Jeong Kwan: The Zen Buddhist Chef
Ven. Jeong Kwan is a 61-year-old Zen Buddhist nun who has lived the life of a hermit for the past 44 years. Born into a Korean family with six other siblings, she grew up on a farm and learnt to make noodles by hand at the age of just seven. This deeply impressed her mother who told her, “You will live well one day.”
When she was 17 years old, her mother passed away. Jeong Kwan never recovered from the loss of her mother and one day, she decided to leave home to become a Buddhist nun. Her departure was not to escape the harsh reality of her mother’s death, but arose from her realisation that if she were to have children, they too would one day go through the devastation of losing their mother. She did not want to put them through the same painful process in the future. In her opinion, the best way to avoid such an occurrence was to never marry and have children. Thus, she chose to become a nun.
A picture of Jeong Kwan in her younger days
“I was deeply upset when she died so early. And I realised there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t give my children the same kind of pain someday. I vowed never to pass down that pain… One day, I just disappeared without telling anyone. I didn’t take anything with me. I just decided to be a nun.”
Jeong Kwan ran away from home and joined the Baekyangsa Temple, also known as Chunjinam Hermitage (White Sheep Temple). This is one of the mother temples of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism situated in Jangseong County of Jeollanamdo Province, South Korea. The sangha (ordained community of monks and nuns) of the temple accepted her with open arms. This was a difficult period for Jeong Kwan because she faced many hardships. One of these included having trouble waking early for prayers. However, the elders of the temple were kind and they made adjustments to the schedule to accommodate her and make her comfortable. To this day, she credits her joining the temple and her subsequent achievements to her mother:
“My mother granted me the opportunity to enter this temple. Even today, I thank her for her mercy and her compassion for allowing my pursuit of freedom.”
Jeong Kwan occasionally leaves the temple to teach others that anyone, not just monks and nuns, have the potential to transform themselves by adopting a vegetarian diet like that served in the temple. She also teaches at Jeonju University, where she urges students to treasure every ingredient in the food they eat to prevent unnecessary wastage.
In modern times, culture surrounding food in Korea has become westernised and this has led to an overabundance of processed foods. Jeong Kwan aspires to solve this growing issue by imparting knowledge and skills to young aspiring chefs. “I teach because I want the world to be united through healthy and happy food and to thrive together,” she says.
The healthy meals she cooks consist mainly of tomatoes, plums, aubergines, pumpkins, basil, chilli pepper, tofu and other vegetables all of which she grows herself. She is a strict Buddhist vegan herself and therefore she does not use garlic, onions, chives, scallions or leeks in her cooking. Explaining why this is so, she says:
“Those five spices are sources of spiritual energy, but too much of that energy will prevent a nun’s spirit from achieving a state of calm. This is a distraction to meditation.”
On the other hand, soy sauce is a key ingredient in her cooking and she explains why:
“Soy sauce makes me excited just thinking about it. Every food is recreated by soy sauce. Soy beans, salt and water, in harmony, through time. It is the basis of seasonings, the foundation. There are sauces aged five years, ten years, aged for one hundred years. These kinds of soy sauces are passed down for generations. They are heirlooms.
If you look into yourself, you see past, present, and future. You see that time revolves endlessly. You can see past from the present. By looking into myself, I see my grandmother, my mother, the elders in the temple, and me. As a result, by making soy sauce, I am reliving the wisdom of my ancestors. I am reliving them. It’s not important who or when. What is important is that I’m doing it in the present.
I use soy sauce, and I acknowledge its importance. It is no longer just me that’s doing things. It’s me in the past, in the present, and even in the future. Soy sauce is eternal. It is life itself.”
Jeong Kwan’s father came to live with her at the temple when he was about 70 years old. He complained a lot about not having any meat to eat, so Jeong Kwan cooked him one of her best dishes – fried shitake mushrooms and asked him to take it to the top of a mountain to eat. After finishing his meal, her father said, “This is better than meat.” About a month later, her father left the temple for home where he passed away shortly afterwards.
Jeong Kwan reflects on the impact that her parents had on her:
“Because of my parents, I could become a nun. And I prayed for them to be happy in the next life. Even today, when I see something beautiful, or make or see beautiful food, I thank my parents for their energy and virtue. The food I prepare is an expression of gratitude to my parents. They let me become who I am.”
