History
In Korea, black garlic was introduced as a health product and it is still perceived as health supplementary food. Black Garlic is prized as a food rich in antioxidants and added to energy drinks, and in Thailand is claimed to increase the consumer's longevity. It is also used to make black garlic chocolate.
It was written up in the Spring 2008 "Design and Living" special section of The New York Times as a "new staple" of modern cuisine (and incorporated into a recipe, "Black Garlic Roast Chicken"); the NYT author, Merrill Stubbs, noted it was being used by chef Bruce Hill of Bix Restaurant, San Francisco. Matthias Merges, executive chef at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, listed black garlic as one of his top five food finds in Restaurant News in December 2008. The rise of black garlic in the US was called "sensational," and other trade publications besides Restaurant News have noticed the trend.
It garnered television attention when it was used in battle redfish on Iron Chef America, episode 11 of season 7 (on Food Network), and in an episode of Top Chef New York (on Bravo), where it was added to a sauce accompanying monkfish.
Black garlic was developed by Korean inventor Scott Kim, beginning in 2004. He then created the company Black Garlic, which is the exclusive distributor in the US, and is based in Hayward, California.
Black garlic is also used in the United Kingdom, where it made its TV debut on the BBC's Something for the Weekend cooking and lifestyle program in February 2009.
In 2011, it was used on an episode of Food Network's Chopped Champions. In September 2011, it was a mandatory ingredient in the final round of the second episode of Ron Ben-Israel's Sweet Genius.