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DISPATCHES
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GLOBETROTTING
24
AUGUST 2012
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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
ROBOT CABARET,
ANYONE?
SOUTH KOREA’S ODE TO THE FUTURE
The world’s first robot theme park
doesn’t look like much. In fact, it doesn’t
look like anything. But this barren
100-acre plot outside Seoul is set to
be transformed into Robot Land, a
$700 million Shangri-la for techno-
geeks and coaster buffs.
“South Korea has made great
advances in becoming a leader in
theme parks,” says Jae-Hong Chun,
the project’s CEO, at his office a few
miles from the site. “Robot Land
would like to be a symbolic figure in
the theme park sector.”
Chun guesses the finished park will
attract about 3 million visitors a year.
He envisions a Robot Land logo high
on a nearby hill—à la the Hollywood
sign—and a 300-foot-tall robo-coaster
flinging riders around at eyeball-
flattening speeds. There are plans for
robot cabarets, robot boxing, robot
animals, robot waiters. And, of course,
many robot thrill rides.
“We’ve taken futuristic fantasy and
merged it with 21st-century robotic
technology,” Chun says. “This is a
space-age mechanical nirvana mixed
with fun-at-the-fair, showcasing the
country’s robotic prowess.”
Such enthusiasm is harder to
embrace back at the site. A few sur-
veyors tromp the exposed red-tinged
soil, preparing the way for the heavy
machinery that’s supposed to move
in by year’s end. Since the park was
announced a couple of years back, the
opening date has changed three times.
It now stands at 2016, with a “soft
opening” in 2014.
Chun adds that Robot Land will
include a center for R&D, attracting
engineers who will “create the next
round of effective thinking machines”—
which has to be a good thing. After all,
you don’t want to have little Timmy look
up at you and say, “Robotic giraffes?
That is
so
2010!”
—CINDY-LOU DALE
MEAT AND GREET
A culinary mystery on the
California coast
As chef-owner of Restaurant Daniel,
a Michelin three-star eatery on
Manha an’s Upper East Side, Daniel
Boulud is more adept than most
at handling pressure. Preparing to
serve a roomful of foodies who’ve
spent $1,250 apiece on dinner, he
bounds around the kitchen, sniffing
and eyeballing elements of his
veal-based entrée—braised cheeks,
licoriced sweetbreads and roasted
tenderloin—with an a itude that
borders on the blithe.
The occasion is Pebble Beach
Food &Wine, an annual culinary
festival on California’s Monterey
Peninsula. Boulud is one of
five boldface-name chefs
selected to prepare a
tribute dinner for Thomas
Keller, the force behind
Per Se and The French
Laundry (both of which
have been deemed three-
star establishments by
Michelin) and the recipient
of more awards than you
can shake a ladle at.
As plating begin
s, Boulud
is approached by one of
his assistants, who leans in
and says something that
causes the celebrity chef to
stiffen:
“There may not be
enough tenderloin.”
The two men huddle for a while,
alternately nodding and shaking
their heads, regarding the plates
before themwith frowns of concen-
tration. They appear to be working
on mathematical problems—slice-
to-plate algorithms, plate-to-person
bell curves. Thinner slices, Boulud
eventually decrees, is not an option.
Then, as abruptly as it began, the
tension subsides. Amiscalculation
had been made. The tenderloin
was there all along. “Ha!” respond
Boulud and his assistant. “Ha-ha!”
Later, out in the dining room,
the famously hard-to-please Keller
takes a bite of Boulud’s veal. “The
execution and presentation are
perfect,” he says. “I smiled as soon as
I tasted it.” Boulud doesn’t hear the
compliment; he’s somewhere else,
immersed in a flute of champagne.
—MICHAEL KAPLAN
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF.
SEOUL