Rise to Fame
Jeong Kwan was invited to appear on the third season of the show “Chef’s Table” which is an original Netflix documentary series. The season featured six chefs and Jeong Kwan was the only participant who is not a chef by profession nor does she own a restaurant. In fact at the start of the show, she said, “I am not a chef, I am a nun.”
After the show aired, the number of visitors to her temple has greatly increased.
“Visitors come from Japan, USA, France, Germany, Netherlands, etc., I didn’t meet as many people from so many different countries before the show… It is joyful to meet and talk with people from all [over] the world.”
Devotees make the trip to her temple on pilgrimage to ask for blessings during major religious festivals, such as Wesak Day. When pilgrims visit the temple, they are traditionally provided with vegetarian meals. Jeong Kwan serves visitors a centuries-old household meal – bibimbap. Conventionally this dish is served with beef, but Jeong Kwan creatively transformed it and instead serves it with various dried vegetables instead. She picks these vegetables by hand and dries them for a year. When served, these vegetables remind the consumer to appreciate one’s health for that year. She prepares bibimbap whole-heartedly with the wish that all her guests have good health for an entire year.
Jeong Kwan also has an explanation as to the differences between secular and temple cuisine. Secular food is focused on creating dynamic energy while temple food is focused on keeping one’s mind calm. She has found her calling in spreading the principles of Buddhism through her cooking.
Eric Ripert, a famous French chef, author and television personality who has established a friendly relationship with Jeong Kwan has many nice things to say about her and even said that she has no ego. Jeong Kwan herself, has many profound thoughts on the particular subject of the ego:
“Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can’t open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of. That is my belief.”
Baekyangsa Temple
Baekyangsa Temple, or Chunjinam Hermitage, is located within the Naejangsan National Park in the Jeollanamdo Province of South Korea. Baekyangsa was founded by Venerable Yeohwan in 632 C.E., and was originally called Baekamsa Temple. Then in the latter part of the 19th century, it was renamed Baekyangsa which literally means White Sheep Temple. This is because in those days, white sheep used to come down from the mountain to listen to the monks chanting and would return to the mountain once the chanting finished.
Baekyangsa is a temple dedicated to the practice of Seon (Zen) and has produced many Seon masters. The temple contains fully functioning meditation halls, a School of Sutra and a School of Precepts, making it a Chongnim, one of the five comprehensive training complexes of the Jogye Order.
Getting There
It takes approximately three hours by train and taxi from Seoul to reach the temple complex. The entrance fee is 3,000 South Korean Won (approximately RM12). If you are interested to meet Jeong Kwan and learn about temple cuisine, you can sign up for an overnight temple stay program. This program costs about 150,000 South Korean Won (approximately RM560), which includes learning basic Buddhist manners, meditation, sweeping the yard and experiencing temple cuisine with Jeong Kwan herself.
For more information about the program, visit: http://eng.templestay.com/reserv_temple.aspx?ProgramId=2933
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/JeongKwanEng01.mp4
Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/JeongKwanChi.mp4
The Most Popular Buddhist Nun Cook — in Manhattan
By Alexis Cheung | June 27, 2017
Jeong Kwan in New York City. Credit: Gabriela Herman
Jeong Kwan, of “Chef’s Table” fame, recently served Korean temple food in New York. And when she wasn’t cooking, she explored the urban jungle.
On a recent Tuesday morning in June, the Zen Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan bounded across 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue toward Central Park and the French chef Eric Ripert, who stood on the corner patiently waiting. Over 7,000 miles away from her Chunjinam hermitage in South Korea, she had arrived in New York a few days earlier — to cook for 60 guests at Ripert’s restaurant, Le Bernardin, in honor of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.
Kwan had already cooked at Ripert’s restaurant once, back in 2015. But that was before fame found her — when Jeff Gordinier shared her story in T magazine (“Jeong Kwan, the Philosopher Chef”), which led in part to Kwan’s episode in the third season of “Chef’s Table.” While she would again serve her traditional temple cuisine, this time her guests knew to expect an exquisite, maybe even transcendent, vegan meal, the kind that has captivated the elite food world.
This was Kwan’s third trip to New York but her first time in Central Park. She and chef Eric Ripert meditated on this rock during her visit to the city. Credit: Gabriela Herman.
For the occasion, Kwan hauled 23 boxes across the Pacific, filled with 62 bowl sets, a 15-year-old soy sauce, two kinds of kimchi, a variety of homegrown vegetables and homemade sauces. A team of four from Korea would help her, as would the Los Angeles chef Kwang Uh and his assistant. But first, she would walk.
