NANRO Foundation names 3rd–5th ‘NANRO NEXT’ fellows, expanding its global hansik talent pipeline

NANRO Foundation, a Korean-cuisine research institution, announced on September 7 that it has selected three new fellows for this year’s edition of its global hansik talent program, ‘NANRO NEXT.’

The new class comprises chef Park Su-young as the third fellow, sommelier Ma Hyun-soo as the fourth, and chef Shim Su-jeong as the fifth. After naming two fellows last year, the foundation broadened the program in its second year to admit three.

The third fellow, chef Park Su-young, is a Jungsik alumna — the first Korean restaurant in the U.S. to earn three Michelin stars — and is now preparing to open a restaurant in Los Angeles. The fourth fellow is Ma Hyun-soo, head sommelier of Soigné, and the fifth is Shim Su-jeong, senior chef at Onjium.

NANRO NEXT is a fellowship program designed to identify and support the next-generation talent who will lead the hansik industry. Building on nominations from senior chefs, it selects candidates in Korea and the United States and provides field-specific education and mentoring across cooking, restaurant management, branding, marketing, design and overseas internships.

Last year, 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 of Peru’s Central.

The three new fellows were introduced at the ‘NANRO NEXT 2026 Gala Dinner’ held on September 6 at Rudbeckia in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. Around 50 attendees joined, including NANRO Foundation chair Choi Jung-yoon and 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 of Soigné and chef Sung Si-woo of Legum served as hosts and presented a four-hands collaboration dinner, alongside the fellow introductions and the patrons program.

NANRO Foundation began in 2022 as an industry gathering focused on hansik branding and was registered as a nonprofit in 2023. More than 400 experts from F&B, IT, media, finance and other fields currently take part, and the foundation runs the global hansik conference ‘NANRO INSIGHT’ and the research and education program ‘NANRO Academy.’

“It is a program in which senior chefs and experts from every field come together to discover and support the next generation of hansik talent,” chair Choi Jung-yoon said. “We will continue to back the fellows as they share Korean gastronomic culture on the world stage and help drive the growth of the hansik industry.”