NANRO Foundation (chair: Choi Jung-yoon), a Korean-cuisine research institution, has completed the selection of three fellows for the second year of its global hansik talent program, ‘NANRO NEXT.’
NANRO Foundation is a global exchange community and education institution dedicated to developing and supporting the next generation of talent in the hansik industry. It began in 2022 as an industry gathering focused on hansik branding, and was formally registered as a nonprofit in 2023. Under chair Choi Jung-yoon — who also serves as Korea chair of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (W50B) — more than 400 experts from F&B, IT, media, finance and other fields take part.
NANRO NEXT is the only fellowship of its kind in Korea, identifying and supporting the next-generation leaders who will drive the industry forward. Through nominations by senior chefs, promising talents are chosen in Korea and the United States and given systematic training and mentoring across traditional hansik and K-Food cooking, restaurant management, branding, marketing, design and overseas internships.
In 2025, the program named chef Lee Ha-seong — runner-up on Netflix’s ‘Culinary Class Wars 2’ — as its first fellow, and subsequently supported his preparations to open the New York restaurant ‘Oyatte.’ The second fellow was chef Jung Sang, who worked at Peru’s Central — ranked No. 1 on the 2023 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
On September 6, the ‘NANRO NEXT 2026 Gala Dinner’ was held at Rudbeckia in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, to introduce the three newly selected fellows. Around 50 industry leaders joined, including NANRO Foundation Korea-U.S. chair Choi Jung-yoon and NANRO NEXT mentors who hosted last year’s gala: chef-owners Choi Hyun-seok of Choidot, Kim Hee-eun of Soul, Jung Ji-sun of Tian Mimi and Park Ga-ram of Dresden Green. Chef Lee Jun, who runs Rudbeckia alongside Michelin two-starred Soigné, and chef Sung Si-woo of Michelin one-starred Legum served as hosts for a four-hands collaboration dinner.
Chef Park Su-young, formerly of Jungsik — the first Korean restaurant in the U.S. to earn three Michelin stars — was named the third fellow and is currently preparing to open her restaurant in Los Angeles. The fourth fellow is Ma Hyun-soo, head sommelier at Soigné, and the fifth is Shim Su-jeong, senior chef at Onjium.
“NANRO NEXT is the only program of its kind in Korea, one in which senior chefs and experts from every field directly discover and support the next-generation icons who will lead Korean gastronomy on the world stage,” chair Choi Jung-yoon said. “We will continue to actively support the fellows selected through NANRO NEXT so that they grow beyond today’s wave of hansik popularity and become the game-changers of the future Korean-food industry.”
· Original (Korean): seoul.co.kr
