Restaurateur Paik Jong-won preparing new tvN cooking show in Italy

Food entrepreneur Paik Jong-won [ILGAN SPORTS]

Restaurateur Paik Jong-won is preparing a new cooking program tentatively titled “Genius Businessman Paik” in Italy with cable network tvN, according to the channel on Thursday.

An Italian local media outlet on Monday reported that an 80-year-old pizza restaurant in Napoli was replaced with a Korean restaurant. A photograph shared by the media also revealed a blackboard with multiple writings in hangul such as “Paik Jong-won,” “Girls’ Generation Yuri,” “Naengmyeon John Park,” “Udon place Lee Jang-woo,” “Welcome,” “Korean food,” and “Thank you.”

The Italian media also reportedly tried the restaurant's Korean spicy stir-fried pork with vegetable wraps and rice, adding that there was a long queue outside the restaurant.

tvN confirmed with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday that they are preparing to air the show, aimed at reaching out to the world of global restaurant businesses with Paik, though added that they are not able to release any further details so far.

Paik is popular in Korea not only as a food entrepreneur with multiple franchises that have good quality for their value but also as a star cook on television and YouTube, teaching easy-to-cook foods to ordinary people.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]