Origins of Korea's First Cheese

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• Father Jeong Ji-hwan, who was ordained a priest in 1958, came to Korea the following year in 1959.
  Father Chung Ji-hwan, who was appointed as the head priest of Imsil Cathedral in 1964, planned to produce cheese to help local farmers struggling with poverty due to the difficulty of farming.

  As it was not easy to make cheese, he personally learned and taught cheese-making techniques from local European craftsmen.
  He established the Imsil Cheese Factory in 1968 and ran a cheese factory with residents as a rural private placement priest in 1969, before leaving Korea in 1983 for a year of treatment for multiple neurosclerosis.

  Returning to Korea in 1984, Father Chung established the "Rainbow House" for the disabled in Wanju, Jeollabuk-do, and devoted himself to the disabled.
  Since then, the "Rainbow Scholarship Foundation" has been established in 2009 and has been working hard for the disabled, and in 2016, the Ministry of Justice granted Father Chung Ji-hwan Korean citizenship.

  In September of the same year, he was awarded the Presidential Commendation, Industrial Packaging, in recognition of his contribution to revitalizing the economy in Imsil by establishing Korea's first cheese factory.
  Since then, he has frequently visited Imsil Cheese Theme Park, the festival venue, to communicate with city residents, and in interviews, he said, "I didn't do anything for anyone. I just did it with them," and when he died in April 2019, he was awarded the Moranjang of the National Medal by the government.
  His favorite song in Korea was 'Meeting' by Noh Sa-yeon.

• [1967]The first cheese production
• [1968]Imsil Mountain Cooperative
• [1968]Camembert Cheese making
• [1969]JUNG HWAN's cheese making
• [1970]Cheddar Cheats making
• [1972]Mozzarella cheese making
• [2007]Introduction of state-of-the-art facilities
• [2011~present]The manufacture of aged cheese