Star chefs make meals from leftovers for show
Six star chefs will compete to create a dish using common ingredients found inside two fridges in JTBC’s new cooking show, “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator.” The first episode will air at 9:40 p.m. on Monday. By Shin Dong-yeon
New JTBC TV program “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” is attempting to address this problem.
Each episode of the cooking competition show features a regular line up of six star chefs who show viewers how to cook simple yet delicious dishes from common ingredients found in the average refrigerator.
On Oct. 20, the first episode of this weekly show scheduled to air from Monday, was filmed at a JTBC studio in central Seoul.
The food in two refrigerators brought into the studio were the only ingredients the six chefs were allowed to use. They were tasked with creating a dish in 15 minutes.
The chefs are Sam Kim, Choi Hyun-seok, Jeong Chang-wook, Michael, entertainer-actor Hong Seok-cheon, who owns several restaurants in Itaewon and Kim Poong, a web cartoonist known for sharing simple and quick recipes. MC Sung-joo and comedian Jung Hyung-don present the program.
To ensure that the show closely mimics real life, the refrigerators were brought in straight from the homes of two of the show’s guests - Zhang Yuan from China and Robin Deiana from France.
The two have been gaining huge popularity for appearing as representatives of their countries on hit JTBC talk show “Non Summit.”
According to the producers, the food is what Yuan and Deiana usually have inside their refrigerators.
The winning dish will be voted on by the owners of the refrigerator and a guest judging panel.
“The major difference between this program and other cooking shows is that for this show popular star chefs have a fiery showdown to come up with a delicious dish in just 15 minutes using common ingredients inside the refrigerators of celebrities,” said Sung Hee-seong, producer of the new program.
“It’ll also reveal the eating habits of celebrities by using their refrigerators as a medium.”
There were a lot of instant foods or half-eaten delivery meals inside Yuan’s refrigerator on the day of shooting, including leftover fried chicken, jokbal, or pig’s feet cooked with soy sauce and spices, chicken porridge, tuna cans, instant rice, stinky tofu and la jiao (Chinese hot chili paste).
The conditions were better in Deiana’s refrigerator. There were items such as chicken breasts, frozen blueberries, raspberries and various sauces.
Entertainer Hong used half-eaten jokbal, stinky tofu and la jiao paste to create a dish and managed to captivate the taste buds of the guest panel, which included entertainer Jeong Ga-eun and singer Park Hwayobi. Chef Jeong used chicken breast to make “chicken mille-feuille.”
The chefs were united in that the key to creating edible, delicious and quick dishes using foods commonly found at home is to pick one ingredient to base a meal around and then add others and seasonings.
Chef Sam Kim also gave the tip that it’s easier to make a stew or stir-fry using various ingredients found in a refrigerator.
Chef Jeong also recommended that viewers try to use up food that’s been stored in the refrigerator for quite some time by creating something new - just like on the show - while the items are still edible.
BY HAN JIN [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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