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| Posters for reality show "Jinny's Kitchen," left, and "Korean Food Tray" / Courtesy of tvN and JTBC |
By Lee Gyu-lee
Reality shows that combined travel with food hit their peak before the coronavirus with a handful of programs featuring celebrities cooking Korean food overseas, such as "4 Wheeled Restaurant," and "Pocha Beyond Borders."
About three years after the pandemic put a pause on such shows with travel restrictions, food-travel shows are returning, with new shows in the works.
Star producer Na Young-seok's latest reality show "Jinny's Kitchen" set off its much-anticipated journey late last month, introducing Korean food in Bacalar, a small town in Mexico.
The former cast members of Na's previous food travel show "Youn's Kitchen" (2017) ― actors Lee Seo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, and Park Seo-joon ― joined hands again to run a Korean restaurant along with two new members, Choi Woo-shik and V.
The tvN's show follows five celebrities struggling to manage a restaurant and sell dishes like "gimbap" ― rice and vegetables wrapped in dried seaweed ― and "tteokbokki" ― spicy stir-fried rice cakes ―while spotlighting the town's serene, beautiful scenery.
The series, which started on Feb. 24 with an 8.8 percent viewership rating, has been scoring above 8 percent ratings with its episodes with the highest at 9.3 percent.
TvN is set to premiere another food travel show, starring celebrity chef and restaurant business owner Paik Jong-won.
"Business Genius, Director Paik," scheduled to start airing on April 2, will follow Paik leading a group of celebrities to start his own restaurant in oversea areas with people with little chance of encountering Korean food.
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| Scene from the show "Business Genius, Director Paik" / Courtesy of tvN |
Paik first heads to Africa with singer BamBam and actor Lee Jang-woo, and then travels to Italy with Lee, along with singers John Park and Kwon Yu-ri.
"Paik has made a name for himself as a successful franchise businessman. Using the knowledge and strategies he has developed until now, he will challenge himself with a food business in areas that are not familiar with Korean food," the network said. "Wait and see if Paik's long-time know-how will work in those areas. The journey will be much more fun than you expect."
JTBC is also rolling out a new show set overseas, "Korean Food Tray," featuring celebrity chef Lee Yeon-bok.
The new show, which will go on air on March 25, is about a chef who travels abroad to introduce Korean-style school meals.
The chef, Joined by TV personality Hong Jin-kyung, comedians Heo Kyung-hwan and Nam Chang-hee, singer Joohoney and nutritionist Kim Min-ji, will travel around different institutions to give foreigners a taste of Korean food.
The cast members will make a first stop at England's professional football club Wolverhampton Wanderers to prepare a meal for its players. They will visit Oxford University to introduce Korean food to students there.
The producers of the show shared that they developed the show's idea to add a twist to travel shows by introducing Korean food.
"We stumbled across K-school meal-related content on YouTube by chance. And it was refreshing to see how foreigners were amazed at Korean school meals," they said.
"So instead of just simply introducing Korean food by running a restaurant abroad, we thought it would be unique to do a large portion meal service."
