Cover Story
CHOOSE QUALITY INGREDIENT
IS OUR BELIEF
Ying C. 陳穎 / Ying C. 一匙甜點舀巴黎
Walking through Paris today, one cannot help but notice a quiet yet powerful shift. Japanese and Korean food brands are expanding rapidly, shaping a new wave of consumer culture. Korean-style iced Einspänner has become the latest café favorite, drawing long queues. Japanese onigiri specialty shops have multiplied across the city, inspiring French restaurants to add rice balls to their menus and even appearing on supermarket shelves. Meanwhile, Korean gimbap has moved beyond Korean grocery stores into trendy cafés and casual dining menus.
In June this year, Fukuoka's renowned bakery amam dacotan opened its first overseas location in Paris, bringing its signature concept—long-fermented bread paired with generous Japanese-style fillings and toppings—without compromise. Asian cuisine is no longer adapting itself to Western tastes. Instead, it is defining trends of its own, influencing French consumers and inspiring imitation. Bread and coffee, in particular, have become vehicles of what might be called a reverse flow of cultural influence.
To dismiss this phenomenon as clever branding or a passing trend would be to overlook its deeper significance. The success of bread, coffee, onigiri, and gimbap may appear to be a triumph of products, but in reality, it is the return on decades of investment in cultural soft power by Japan and South Korea.
Japan has exercised global cultural influence for decades. Since the early 2000s, it has elevated cultural exports into a national strategy through initiatives such as Cool Japan, combining government policy, legislation, and public investment to promote anime, cuisine, cinema, art, and popular culture. Japanese food—including washoku, ramen, sushi, and yakiniku—has likewise been systematically developed and promoted as part of the country's cultural identity abroad.
South Korea has followed a similarly long-term path. More than a decade ago, I came across Korean government publications on food and culture at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Since then, the global success of K-pop, Korean dramas, and variety shows has transformed everyday Korean life into something people around the world aspire to experience.
When a country's popular culture shapes the imagination of another generation over many years, food ceases to be merely something to eat. It becomes an entry point into an entire way of life. That, more than anything else, explains why these brands have been able to establish such a strong presence in Paris.Paris Is Falling for Asia: Will Taiwan Be the Next in Line?
Ying C. 陳穎 / Ying C. 一匙甜點舀巴黎
你以為法國人對自己的飲食文化有強烈的自尊心，絕對不會輕易臣服於美式甜點嗎？現實與印象的差距可不只一星半點。走進今天的巴黎，無論是頂級飯店甜點廚房、時髦咖啡館，還是轉角的家常麵包甜點店，幾乎都找得到一樣東西：美式餅乾。這個原本屬於異文化的甜點，已在法國取得了一席之地，成為本地日常的一部分。當美式餅乾遇上法式驕傲，談文化滲透與重新詮釋