Combine culinary trends like fermentation and mash-up cuisine with Korea’s pop culture moment, and you get an ingredient base with staying power.

—HENRY HILL, Chef/Founder, Hill’s Research Kitchen

The jangs’ ability to add depth of flavor with limited cost or added labor is incredible for foodservice.

—KATY VELAZQUEZ, Director, Culinary Innovation, QDOBA

Jangs should be thought of as an easily incorporated backbone to salad dressings. Finding ways to sneak in more good-for-your-gut deliciousness is an ideal way to showcase the various flavor profiles of these condiments.

—REBECCA PEIZER, Chef/Founder, All Things Culinary

With the ubiquity of miso in American food culture, jangs offer another flavor frontier that is a combination of the familiar with a hint of the unknown. Use jangs not as a primary ingredient but rather as a backbone for adding additional flavor layers to familiar recipes.

—ADAM MOORE, Chef/President, Flashpoint Innovation

Menu developers can draw from a vast library of jang and jiang, which serve as foundational building blocks for flavor innovation. In Chengdu cuisine, for instance, pure soybean or broad bean pastes are central, acting as mother sauces. These versatile bases are often modified with sweeteners, spices and chiles to create an entire family of sub-sauces, such as hoisin, chile bean sauce or fermented chile pastes. Similarly, in Korean cuisine, jang like gochujang and ssamjang build on this tradition, blending fermented soybean bases with bold, complex flavor additions to suit regional tastes.

—ROBERT DANHI, Curator of Cultures, Chef Danhi & Co.

Korean jangs are stepping out of the background, marking the next big chapter in the exploration of umami flavors.

—LIZ MOSKOW, Food Futurist, Bread & Circus Ltd.

Jangs are a perfect option in a bowl program—simple and full of flavor

—CHARLIE BAGGS, President/Executive Chef, Charlie Baggs Culinary Innovations