I’ve found the 9 Korean pantry essentials chefs swear by for authentic flavour

Korean cuisine has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, with Korean restaurants and supermarkets popping up all over London.

According to research by Just Eat, Londoners spend an estimated £1.18bn on Korean ingredients every year, some 34 per cent of the national total, signalling the K-Wave is still washing over the UK.

A flurry of viral recipes, like Eric Kim’s gochujang caramel cookies in the New York Times and the ever-popular “army stew” budae-jigae, are also inspiring home cooks to try their hand at homemade Korean dishes.

But before you start cooking up a storm, there are some basic ingredients that you need to stock your pantry with that are essential to Korean cooking. According to Chef Woongchul Park, founder of Michelin-starred Sollip in London, these are the ingredients that form the core of the Korean taste profile.

“The Korean palate is a balance of sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and bitter flavours. Home cooks can achieve that by using a combination of sauces, pastes and condiments that come together to create the dishes you would find in any Korean kitchen,” he tells The Standard.

From the most basic of sauces, like soy sauce and sesame oil, to more complex ingredients such as gochujang paste and fish sauce, Park spells out the different ways each product is used in Korean cooking.

Soy sauce is a staple of many Asian cuisines, including Korean. Park explains that there are typically two types of soy sauces used — one for soup and another for dressing and dipping. “Commercial soy sauces are widely available and can be used for most dishes, but we also use a traditionally brewed soy sauce called Yangjo that is better used for salad dressing and dips.”

Sesame oil is also another ingredient that is mass-produced on a commercial level. Most of these are made from toasted sesame seeds and widely available in supermarkets across the country. You could plump for ultra high quality, cold-pressed, untoasted sesame oil — but Park says few people know the difference.

“At Sollip, we use a Korean sesame oil and also one from Tesco,” he reveals. “I think it’s good quality and accessible, and there isn’t really a difference between commercially made sesame oils.”

Gochujang, a savoury and sweet red pepper paste, and doenjang, a soy bean paste, are also considered the building blocks of a number of Korean dishes. Gochujang comes in different levels of spiciness, so Park recommends starting with a medium heat paste.

For sweetness to balance out spicy and sour dishes, many Koreans turn to a syrup called jocheong, a thick liquid sweetener made from fermented rice. This is a traditional ingredient with a viscosity akin to corn syrup or honey. It’s not easily available in the UK but Korean food enthusiasts can find it on specialist online retailers or some Asian supermarkets.

Fish sauce is extremely common in Asian cuisines. In Korea, it’s usually made from anchovies, but can also sometimes be made with shellfish or other types of fish, Park tells me. You can choose a fish sauce that depends on what kind of flavours you are going for, but the regular fish sauce made from anchovies is a must-have.

To give your dishes even more oomph, Park suggests a popular plant-based liquid umami booster called Yondu. Made by Korean brand Sempio, a few dashes of this stuff can add plenty of flavour — but Park also warns that using it too often will make everything taste the same. “It’s good for cooking soups and things like that. But in my personal opinion, it makes everything taste too similar, so I would recommend using it sparingly.”

Finally, kimchi — not quite a pantry ingredient, but certainly essential. Park prefers to make his own, as do many Korean families, but if you aren’t confident about it, there are plenty of kimchi products on the market to choose from, and I’ve found the best one below.

I tried the ingredients recommended by Park to bring you the best of the basics when it comes to Korean home cooking.

I tested several brands and variations of each ingredient recommended by Park, both cooked and uncooked.

For basic items like soy sauce, sesame oil, and fish sauce, I branched out from my usual go-tos and tried Korean-made ingredients to compare and contrast flavour profiles, but I also kept accessibility in mind, as not all Korean products are widely available.

I put pastes and kimchis to the test by cooking them in different ways, such as kimchi fried rice, tteokbokki and bulgogi bowls.

Kimchis were also tested uncooked as a side dish (also known as banchan) to determine how balanced and spicy they were.