“Sleep well?” Ripert asked as a greeting.
Kwan nodded, bringing her palms to a prayer before gently bowing. Then she looked up, flashed a jubilant thumbs up and gave Ripert a kind of Buddhist fist bump, which he gamely returned. At this hour, the sun was still low, the air still cool and the park refreshingly uncrowded. Ripert guided her along his usual route to Le Bernardin and, despite the language barrier, the two conversed with relative ease.
“This is your temple!” Kwan exclaimed of the park to Ripert, a fellow Buddhist whom she first met in 2014 — when he was in Korea exploring temple food for his show, “Avec Eric.” This was her first time in Central Park. “She’s very spontaneous in her decisions,” Ripert explained. “You never know what to expect.” As they neared the summer stage, Kwan suddenly stopped mid-stride, then carefully placed one foot in front of the other to suggest a walking meditation. “O.K.,” Ripert shrugged. “Le Bernardin at 5 o’clock,” he said, pointing to his watch, referencing their glacial pace.
Still they walked slowly, mindfully, as if traversing a tightrope across a ravine. After a few minutes, Kwan spun around and started sauntering backward, signaling the session’s end while playfully posing for the camera. Later, near a rocky outlook, she plucked a hanging tree leaf, then popped the morsel into her mouth. “No,” Ripert said, waving his hands to indicate it wasn’t edible. In Korea, this is simply how she sources ingredients: In addition to cultivating an unruly garden, she forages ingredients from the mountains and the sea, with little but her own curiosity to guide her.
Kwan visited downtown New York for the first time. “I like it,” she said. “The smaller buildings, it’s more peaceful.” Credit: Gabriela Herman.
Kwan, who is 60, left home for the monastery at 17, and her approach to food remains rooted in her Buddhist practice: “The food is influenced by the mind of the cook,” she explained through a translator. Depending on that mind-set, the meal “can be poison or medicine.”
After a brief seated meditation near a muddy pond, Ripert pointed out wildlife to Kwan: two turtles treading water, a slender egret in the shade, a duo of ducks. She nodded in recognition, then gestured toward ivory flowers, their petals as translucent as tissue paper. Eventually the trail twisted upward, spitting Kwan and Ripert out onto Central Park South. Here the city thrummed, crowds thronged and general congestion spilled everywhere. Yet Kwan remained unperturbed.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Ripert says of Kwan’s food. “The intensity, purity and precision of flavors which becomes harmony, of course.” This was the last course she served at Le Bernardin. Credit: Gabriela Herman.
Despite her recent exposure, Kwan remains profoundly rooted — and suggests that her life hasn’t much changed. She has traveled more, and seen an increase in the number of visitors to the monastery, but “otherwise,” she says, “it’s the same. I feel blessed to share and cook with people.”
Still, “It’s a little bit of a distraction, no?” Ripert probed.
“It’s another way to learn the practice,” Kwan said. “If it becomes a distraction I’ll stop everything, but I’m not influenced by outer circumstances.” The great paradox of the enlightened is often that their transcendence seems tethered to the earth. Kwan’s own stature, although small, is preternaturally steady: She walks without wavering, and her gestures are fluid.
Kwan and Ripert visited the Union Square Greenmarket. Credit: Gabriela Herman.
But she is also quick and playful. And like foraging for ingredients back home, she let her curiosity lead the way during her time in New York. For the first time, she tasted Lebanese food, ordered a large iced coffee from a street vendor and rode the subway. In between meetings, she stole snatches of sleep (in the back seat of cars; tucked into the corner of a tea shop). And the day before her big meal, while wandering the Union Square Greenmarket, she ripped open an heirloom tomato with her bare hands to bite into its juicy flesh.
When asked about being embraced by a world known for its outsize egos, Kwan deferred to the dharma: “If you want to be inspired and create, you need to empty yourself out and accept and let desire go,” she explained. “Too much ego and you cannot accept new things.”
