Korean Brand Sells Baguettes to the French
Hur Young-in, the head of the food and confectionery group SPC, founded Paris Baguette bakery chain in 1988 in his home country of South Korea. It has more than 3,250 bakeries à la française outlets in South Korea, Singapore, China,Vietnam and America. The obsession with French culture, especially baked goods, is something that can be easily seen during a trip to Korea as the most well-known bakery in Seoul is Paris Baguette. You can find this store in every area, sometimes even three on the same block. But instead of keeping everything in Korea, where it would be easy to remain an industry leader, Hur Young-in had a bold, new idea.
His plan was to expand his business further, but this time, he decided, it was going to be into France. While it may seem like the ultimate feat — modifying traditional French cuisine and selling it to Parisians — the business opened stores in Paris nonetheless. But this daring attitude may come from more than a desire to succeed financially. South Korea, despite being thousands of kilometers away from Europe, has quite the obsession with the Western world.
Park Soo Young, who has been in Paris for almost a year now, said that the reason might be that since history the country has been closed off from foreign countries. It only had connections with Japan and China. This can simply be the Korea people "wanting to experience the French culture," according to her anecdotal perspective.
This obsession with Western culture is something that is prevalent in South Korean culture, ranging from the commonplace use of plastic surgery to look more Western to their love of French pastries.For example, the bread in Korea is rather sweet compared to the more common savory bread in France. The word for bread in Korean is 빵 (ppang) which comes from the word pain in French, but Koreans tend to change the flavor to what suits their palette.
And despite the brand being Korean owned and oriented, the clientele is evenly split between French individuals and Koreans, according to one of the workers at Paris Baguette who preferred to only use her first name Céline. She noted that French people buy their croissants and baguette in the morning, whereas after noon more unique, Korean-palette-oriented pastries arrive from the main bakery and that it the time when most Korean people arrive. “Keep in mind we are in the Asian part of the opera," Céline said, "It might be different from the main Pairs Baguette located in the first arrondissement."
Two Korean girls who were studying on the second floor of the bakery said that they had no idea how different baked goods were in France compared to their home country. When asked what they thought about the baguett, Kim Jioun who has been in France for three months, said that it is completely different from what it is back home and that she felt “betrayed” when she tried the baguette in Paris. Jung Heesuk, her friend, echoed her sentiment, “I felt betrayed, this is the real baguette."
An elderly couple also on the second floor said that they didn't know that Paris Baguette was a Korean brand until they noticed that some food contained red bean. Considering this is unusual in traditional French pastries, they asked one of the workers why that is so and that is when they were told that it was a Korean brand. “We do not feel that it is any different from what we are used to," the wife who preferred to remain anonymous said, "and the place is very nice this is why we come here.”
Photography by Zeinab Farhat
