Korea, Lately

Someone planning their first visit to Haidilao got one piece of advice from a friend.

“Study the sauces before you go.”

Not the menu. Not the prices.

The dipping sauces.

So they looked up a few recipes.

They were just going out for hot pot. Now they had homework.

After You Order, Out Comes the Phone at the Sauce Bar

Haidilao is a Chinese hot pot chain with several locations in Korea. After ordering the broth and ingredients, you head to the sauce bar to mix your own dipping sauce.

There are rows of sauces, seasonings, and garnishes. If it’s your first time, it’s hard to know where to start.

So some customers pull out their phones. They open a recipe they saved earlier, or search for one on the spot. The screen tells them how many spoonfuls of each ingredient to add.

They check the screen, add a spoonful, then look back at the screen.

But They’re Not Searching for a Dish

The recipe on the screen is named after a person.

Keonhee Sauce. Felix Sauce.

Keonhee is a member of the K-pop group ONEUS, and Felix is a member of Stray Kids. Sauces named after idols and other celebrities keep showing up online.

The recipe can change. The name stays.

Early on, Keonhee shared a sauce combination he had learned from a friend he called the “Hot Pot Prince.” Still, the sauce caught on under Keonhee’s name, and new versions kept coming. In 2025, a magazine featured a “2025 version” of Keonhee Sauce alongside other idols’ sauces. That one left out the sugar.

The recipes get updated, just like apps.

Start With a Recipe, and You End Up Off the Menu

At first, you simply copy someone else’s sauce. One Haidilao regular starts by making Keonhee Sauce at the sauce bar. Then they mix a soy sauce-based dip they like and pair different sauces with the tomato broth and the spicy mala broth.

In Korea, a combination that just works is called a kkuljohap. Johap means “combination.” Kkul means “honey,” but it’s also slang for “really good.”

At Haidilao, these combinations don’t stop at dipping sauces.

The regular turns cooked catfish, rice, and sauce into a rice bowl. Egg and rice go into the reduced tomato broth for a tomato-and-egg rice soup. They also have a way to make a dan dan–style noodle dish.

Ingredients that were on the menu get reassembled into dishes that aren’t.

BLACKPINK’s Jisoo takes it further. She changes the broth itself.

In a March 2026 piece she wrote for a magazine, Jisoo said she studied up on how to use a hot pot sauce bar by watching YouTube. She also recommended Haidilao as a hot pot spot in Seoul.

Her method starts with a pot divided into four sections. She orders broth for only two and asks for water in the other two. Then she mixes a sukiyaki sauce at the sauce bar and stirs it into the water, making a broth that isn’t on the menu.

Somewhere along the way, you stop copying and start making your own.

This Time, the Restaurant Asks Customers for Recipes

In late August 2026, Haidilao Korea asked customers on its official Instagram to share their kkuljohap using its new cheese bunmoja, a chewy starch noodle filled with cheese. The recipes with the most likes would be featured on its page.

One idea was to wrap the bunmoja in thin slices of beef, cook it in the broth, then dip it in sauce. Another was to cut it open and fill it with a homemade sauce.

Customers were the ones studying other people’s recipes. Now the restaurant is taking notes on theirs.

A first-time customer steps up to the sauce bar with someone else’s combination. A few visits later, they have one of their own.

And one day, that combination becomes homework for someone else’s first visit.