As for missing the monastery, she said, “I’m happy here right now.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/t-magazine/food/jeong-kwan-buddhist-nun-cook-manhattan.html
For more interesting information:
- Hermit – A Profound Documentary by Bill Porter
- Potala of the West: Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
- Madame Blavatsky: Mother of Modern Spirituality
- Helena Roerich: Writer, Philosopher and Peacemaker
- Theos Bernard – The American Explorer of Tibet
- John Blofeld and His Spiritual Journey
- Ekai Kawaguchi – Three Years in Tibet
- Alexandra David-Néel
- Lama Anagarika Govinda: The Pioneer Who Introduced Tibetan Buddhism to the World
- Agvan Dorjiev: The Diplomat Monk
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Jeong Kwan is such an inspiring nun. She can turn almost anything into dharma practice even making soy sauce. She must had some realizations to be able to see the dharma in everything. I love it when she was asked whether she misses the monastery, she replied that she is happy now.
That sentence speaks a lot about her inner world. She is happy to be present. Many people would have said I miss this and that and all of those will be in the past. Jeong Kwan lives in the present and she truly experiences the present. That is why Buddha taught us to be in the present at all times.
She left home after her mother passed away and she vows to never ever to give such pain of someone losing their mother to her kids. What a compassionate human being that rather takes on life of a nun in order to not hurt others.
A lot of the monastic order in Korea, they can forage for ingredients in the forest of Korea. During a trip to Korea I had sampled some Korean Temple food at Sanchon in Seoul, there are really a lot of variety of flavours were presented to us. And this restaurant also was featured on the New York Times before. http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1337389
The story of the Korean nun Jeong Kwan is very inspiring. Similarly to Tsem Rinpoche, she also ran away from home to be ordained as a nun. At the age of 17 years old after losing her mother, she decided she would never get married and have children because she doesn’t want her children (if she had) to go through the pain and suffering like she did when she lost her mother.
Without telling anyone, she ran away from home and join a monastery in Jangseong County of Jeollanamdo Province, South Korea. When she first joined the monastery, it was not easy for her as the life in the monastery is totally different from that at home. But she had the support from the older nuns to go through the hardships.
Jeong Kwan is a very simple, grateful and happy person. She always says she owes everything she has to her parents. She has never forgotten the kindness of her parents. The way she spreads Dharma is through food. She has such passion for food not because she’s attached to food but because she wants people to go back to the basic and be connected to our mother nature.
Inspiring write up of a Zen Buddhist nun and chef. She definitely found her calling and is able to spread dharma through teaching others to cook Vegan. Very inspiring. She even grew her own vegetables for her cooking. A very compassionate nun. Thank you Rinpoche and Beatrix for this biography. 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche and Beatrix for sharing and writing this article, which can help many people to go through the most difficult times when they lose their parents whether it is because of immature death or old age reason. Losing our parents one day should not hold us back from moving forward positively if we want to help our parents to take good rebirth in their next lifetime. I believe that Jeong Kwan would have accumulated a lot of merits from her past lives that can lead her to become a nun at her age of 17 after her mother passed away. Not many teenagers could have realized the truth of death and impermanence if they were happened to face the similar situation like Jeong Kwan.
Besides, I truly admire the great motivation set by Venerable Jeong Kwan where she will teach other people of what she has learnt as a nun, especially when she wanted to unite the world through healthy and happy vegetarian food all together. Owing to her rising fame as a nun who can cook vegetarian meals in the “Chef’s Table” show, Venerable Jeong Kwan has attracted many visitors to her Buddhist temple that eventually at least can plant Dharma seeds into their minds or give them the Dharma teachings and practice directly in the temple. May Venerable Jeong Kwan continues to live long with stable health and reach to more people in US or other parts of the world for spreading the Dharma and positive vibes. May anyone who have met or will meet Venerable Jeong Kwan, will be implanted with many blessings and Dharma seeds to engage and progress further in Dharma practice.
Thank you with folded hands,
kin hoe
Interesting and inspiring read of a Zen Buddhist nun and chef of Korean cuisine. Jeong Kwan a South Korean buddhist nun who resides in a remote temple. Jeong Kwan is one of the best and unique chefs in the world. Her mother passing motivated her to leave her remaining family for a holy life. She discovered her calling of spreading dharma through cooking. Believes that she was destined to spread the dharma through the medium of food. Many people as well as international chefs are inspired by her. From harvesting fresh ingredients from her garden, cooking and serving the food, it is a way to train our patience, kindness, mindfulness and how to live harmoniously with the nature. She has become well known in Korean temple cuisine. Thank you Rinpoche and Beatrix for this very inspiring story ???
