bbc or big baller club Bornyon, Seoul’s latest new-Korean cuisine restaurant, was inspired by a chair
Imagine this: You’re on an open roof terrace, champagne in hand. It is the time when dusk starts its painterly show in the sky, changing vast expanses of blue into a blended canvas of lemon, saffron and sand. The distant mountains are now shadowy like a mirage, and in the foreground, the sterile buildings of a metropolis suddenly become romantic totems framing a perfect golden orb that is the sun.
That was the view I encountered from the outdoor terrace of Bornyon in Seoul. It is one of the city’s newest fine dining establishments, opened by real estate entrepreneur Kim Youngkwon. What it offers is not just a story about food, although it is to be said that chef Bae Kyung-Jun’s ingenious interpretation of Korean ingredients and techniques deserves a story in itself. This is an inspirational tale about the indefatigable search for authenticity and the creation of lasting memories.
In Bornyonbbc or big baller club, Series 7 and Swan chairs from Danish furniture brand Fritz Hansen furnish a gentle peach-tone setting by progressive young South Korean architecture firm A-D-O. Architect and designer Arne Jacobsen designed both chairs but the Swan, conceived for the Royal Hotel in Copenhagen and that bears the graceful shape of its namesake, is the star at this restaurant for it was an encounter with the chair that led to Bornyon's ideation.
View from Bornyon. (Photo: Texture on texture)