[Kim Daesik·Kim Hyeyeon's AHA] Eating Food Made by Humans in the Age of AI

(22) Lee Wookjung, Documentary Director
The Patience and Stories Taught by Food
How Waiting and Sharing Made Us Human
We Consume Meaning, Not Just Taste
The "Fear and Trust" of What Enters Our Bodies

Editor's NoteThe Asia Business Daily has decided to examine how rapidly advancing generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the field of artistic creation, and what concerns "humans" should consider, from the perspectives of both engineers and artists. Accordingly, we have established a monthly segment in which Professor Kim Daesik of the KAIST Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and choreographer Kim Hyeyeon (CEO of Yeonist) engage in discussions or debates with artists about their works. The segment's title, "AHA," stands for "AI, Human & Art." We hope that, through Professor Kim Daesik, who is passionately exploring the future of generative AI, and choreographer Kim Hyeyeon, who is boldly integrating generative AI with dance, you will be able to take a step closer to the profound questions surrounding AI, humanity, and art.

Director Lee Wookjung is a documentary filmmaker who explores civilization and humanity through the lens of food. Having worked at KBS for over 30 years, spanning variety shows, historical dramas, and documentaries, he also has the unique experience of completing a year and a half chef's program at Le Cordon Bleu in France. Taking a leave of absence from his company and studying culinary arts abroad at his own expense "to become a better producer" became a turning point that completed his artistic vision.

PD Woo Ikjung is having a conversation with Professor Dae-sik Kim of KAIST at Yoriinryu Geombyeokdoljip in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 10th. 2025.11.11 Photo by Kang Jinhyung

In 2008, with <Noodle Road>, he pioneered a new genre called "foodmentary," unraveling the history of Silk Road civilization exchanges through the single dish of noodles. This work earned him the Grand Prize at the 2009 Korea Broadcasting Awards and the 2010 Peabody Award, gaining recognition both domestically and internationally. Later, in 2015, with <Cooked Humanity>, he won the Baeksang Arts Award for Best TV Educational Program, further elevating the standard of Korean food documentaries.

After leaving KBS in 2019, he established Yoriinryu Co., Ltd., where he currently serves as CEO. Since 2021, he has also been the chairman of the "Social Cooperative for Urban Regeneration Through Cooking," continuing urban regeneration activities at Geombyeokdoljip in Hoehyeon-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul. Starting in September 2024, he has expanded his exploration beyond food to humanity and life itself, presenting new documentary series such as <Long Live the Dog> (focusing on pet health and longevity) and <Human Chronicle - Hospital> through Wavve.

-Thank you for joining us. You are well known for your long career as a documentary director at KBS, especially for "Noodle Road." Could you introduce yourself and share what kind of work you have done?

▲I am a documentary director, and KBS was both my first and last workplace. I studied English literature and anthropology, and also studied broadcasting in the United States. Perhaps unusually, while working at the company, I took a leave of absence and completed a year and a half chef's course at Le Cordon Bleu, one of the world's top three culinary schools. It was a rigorous training to become a fully professional chef.

My only prior cooking experience was grilling meat at company retreats, but there, I gained hands-on experience among people who truly battled with fire in the kitchen. After returning, I worked extensively in the early days of the genre I named "foodmentary." Just before my culinary studies abroad, I produced the documentary "Noodle Road." My career is somewhat unique in that I did not start out in the documentary department; I also worked on variety shows and served as an assistant director for historical dramas. So, I have taken a different path from classic, traditional documentary directors in Korea.

PD Woojung Lee is having a conversation with Professor Daesik Kim of KAIST at Yoriinryu Geombyeokdoljip in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 10th. 2025.11.11 Photo by Jinhyung Kang

-“Noodle Road” was not just a simple food documentary, but a work with anthropological and philosophical depth. Why did you choose "noodles" in particular?

