By Yoo Seung-chul (유승철)
Published by Ewha Womans University Press / 28,000 KRW
For Koreans, the greeting "Have you eaten?" is far more than a simple inquiry about meals. It represents a way of checking in on someone's day, a thermometer for gauging the warmth of relationships, and an emotional language deeply embedded in social interaction. Food has always served as a social code binding Korean communities together. Yet today's dining table presents an entirely different landscape from the past. Artificial intelligence recommends menus, smart farms cultivate vegetables, and robot chefs prepare dishes. While we continue to eat, the methods have undergone revolutionary transformation.
Published by Ewha Womans University Press, Professor Yoo Seung-chul's new book Eat, Speak, Connect: K-Food and Food Communication captures this pivotal moment of transition with remarkable clarity. Drawing on twenty years of experience navigating both academia and industry, the author demonstrates how K-food has evolved beyond "delicious meals" into a vast communication platform connecting technology with narrative, industry with public policy.
Technology Changes Taste, But Stories Capture Hearts
The evolution of foodtech has pulled dining tables into the realm of data and algorithms. AI-powered meal recommendations tailored to individual bodies and metaverse culinary experiences from around the world no longer feel foreign. Yet Professor Yoo poses a critical question: "Can technology alone capture people's palates and hearts?" He finds the answer in storytelling. Consumers seek more than mere convenience—they want "my own experience, my own story." Today's diners explore narratives over calories, brand philosophy over nutritional content. Emphasizing that "technology satisfies the mouth, but stories capture the heart," he illustrates how K-food is evolving into brand narratives that trigger memory and emotion on dining tables worldwide.
The Dining Table as Media
The book delivers a clear message: "The dining table is media." A single meal experience amplifies through images, reviews, and short-form videos, reconstructing regional and national identities. Eating represents the intersection of Culture, Commerce, and Community—the 3Cs. The book also presents the framework that "data creates stories, and stories drive policy." Foodtech and personalization have become industry performance variables, while local food branding has emerged as a sustainable growth axis for K-food. ESG, food safety, public communication, and education form the foundation for accumulating K-food's trust capital. Ultimately, K-food is no longer merely about "Korean cuisine going global"—it has become communication infrastructure connecting cities and citizens.
An Actionable K-Food Strategy Guide
Another strength of Eat, Speak, Connect is that it doesn't remain in abstract discourse. The book contains concrete tools ready for immediate field application: the trinity strategy of menu-space-content, methodologies combining regional festivals with tourism, and campaign guides. Local governments and public institutions can brand regional food resources; restaurant and distribution industries can optimize reviews, maps, and content; tourism and urban regeneration sites can strengthen local storytelling to encourage return visits; and media creators can design trustworthy food content.
"We Must Infuse Technology with Human Warmth"
The book poses a final question: platforms will continue to grow more sophisticated, and technology will advance further. Yet one truth remains unchanged—technology that fails to win people's hearts will ultimately be rejected by the market. Professor Yoo states: "What K-food needs to grow into a global brand isn't simply technology. It's the power to infuse technology with human warmth, the ability to reach consumers' hearts through stories." Eat, Speak, Connect is precisely the book that reveals this method. As a food communication strategy guide bridging industry trends with human emotion, it offers concrete solutions to practitioners, interdisciplinary starting points to researchers, and a launchpad for students to design their futures. What sits on our tables now isn't just food—it's data, stories, and the future.
