Restoring nature’s sweetness could help restore community, scholar says

“The recovery of sweetness from nature can lead to the recovery of community,” said Maddalena Borsato, a scholar from Italy’s University of Gastronomic Sciences, at an international symposium on Korean temple cuisine. She described fruit and honey as forms of sweetness that feel like “a kind touch,” extending beyond taste into a wider aesthetic sensibility.

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The recovery of sweetness from nature can lead to the recovery of community. Fruit is sweet, and honey is sweet. These kinds of sweetness are like a kind touch. They do not remain merely in the realm of taste, but expand into an aesthetic sensibility.

Borsato warned against treating the added sugars found in processed foods as equivalent to sweetness obtained naturally. In Korean temple cuisine, she said, she saw the possibility of restoring a kind of sweetness grounded in sharing and hospitality. “Hospitality is the act of sharing food, and it is based on trust in others,” she said, identifying temple cuisine as a representative example.

The symposium, held at the Korean Buddhist History and Culture Memorial Hall, was organized by the Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism. Its theme was “Changes in the Future of Food and Temple Cuisine,” and it marked the first anniversary of temple cuisine’s designation as a national intangible cultural heritage. Speakers from Korea, the United States, Italy and Japan discussed food sustainability from different cultural perspectives.

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The problem is equating the added sugars in sugar-centered processed foods with sweetness obtained naturally.

Korean temple cuisine is a practice-based form of Buddhist food culture that emphasizes respect for life and moderation. It excludes the five pungent vegetables, including garlic, scallions, chives and wild leeks, and avoids artificial seasonings. Cooks instead use ingredients such as shiitake mushroom powder, perilla powder and honey, while following a preference for seasonal produce.

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I saw the possibility of restoring a sweetness containing the values of sharing and hospitality in temple cuisine.

Ilhwa, head of the Cultural Corps, called temple cuisine both a practice oriented toward respect for life and harmonious coexistence and a surviving form of traditional Korean food. He urged reflection not only on what people eat, but also on how they eat, amid the climate crisis. About 300 people, including leading temple-food chefs and monks, attended the second annual symposium.

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Beyond what we eat, we need to reflect on how we eat.