▲There are actually only a few foods that have changed the course of human history. Over the past 200,000 years, countless recipes have existed, but most foods did not transcend the barriers of history. They remained local dishes or disappeared altogether. However, a very small number of foods have crossed the barriers of time and geography to become staples for the world's 7 billion people today. Noodles are one such food.

One of the common features of noodles is the element of "fun." If you compare handmade sujebi, which is also made from wheat dough, sujebi does not offer a particularly distinct experience when chewed-it's just something you chew. But noodles, with their linear design, provide a unique experience that other foods cannot. You can almost swallow them without chewing; the sensual feeling as they pass over your lips, across your tongue, and down your throat, and even the sound itself, must have brought people immense pleasure.

More importantly, I discovered the background of how noodles were created. In the West, wheat has been cultivated and bread made for 8,000 to 9,000 years, so why did noodles not emerge for so long? The answer lies in the "boiling method." The Western culture of baking wheat foods and the Eastern culture of boiling grains met in Central Asia along the Silk Road, and that is how noodles were born. Noodles were not invented by a single empire or genius, but are the result of thousands of years of trial and error, cultural diversity, and the collective effort of countless unnamed people.

In 2008, PD Lee Wookjung pioneered a new genre called "foodmentary" with "Noodle Road," unraveling the history of Silk Road cultural exchanges through the single dish of noodles. This work earned him the Grand Prize at the 2009 Korea Broadcasting Awards and the 2010 Peabody Award, gaining recognition both domestically and internationally.

-We heard that studying at a culinary school was a choice you made to become a better producer. How did that experience actually impact your work?

▲Many people mistakenly think that I went as a reward because <Noodle Road> won so many awards. In reality, I took a leave of absence and paid my own way because I wanted to experience the world of chefs firsthand in order to make better food documentaries.

What I learned there was not just cooking techniques. I gained new perspectives on the world of cooking, chefs, and food, which are essential to human survival but also carry immense symbolism and stories. It was a hands-on experience in the field, battling with fire, completely different from producing cooking shows at a broadcasting station or conducting academic research.

Another thing I realized is that the most interesting part of cooking is the final plating, but to prepare that one dish on the tip of the iceberg, there is an enormous amount of unseen prep work, most of which is not fun at all. Experiencing these truths of the field firsthand became a great asset to my work.

PD Woojeong Lee is having a conversation with Professor Dae-sik Kim of KAIST at Yoriinryu Geombyeokdoljip in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 10th. 2025.11.11 Photo by Jinhyung Kang

-You have said that the food industry has been the slowest sector to be penetrated by technology and capital compared to other industries. How do you think food and cooking will change in the era of AI and robots?

▲The food and cooking sector is truly the most delayed in terms of technological penetration. We've been buying clothes made by others for over 100 years, but with food, we still buy ingredients and prepare them ourselves. It's like buying thread, weaving fabric, cutting it, and making your own clothes. Even with the introduction of the latest technologies like the microwave, people don't necessarily see them as remarkable.

It will take time for AI and robots to replace the food sector. The narrow spaces of small restaurants, complex workflows, and above all, the importance of handling fresh ingredients make manufacturing extremely difficult. Even a single carrot varies in size, and some days you get overripe ones, other days less ripe ones.

However, it is clear that restaurants where price is important and speed is valued will be replaced by machines much faster. Also, due to COVID-19, the "touch of the hand" has become a risk. There is now a perception that food touched by human hands is actually more dangerous. On the other hand, for emotionally significant experiences-such as fine dining, where people are willing to pay for more-humans will remain essential. Ultimately, there will be extreme polarization. Only truly skilled chefs will survive, and only those with money will be able to eat food made by humans.

PD Woojeong Lee is having a conversation with Professor Dae-sik Kim of KAIST at Yoriinryu Geombyeokdoljip in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 10th. 2025.11.11 Photo by Jinhyung Kang

-Why do we want to trust "the human touch" when it comes to food?