Interesting and inspiring read of a Zen Buddhist nun and chef of Korean cuisine. Jeong Kwan a South Korean buddhist nun who resides in a remote temple. Jeong Kwan is one of the best and unique chefs in the world. Her mother passing motivated her to leave her remaining family for a holy life . She discovered her calling of spreading dharma through cooking. Jeong Kwan is best known for her appearance on the third season of the show “Chef’s Table” where she met Eric Ripert, a famous French chef, author and television personality. As Korea tourism increases, the Korean are more open minded, foods wise are more processed and westernised. Jeong Kwan cooks vegetarian healthy dishes and encourage people to go on vegetarian with her unique creative recipes. She plants her own vegetables in her own farm. She did travelled abroad to teach and give talks . She aspires and imparting knowledge and skills to young aspiring chefs as she wanted the world to be united through healthy and happy food and to thrive together. Inspiring read of her works and quotes.
Thank you Rinpoche and Beatrix Ooi for this sharing.
In Buddha’s teachings, we should not kill because all life is precious. Ven. Jeong Kwan, a Buddhist nun, believes that herself was destined to spread the dharma through the medium of food. She is now become expert and well known in Korean temple cuisine.
Many people as well as international chefs are inspired by her. From harvesting fresh ingredients from her garden, cooking and serving the food, it is a way to train our patience, kindness, mindfulness and how to live harmoniously with the nature.
Food consumed should be guilt free, simple and nutritious. After all, we should back to the basis that food is for sustaining a healthy body, not for satisfying our gastronomic greed and cravings.
Jeong Kwan, Zen Buddhist nun and renowned chef, became a nun so as not to inflict pain and suffering on others.
Instead ,as a nun, she becomes a cook so as bring her egoless and compassionate self to bear on her passion for cooking with the view of providing food that brings calm to the minds of others as well as happiness and health and unity to all.
“I teach (cooking)because I want the world to be united through healthy and happy food and to thrive together,” she says.
I love the spirit and mind of this beautiful lady, who in every action shows her eternal love and gratitude to her parents, who soars to transcendental heights with her strong conviction that without ego, your mind is freed to become fully creative, as nothing obstructs or controls you anymore.
“Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can’t open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of. That is my belief.”
Furthermore:
““If you want to be inspired and create, you need to empty yourself out and accept and let desire go,” she explained. “Too much ego and you cannot accept new things.”
In modern times, the culture surrounding food in Korea has become westernised and this has led to an overabundance of processed foods. Jeong Kwan aspires to solve this growing issue by imparting knowledge and skills to young aspiring chefs. “I teach because I want the world to be united through healthy and happy food and to thrive together,” she says.
The above is a very inspiring taken from the article above. She is a nun that is responsible to cook meals for her monastery. She uses very little flavouring in her cooking and maintaining the original flavours of ingredients. She is extremely good in pairing the ingredients to bring out the best of them.
Even though this is about cooking, the way she is being aware of the flavours and precision in her cooking is actually a form of Dharma practice. She also aspires to educate young people on how to use natural ingredients to create delicious food so they can avoid using processed food in their cooking. Now she starts travelling away from her monastery just to share her knowledge with those who are interested. She is indeed a kind nun.
Thank you, Rinpoche and Beatrix for drawing out attention to this wonderful chef, this nun, Ven. Jeong Kwan. Reading about her cooking style and way of life and approach to cooking, I guess, we all have to learn to be calm and relaxed and get in touch with ourselves. I like that she treats the soy sauce, the most common and humblest of sauce with reverence, seeing in it the heritage and Three Times as they are aged over many, many years. Someone could have started it and only the next generation gets to see the final results. It’s about appreciating the basics, nature and the present. It’s about appreciating and honoring this body that we are in, in this life so that it is able in this life to enable us to do something for future lives, if we are that mindful.
I like too that she is so spontaneous especially when in New York Central Park with Eric Ripert when she spontaneously decided to do walking meditation; and wonderful too that Eric understood as a Buddhist. Guess we all can take a leaf from her to be more relaxed and mindful and get in touch with our hearts/mind. It was also mindful of Eric Ripert to recognise that appreciate that.
Reading that she does not use garlic or onions or any of the onion family vegetables, sounds very much like the Mahayana Chinese vegetarian cuisine. There too, it is said that these vegetables disturb the “wind” or distract, making meditation more difficult. Therein lies more research and contemplation as it will mean that as ordinary cooks, we have to relearn how to cook. Trivial, not difficult and just means that it is a relearning process. And, practice makes perfect, I guess.
Thank you again, Beatrix for a very interesting read.