Browse Techniques

Black garlic originated in Korea (heukmaul) and has been produced in East Asia for centuries, though it entered the Western restaurant world in the early 2000s through Japanese and Korean food producers. Noma documented the production process precisely, demystifying what had previously been considered a proprietary transformation. The chemistry is Maillard reaction and enzymatic browning sustained over weeks at low temperature — not fermentation, despite frequent mislabelling.

Galbi (grilled short ribs) is one of the most internationally recognisable Korean dishes, but its technique is frequently misunderstood outside Korea. The marinade — built on soy, Asian pear or kiwi (enzymatic tenderiser), garlic, sesame, and sugar — is not merely a flavouring agent. The fruit enzymes actively break down muscle fibres, changing the texture of the meat during the marinade period. The combination of enzymatic tenderising and high-heat charcoal caramelisation produces the dish's signature character.

Garum was the defining condiment of ancient Roman cuisine — a fermented fish sauce produced in enormous quantities along the Mediterranean coast and traded across the empire. It disappeared from European cooking with the Roman collapse but survived in Asian fish sauce traditions (Vietnamese nuoc cham, Thai nam pla, Korean aekjeot). Noma's innovation was the enzymatic garum: using koji enzymes rather than bacterial fermentation to produce an accelerated, controlled version that can be made from virtually any protein source.

Japchae originated in the royal court kitchens of the Joseon Dynasty and has remained a celebratory dish — served at birthdays, holidays, and feasts — throughout Korean culinary history. Its defining technique challenge is the separate cooking of each component: the glass noodles, the vegetables, and the protein are each prepared individually before being combined, ensuring each ingredient reaches its correct texture without compromising the others.

Kimchi fermentation is the defining culinary act of Korean food culture — a preservation technique developed over centuries to sustain vegetables through harsh winters, now understood through modern microbiology as one of the most complex lacto-fermentation systems in world cuisine. Each stage of fermentation produces a categorically different ingredient. Understanding which stage suits which dish is where Korean cooking separates from imitation.

Koji mould (Aspergillus oryzae) is the foundation of Japanese fermentation — the organism responsible for sake, miso, soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar. Noma's fermentation laboratory, under the direction of David Zilber, applied koji beyond its traditional Japanese applications to European ingredients — growing it on barley, rye bread, and proteins to produce accelerated umami development. The result was a body of work that brought koji into the global chef conversation.

Noma's fermentation work extended the 2% brine lacto-fermentation principle — standard in vegetable preservation across all world cuisines — into proteins and fruits, producing results that no other preservation method can replicate. Lacto-fermented blueberries, shrimp paste, and beef garum pushed the boundaries of what Western kitchens understood fermentation to produce.

Tteok (rice cakes) represent one of the oldest food traditions in Korea — ceremonial, seasonal, and daily all at once. The starch chemistry of tteok is distinct from any Western pastry or bread tradition: glutinous rice starch gelatinises differently from wheat, producing a chewy, dense, elastic texture that retrogrades (hardens) rapidly on cooling and must be understood as a time-sensitive ingredient.

Vinegar production through acetification — the conversion of alcohol to acetic acid by Acetobacter bacteria — is one of the oldest fermentation traditions in the world. Every wine-producing culture independently discovered that exposed wine becomes vinegar. The mother of vinegar (a cellulose mat produced by Acetobacter) has been passed between producers as a living starter culture for centuries. Noma documented the precise conditions for controlled vinegar production from any alcoholic base.