Ask most travelers where Korean cheese comes from and you’ll get a blank look. The honest answer is a small, mountainous county in Jeollabuk-do called Imsil (임실) — and the story of how it got there is one of the warmest, most unlikely chapters in Korea’s modern food history.
A Belgian priest, some goats, and a very stubborn idea
Imsil Cheese (임실치즈) begins not with a chef but with a Catholic priest. Didier t’Serstevens (1931–2019), a Belgian who took the Korean name Ji Jeong-hwan (지정환), came to Korea in December 1959 as a priest of the Jeonju Diocese. In June 1964 he was assigned to lead the parish in Imsil, where he found farmers struggling against deep poverty.
His solution was improbable: bring in mountain goats, milk them, and turn that milk into cheese — a food almost no Korean ate at the time. In 1967 he used roughly 2,000 dollars sent by his parents to build what is remembered as Korea’s first cheese factory, organized around a local goat-farming cooperative. The early attempts with goat’s milk failed again and again; it wasn’t until around 1969 that the cheese finally came good. From there he expanded to cows’ milk and went on to make Camembert, cheddar, and Port Salut, training local farmers the whole way.
He never left. Father Ji became a Korean citizen in February 2016 and passed away in April 2019 at the age of 88, having spent his life in the town his cheese made famous.
A note on the dates: sources don’t perfectly agree. Wikipedia and many records put the founding of the cheese factory at 1967, while some accounts date the story to 1964 (his arrival in Imsil) or 1966 (first production attempts), and most agree the real breakthrough came in 1969. The safe summary: arrived in Imsil in 1964, founded Korea’s first cheese factory around 1967, achieved real success by 1969 — with honest variation in the record.
From one factory to a whole town’s brand
What started as a survival project for a few farms grew into the identity of an entire county. Today the whole town markets itself under the brand Imsil N Cheese (임실N치즈), and locally made natural cheeses — mozzarella, string cheese, cheddar — carry real weight as some of Korea’s only homegrown natural cheese. The difference is genuinely tasteable: this is dairy made from clean Imsil milk, not the processed analog cheese found on a typical convenience-store slice.
What to actually eat
Imsil cheese pizza (임실치즈피자) is the headline dish. Piled with local natural mozzarella, it tastes noticeably richer and stretchier than ordinary pizza made with imitation cheese. Look for county-certified names like “Imsil N Cheese Pizza” and “Natural Imsil Cheese Pizza,” and don’t be surprised by local riffs — Korean hanu-bulgogi pizza, or a “potato gold” loaded with cheddar, bacon, and sweet-potato mousse.
Imsil string cheese (모짜렐라 스트링치즈) is the souvenir everyone takes home: the pull-apart mozzarella stick that’s a hit as a kids’ snack and gift, sold at the Imsil cheese mall and beyond.
The most fun, though, is the hands-on stuff. At the theme park you can make and stretch your own warm mozzarella or string cheese on the spot — and carry it out with you. There’s a popular rice-dough pizza-making experience (a personal-sized “gold potato” pizza topped with potato and mushrooms that you build and bake yourself), and for a full meal, Imsil cheese donkatsu — a hearty cutlet with that satisfying cheese pull running through it.
Where to go: Imsil Cheese Theme Park
The heart of it all is the Imsil Cheese Theme Park (임실치즈테마파크) in Seongsu-myeon. Set across broad green pastures that look almost Swiss — locals compare it to Appenzell — it gathers an exhibition hall, a cheese-making workshop, restaurants, play areas, and photo spots in one place. You can follow the whole journey from clean Imsil milk to finished Imsil N Cheese, then choose your own experience: make cheese to take home, build a personal pizza, or do both. Family programs run too, from mozzarella-making to bottle-feeding calves. (Group meal combinations like pizza plus cheese-donkatsu need a reservation.)
Pair it with a lakeside walk
Imsil’s classic day plan ties food to scenery beautifully. The natural route runs from the cheese theme park over to nearby Okjeongho (옥정호) — the lake famous for its early-morning mist, its “Fish Island” loop, and a suspension bridge. Walk the misty Okjeongho Mulangae-gil trail in the cool of dawn, then swing into the theme park to make your own cheese and sit down to a real Imsil cheese pizza. Nature in the morning, Korea’s birthplace-of-cheese on the plate by lunch — if you’re planning the lake, let the Okjeongho Mulangae-gil walk be your morning and Imsil cheese be your reward.
Leave a Reply