Despite a bone-deep exhaustion, sleep would not come to chef Grant Sato, winner of the Global Taste of Korea Contest.

“Since I came home yesterday, I’ve taken a nap, but I’ve never been able to really sleep. I get these nightmares — my vegetables are not cut properly, the seasoning’s not right and the clock is ticking. I can’t get the contest out of my head,” he said Sunday morning, following his return after a grueling 11-day competition in South Korea.

“I realize now I felt a lot of pressure. Everything was so drilled into my brain, it didn’t really affect me until now.”

It’s no wonder. Sato, 44, a culinary instructor at Kapiolani Community College, beat 15 contenders from across the globe in semifinal and final contests.

It wasn’t easy.

On Friday, Sato faced off against fellow finalists from Malaysia, Vietnam, France and Uzbekistan to create an eight-course royal palace dinner.

Sato’s lineup: takjjim (stewed chicken with vegetables), segogi miguk (daikon and beef soup), gong namul (marinated soy bean sprouts), gaji namul (seasoned eggplant), pajeon (green onion pancake), oisobagi (fresh stuffed cucumber kim chee), naegguk (marinated seaweed in broth) and rice.

But preparations that day at the KSB Studio in Seoul, where the cooking was being taped, weren’t going well.

“There was no time for rehearsal. Crews were still building our work stations when we were in hair and makeup, so we had no idea of even what kind of stoves or burners we had,” recalled Sato. “When we finally got into the studio, it was a nightmare.”

Each station was equipped with three induction burners and a huge sink with no running water, just bottles and buckets. For Sato the challenges were stacked even higher.

With just two hours to produce eight courses, he began executing his plan.

“I was going to start by searing the eggplant first and boiling the soup. But I found the pot never got hot,” he said.

His stove had shorted. After 45 minutes, two burners were in working order, and he was given a portable burner to replace the third — which he had to place on the floor to use.

“It was bad. People were gasping,” he said.

With only an hour and 15 minutes to cook, he turned away from the camera, said a prayer and centered himself, finishing with four minutes to spare. His $10,000 prize will go into a KCC scholarship fund in his name, to be awarded to a student next year who hails from South Korea.

Sato said judges later told him it was his consistency with balancing flavors that won him the contest.

The chef credits his ability to create that balance to an 18-course royal dinner he attended with just one other contestant, the prize for winning a talent contest. (He placed second for hand- molding chocolate roses, while his dinner partner from Algeria took the win with a K-pop dance.) They ate such foods as fermented skate, braised abalone, boiled pork belly, mandoo in a green spinach wrapper, rice pancakes and a royal hot pot in which hot stones were placed in the center.

“People have the perception that Korean food is super spicy and strongly flavored, but the royal dinner had balance. There were sweet items, salty ones, spicy ones and all kinds of textures,” he said. “Everything was there for a purpose. Collectively they created harmony.”

IT TURNS OUT the contest, organized by the Korean government to promote its cuisine to the world, involved much more than magic in the kitchen. Daily experiences were filmed for a reality show, which meant that along with formal instruction on Korean cuisine, contestants’ days were also spent on group cooking challenges, acting in a fairy-tale drama, performing in the talent show and catching fish in a muddy freshwater pond.

Sato found himself at the center of it all. His cooking team took on a secret sauce-making challenge using soy sauce for traditional Korean rice cakes, for which they won first place. Later that day he won the lead role as the hero in the fairy tale, dressing in traditional Korean garb and riding a giant swing with the heroine, played by the contestant from Chile. The talent win capped off that 18-hour day.

Other contenders came from New York, Australia, Algeria, Chile, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom and Norway. All 16 contestants cooked in the semifinals.

Sato claimed victory in that contest Aug. 26 with “Bulgogi Hawaiiana,” his interpretation of the classic Korean dish using such Hawaii products as dehydrated Hawaiian Crown pineapple, Maui Brewing Co.’s Bikini Blonde Lager and Hawaiian Crown toasted macadamia nuts. The pineapple served as a meat tenderizer and, along with the beer and grated Korean pear, provided natural sweetness, he said. The beer also neutralized the beefy odor, allowing the aroma of the seasonings to shine through.

Sato said he faced a bit of a crisis when he realized the pear wasn’t ripe enough to provide adequate sweetness. His solution — reducing the sauce — intensified the flavors well.

The finishing touch on the plate was a fruit carving using zucchini, red pepper and papaya to construct a yellow hibiscus, Hawaii’s state flower.