▲People have an instinctive aversion to food made by machines. For example, in advertisements for dumplings or pasta sauce, you never see fully automated facilities, even though much of the food we eat is already made by automated machines.

McDonald's is a good example. Everything is made in a factory, but the final frying is done by a person, and that's what is shown in the commercials. In reality, McDonald's employees have never seen a potato. They only see the finished product, so people mistakenly believe it was made by hand.

Food goes inside our bodies. Clothes are worn, houses are just places to live, but food enters our innermost being. It is the highest-risk activity. That's why it is inherently emotional. For tens of thousands of years, humans have eaten food prepared by the most intimate and trustworthy people-mothers or women of the tribe. Eating food made by a complete stranger behind a wall requires a tremendous amount of social trust. The very birth of the restaurant industry is a product of this extraordinary social trust relationship.

PD Lee Wookjung once again introduced the diverse culinary cultures of various countries and regions through the 2015 global major documentary "Cooked".

-When eating alone, many people always watch something while eating. How do you interpret the "mukbang" (eating show) culture?

▲Human genes are not designed for solitary eating. Eating is essentially a social act. However, as family structures have changed and time spent eating alone has increased, people have become unable to bear the sense of solitude during meals. Eating instant noodles at a convenience store while watching your phone is essentially the same as eating military rations.

The same goes for mukbang. People are physically eating alone but do not want to feel alone. It's fine to work alone, but no one wants to eat alone. The only place people eat alone is in prison, and after a few days there, people go mad. Even in a restaurant, when eating alone, you are surrounded by others. If a single-person restaurant put up partitions so that each customer had to eat alone, no one would go. How unpleasant would that be? Even in the age of AI and robots, the human desire to eat on an emotional stage connected to others will not disappear.

-You have said that in the AI era, eating food made by humans could become a privilege. What is the true value of food?

▲In the future, there may come a time when people who eat food made by AI and robots must convince themselves. The concepts of "fake food" and "toy food" will emerge. Just as a toy looks like the real thing but does not function, we may end up eating things that look like chocolate but contain no cacao, convincing ourselves that it is chocolate.

The true value of food is not in its taste. Taste is, in fact, a liar. The same meat can taste completely different if you hear, "This is Korean beef, raised in such-and-such a way." Ultimately, we consume preferences, symbols, and meanings. That is what differentiates us from other animals.

In the past, even the chairman of a conglomerate would eat the same soybean paste stew as everyone else, cooked by an auntie at a neighborhood restaurant. But in the future, eating food made by humans will become a privilege for a very few. Eating together with others will also become a privilege. Most people will eat alone, talking to AI or watching content while they eat.

-You said that food is the point where Homo sapiens is differentiated from other animals. What has food taught us?

▲What sets Homo sapiens apart from other animals is that, after hunting and gathering together, we did not eat on the spot but brought the food back to our settlements. While using fire was important, we also learned "patience"-the ability to wait for cooking. Distribution was also crucial. The chief would cut the meat, and from that, enormous power arose.

Animals eat until the strongest is full, then the next strongest, and the rest eat what's left. But at some point, humans learned to share and wait. That is what civilized us. Everything we call etiquette originates from this. Instead of eating as soon as we are hungry, we wait, we endure until our share comes, and we consider others.

In prehistoric times, people would gather around a fire in the evening, share bread, and tell stories. All legends and myths were created while eating, not while hunting. Because food was social, narratives emerged. During those 30 minutes, as everyone faced each other, they would share interesting stories, sing, and dance.

Ultimately, the entire process of preparing, cooking, and eating food established all the rules of humanity and culture. And it was profoundly social. Even in the age of AI, this essence will not change. Food is the closest thing to human nature, and among clothing, shelter, and food, it is the area that changes the least and most slowly.

Kim Daesik, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at KAIST · Kim Hyeyeon, Choreographer and CEO of Yeonist