Cafeteria cook Lee Mi-yeong surprises everyone on Netflix's 'Culinary Class Wars'
Published: 03 Oct. 2024, 10:46
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- LEE JIAN
- lee.jian@joongang.co.kr
![Chef Lee Mi-yeong in a scene of Neftlix Korea's "Culinary Class Wars" [NETFLIX KOREA]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/10/03/6bc84b04-8b97-4718-86da-875d311562bb.jpg)
Chef Lee Mi-yeong in a scene of Neftlix Korea's "Culinary Class Wars" [NETFLIX KOREA]
School cafeteria cook Lee Mi-yeong, 60, was an unexpected addition to Netflix Korea’s survival show “Culinary Class Wars.”
Competing mostly against restaurateurs, some even with Michelin stars, Lee impressively cooked her way up to the final 15 on the show.
Judge Ahn Sung-jae, a three-Michelin-starred chef, applauded one of her dishes as the food he “couldn’t stop eating.”
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“It tastes like children will like it, but damn it’s good,” Ahn says on the show after tasting Lee’s suyuk (boiled pork belly slices). “It reminds me of the school cafeteria food that I had before going to study abroad in the States.”
She was clearly qualified to be on the show, but took a bit of convincing to try out for “Culinary Class Wars.”
“Think of it as the last dance, before retirement,” her eldest son, Kang Na-ru, 33, said when he urged her to go on the show.
![School meals prepared by Lee Mi-yeong while she worked as a cafeteria cook [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/10/03/56942d6b-2efc-4927-afc2-aaaeef98f73a.jpg)
School meals prepared by Lee Mi-yeong while she worked as a cafeteria cook [JOONGANG ILBO]
“I thought a school cafeteria cook was someone who works very closely with people but is not well recognized,” Kang added to the interview. “I wanted more people to know about the profession through my mother.”
The dishes that appeared on the show could not have been made without the help of her family, Lee said. She especially received a lot of help from Kang who is apparently a picky eater.
Her dakbokkeumtang (braised spicy chicken) made with fowl that got her past the second round was tested in about five or six different ways with her son, until her son said, “Mom, this might actually work!”
![Chef Lee Mi-yeong [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/10/03/76fe4226-a842-47e8-a0ef-5410ffcd50c9.jpg)
Chef Lee Mi-yeong [JOONGANG ILBO]
Lee’s decision to become a school cafeteria cook occurred on one rainy day in 2006. She was dropping off an umbrella for her younger son in grade school and, by chance, she heard that the school was looking for cooks.
She was a stay-at-home mom to her two boys, but since that day, she has taken the written exam, passed the interview, and by 2009, was hired by the Ministry of Education to cook for grade school students.
It was all good fun at the beginning but she wanted to become better. So, Lee started to get up earlier and studied cookbooks and the internet until late, researching ways she could win over the picky young eaters.
For slightly spicier dishes like bibimguksu (spicy mixed noodles), Lee made separate sauces for children in grades one to three and four to six. For her suyuk, she replaced the usual shrimp jeotgal (salted and fermented shrimp) sauce with onions. She also often served geotjeori, a crunchier, less fermented kimchi type.
![Chef Lee Mi-yeong in a scene of Neftlix Korea's "Culinary Class Wars" [NETFLIX KOREA]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/10/03/1b8f3a6e-ce66-4d12-832b-ff5be5ce77b8.jpg)
Chef Lee Mi-yeong in a scene of Neftlix Korea's "Culinary Class Wars" [NETFLIX KOREA]
For 15 years, she cooked 120 portions every day with just two other school cooks. By 9 a.m., they had to be ready with prep with everything ready to be cooked in just two hours. Lee said she repeatedly played over the cooking order of the day in her head. Summers were especially hard because she had to work covered head to toe in sanitary gear.
“Maybe it’s because I’m old but the children were so precious that it was not easy to quit,” she said. “It was really fun working while hearing students tell me, ‘[The food] was so good today.'”
On her last day of work in August, Lee received letters from the students at Habuk Elementary School in South Gyeongsang, thanking her for “always cooking such delicious dishes.” In a video posted by Kang to celebrate his mother’s last day of work, students at the school yell, “School food is better than home!”
![Letters Lee Mi-yeong received from students on her last day of work [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/10/03/f95ec80d-72e0-4e86-9308-a4842acc64a5.jpg)
Letters Lee Mi-yeong received from students on her last day of work [JOONGANG ILBO]
Now, after the show’s launch, Lee says she gets stopped on the road by people asking to take pictures with her.
“I honestly did not know the show would do this well,” she said. “It is a bit of pressure but also feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Going forward, she expects to keep herself busy.
“I’ve gotten requests to appear on various shows,” she said. “But when I have more time, I would like to film many videos of my son and I cooking together and upload them to social media.”
BY LEE SU-MIN [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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