung lost all of her research records when she evacuated during the Korean War. However, she was neither discouraged nor disheartened. After the war, she began a project of systematization to preserve and sustain royal cuisine in the national culture. Leejokungjungyoritongko was published as a result of this historical work to restore recipes, and more than 200 foods, from Surasang to janchi (feast) food, were detailed using modern metrics and cooking terms. Fourteen years of learning royal cuisine had finally come to fruition.

Leejokungjungyoritongko has great significance in Korean food culture and history in that it revealed the secrets of royal cuisine which had been hidden deep inside the old palace.

At the time that the book came out, Korea's food culture was gradually being simplified and modernized due to rapid social change brought about by such factors as the influx of aid from the United States. In this context, Hwang Hye-sung expressed her wishes to retain Korean culture by systematically outlining royal cuisine, the very essence of traditional foods. It was also around this time when cooking began to develop into a discipline. As part of this social change, Leejokungjungyoritongko made a great contribution to the rise of cooking as a culture in itself and a field of study.
The photo shows food recreated and recorded in Leejokungjungyoritongko(2014).

In 1962, the Korean government introduced a nationally designated intangible cultural property system. According to the Cultural Properties Protection Act, the government decided to preserve not only tangible heritage such as existing buildings and arts, but also intangible heritage, such as dance and music, as cultural assets. Hwang Hye-sung believed that the Joseon Dynasty royal cuisine was the essence of royal culture and Korean food culture. Thus, she began to proceed with a campaign to gain intangible cultural property designation.

However, this was not easy because of an authoritative atmosphere that saw relevant committee members looking down upon everyday culture. Many members of the Cultural Property Committee opposed designation of royal cuisine as a cultural property, saying, “What kind of cultural property is food?” and “Isn’t it true that everyone can cook?” With the help of Han Hee-soon, Hwang Hye-sung enthusiastically persuaded them by preparing a feast for the committee members. In January 1971, Han Hee-soon was finally designated as the first royal cuisine artisan, a holder of intangible cultural property.

The opening ceremony for the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine brought joy and excitement to both Han Hee-soon, the first royal cuisine artisan and a holder of intangible cultural property, and Hwang Hye-sung, who served under her for 30 years and breathed life into royal cuisine, the essence of Korean food culture. The first location of the institute was a small place in a shopping mall that was built near Dongdaemun.

In 1972, Han Hee-soon passed away and a year later Hwang Hye-sung carried on her work to promote royal cuisine as the second artisan. It has been 30 years since the 23-year-old girl who was then a professor in Sookmyung Vocational School visited Naksunjae to learn the origins of Korean food.

Hwang Hye-sung worked tirelessly at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine. She was busy with work such as royal cuisine training, regular related presentations, publication of cookbooks, and research into associated literature. Based on this literature research, she did her best to pass on and develop royal cuisine and Korean food cultural traditions, from how to write a Champumdanja(menu) to the actual making of food.

Hwang Hye-sung worked around the clock. During the day, she taught at the university, and in the evening, she devoted all her energy to passing on the skills of this intangible cultural property at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine. On the weekends, she went through ancient documents and visited elder citizens to try to identify the very essence of royal cuisine and noble family food.

Hwang Hye-sung restoring the tradition of royal cuisine by applying modern metrics in a lab coat at the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine. She also took charge of field work, event planning and operation in order to promote royal cuisine.

Hwang Hye-sung was eager to introduce Joseon Dynasty royal cuisine, the peak and art of Korean food culture, to the world. Having lived through the painful days of colonial Joseon, she took the lead in promoting Korean food culture to Japanese society using her fluent Japanese that she learned while studying in Japan. In addition, she traveled to various countries, such as the United States and in Europe, to spread awareness of Korean food culture, and to tell people who knew little about Korea of the elegance of its culture through the demonstration of royal cuisine.

Although she was busy teaching and promoting royal cuisine, Hwang Hye-sung published dozens of books. In 1976, she published the Korean Cooking Encyclopedia, which covers recipes and nutritional content of royal cuisine, local food, and ancient cookbooks as well as Korean food history.

Hwang Hye-sung recreated not only everyday cultural elements such as the bowls and tables used in royal cuisine, but also the table-settings and arrangements, by means of the study of ancient documents in Jangseogak. This became the starting point for restoring royal culture in general.

The Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine moved to a Hanok building in Wonseo-dong, Jongno-gu, next to Changdeokgung in 1996, which marked the 25th anniversary of its founding. Hwang Hye-sung was deeply moved, as the new location was close to Naksunjae, where she first learned of royal cuisine, and Andong Byeolgung, a place of residence of Han Hee-soon. She enjoyed her years there as an educator, researcher, and writer while actively continuing with such work as holding royal cuisine-related training and exhibitions.

Hwang Hye-sung, who greatly enjoyed cooking and teaching even after the age of 70, passed away in 2006. Now, Joseon Dynasty royal cuisine, Intangible Cultural Property No. 38, which was passed down from court lady Han Hee-soon to Hwang Hye-sung, has in turn been handed down to Hwang Hye-sung’s daughters. Han Bok-ryeo (1947- ), her eldest daughter, succeeded in becoming royal cuisine artisan as a holder of intangible cultural property, and Bok-seon and Bok-jin, her second and third daughters, work alongside Bok-ryeo as initiates.

Hwang Hye-sung studied all the time. No matter the time or place, she opened her notebook and wrote in it. She once lost the notebook containing her lifelong work on royal cuisine that she recorded during her frequent visits to Naksunjae after 1943, as she left it in the house in Donam-dong when evacuating during the Korean War. Since then, however, her research notebook never left her sight.

She was a scholar who gained knowledge directly from the field. For 10 years from 1968, she went around the country from Gangwon-do, where there was no electricity, to numerous jonggajip (home of the eldest son), and an island village in the South Sea, where she had to travel 6 hours by boat for her research on local food. More than 50 books were published as a result of her 70 years of research, including Korean Traditional Food, Joseon Dynasty Royal Cuisine, and Review of Food Research.

“Record everything you see with your eyes and hear with your ears, and keep going with persistence.”

“Food is respect for life.”

Hwang Hye-sung. The royal culture of the Joseon dynasty, which had once disappeared from the face of the earth, came back to life with her touch. Royal cuisine has now become Korea's great living cultural heritage for the future.