With increasing public recognition on temple food as not only religious meal but also as eco-friendly healthy food, cooking education on temple food has received growing attention. Although various professional institutions have been introducing temple food cooking courses, few studies evaluated the quality of such courses. Therefore, this study intends to collect current students' opinions on the courses as well as their satisfaction with the institutions and any potential improvement points in order to provide foundation for the development of temple food cooking courses. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire from the students registered at six cooking education institutions within the Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Among the study participants, 68.1% chose 'health improvement' as their reason for enrolling in the course, and the routes of introduction to the course were colleague/friend, monk, and search engine, in descending order. For the satisfaction score, 'instructor' (4.46 points) received the highest score, followed by 'recommended course for others' (4.24), 'education contents and methods' (4.05), 'educational facility' (3.96), and 'educational environment' (3.62). Regarding possible improvements for future temple food cooking courses, 'active promotion for temple food cooking education institutions' (4.08 points) ranked the highest, followed by 'course openings offered at various time periods' (4.01), and 'expansion of temple food education facilities (3.85)'. Findings from this study indicate that further improvements, such as active promotion, courses offered at multiple time periods, diversification of temple food recipe, increased courses with various topics, and securing an accredited certificate system, are needed for the development of temple food education programs.
