Baek Jong-won


Baek Jong-won is a South Korean chef, food researcher, entertainer, writer, essayist and businessman. He is the main host of the SBS's cooking television series which have the titles attached to his name: Baek Jong-won's Top 3 Chef King, Baek Jong-won's Food Truck and currently Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant.

Childhood

Baek Jong-won was born on September 4, 1966 in Yesan, Chungnam, South Korea. He always had big interest in food since he was a child. When he was an elementary school student, he was given some biscuits, but he had to fry them with butter and sprinkle them with sugar. He was a picky eater, and he was obsessed at eating.
He claims his father was also a picky eater, which made him become more interested in cooking. When he was a student, his father would buy 10 hamburgers at a time on his way home after a business trip. As a child, Baek Jong-won would try all sorts of recipes to make the hamburger more tasty. It was from then that he started to cook.

Career

Baek is the CEO of Theborn Korea Inc, 26 restaurant franchises with 1,299 branches across the country including Saemaul sikdang, Baek's Coffee and Baek's Bibim.

Beginnings

When he was a freshman, he got to work in the food service industry for the first time. Even while in the military, he volunteered and shared new interesting recipes.
After graduating, he seemed to turn away from restaurant businesses. He worked in interior, and trading businesses. However, he eventually returned.

Enterprise

Founded in 1993, Theborn Korea Co. established a majority of domestic and overseas companies based on its know-how to establish a branch office in 1994 and operate a branch store in the country for many years.
The companies that are operating in not only South Korea, but in the U.S., China, Japan, and Southeast Asia have become increasingly successful. Theborn Korea is making its own taste and brands by identifying the trends and needs of consumers.
Including brands such as 'Bonga', 'Hanchin Pocha', 'Saemaul Restaurant', 'Hong Kong Banjeom 0410 Plus+', 'Original Ssambap House', and 'Anchovy Noodle Soup 0410'.

Personal life

Baek married actress So Yoo-jin on January 19, 2013. Their first child, a son, was born on April 9, 2014. Their second child, a daughter, was born on September 21, 2015. Their third child, a second daughter, was born on February 8, 2018.

Franchise

Saemaul Restaurant

Saemaeul restaurant is a store specializing in kimchi stew and pork, motivated from the saemaeul movement of the 1960-70s. Interior like the 1960-70s and the ‘saemaeul song’ that used to flow in meal times reminds the customers of their childhood and hometown.
It features Korean's favorites, pork and kimchi stew, upgrades them, adding taste, excitement, and the taste of the hometown. The main dishes of Saemaeul restaurant are yeoltan-bulgogi, in which pork is sliced on the spot and flavored with a special sauce, and 7-minute kimchi stew, which you can eat after the 7-minute bell rings.

Bornga

Baek Jong-won started Bornga with the dream that he will create a new Korean cuisine that would be accessible to foreigners and not just Koreans, furthermore globalize the menu. It made no sense that Korea, which is the country of Bulgogi, had no famous menu worldwide. "U-samgyup" is what he created to make a competitive Korean dish menu for foreigners.
U-sampyup has a good response not only to Koreans, but also to foreigners. And Bonga is informing the world of Korean food culture that Koreans eat meat grilled on charcoal, wrap them to make "ssam".

Paik's Coffee

Paik's coffee started as a small café in Nonhyeon-dong's food alley in 2006. It boasts a 15 cm-tall and high-quality coffee with a cheap price.
Paik's coffee locates in every street corner: it draws attention with attractive contrasts of and blue and yellow interior and clever menu names like Ah!mericano.
Paik's coffee is a brand with more than 500 branches in South Korea.

Else

My Little Television

Appearance record

He has appeared since the My Little Television was a part-time broadcast, Pilot. And he continued to stay at No.1 until MLT-06. But he announced a tentative withdrawal because of bad comments from netizens, and a sexual harassment scandal by his father. Later, he became an issue in return for five months.

Reason of popularity

The dishes that he show on My Little Television are cooked by simple ingredients which are easy to get. Many people think that his persona, which doesn't care about calories and makes delicious foods, gives many viewers the distinct charm. Also, his broadcast gives viewers the pleasure of making foods. Many of the recipes he has shown on the show have been made on the SNS by many people. His savory accent also contributed to his popularity.

Home Food Rescue

Outline of program

Home Food Rescue is a program that Mr. Baek shows easy and delicious food with four entertainers who are bad at cooking. After setting the main ingredient, this program proceeds with the concept of showing easy and various kinds of menus using the main ingredient. This aspect shows how much this program puts emphasis on applying recipes, which was hard to be seen in other programs.

Characteristic of program

Even though the name of this program is Home Food Rescue, menus of this program aren't limited to home meal. It's because the concept of this program is to help cooking novices to cook easy home meals. Introduction of easy menus made many viewers to love this program. However, since it shows the easy menus which cooking novices can follow easily, there are relatively many unprofessional menus and much usage of sugar. Because of this problem, Mr. Baek: The Homemade Food Master has been heavily criticised.

Home Food Rescue Season 3

In season 3, it started with new members, Yang Se-hyung, Lee Kyu-han, Yoon Doo-joon and Nam Sang-mi on February 2017. Mr. Baek said, “I would like to show viewers good food, delicious food, useful food with new members. We’ll show you easy recipes that can be easily cooked at home.”

Television shows

He has published many books, usually on cooking or restaurant management, including the ‘Home-cooked Food Recipes Recommended by Baek Jong-won’ series.