'Three Meals a Day' aims to promote slow life

From left, Son Ho-jun, Cha Seung-won, Yoo Hae-jin and Nam Joo-hyuk are seen in a scene from a "Three Meals a Day" episode in Gochang, North Jeolla Province, which is set to premier this Friday. / Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Kim Jae-heun

"Three Meals a Day," tvN's popular reality cooking show, begins a new season ― this time in Gochang County, North Jeolla Province ― to promote healthy cooking and the slow lifestyle. Last season was shot in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province last year from May to September.

"Many vegetables and fruits grown in Gochang will appear in our new episode," said the show's producer Lee Jin-ju during a press conference at Standford Hotel in Mapo-gu, Seoul. "If you find yourself interested in the show please try cooking at home with the ingredients. Our show is successful if people start to use organic ingredients after watching our series.

The reality cooking show invites popular actors Cha Seung-won, Yoo Hae-jin, Son Ho-jun and Nam Joo-hyuk to stay in the countryside and cook using only ingredients they find on the local farms. The show aims to deliver a message on the importance of preparing meals and eating together as a family, which is often ignored in fast-moving modern cities.

"We are trying to focus on the process of preparing the meals you would find in the countryside, which we believe is another fun part of watching the show. Meanwhile, the members of the cast will build a stronger fellowship among themselves through working together," Lee said.

Actors Lee Seo-jin, Ok Taec-yeon and Kim Kwang-kyu appeared in the previous season's episodes in a fishing village to show off the picturesque scenery of Manjaedo Island in South Jeolla Province. For the Gochang series, the production crew plans on showing both the seaside and mountains of the town.

Actor Cha's cooking skills are another interesting feature to watch as his unique seafood cooking style grabbed audiences in the episodes shot in the fishing village. This time the actor has to use ingredients grown in the fields and mountains.

"When I told my wife I would do this show again, the first question she asked me was ‘what kind of dishes will you make?' I think it will be the audience's common question as well," Cha said.

"In the episodes at Gochang, the actors cooked food they wanted to eat at that time," said script writer Kim Dae-joo.

"What Cha cooks in the episode is not commonly seen in ordinary life. They are his own recipes. However, if Cha has 100 different dishes he can cook, he can only make half of them in countryside because of the limitation of using available ingredients. So we decided to provide him some tools," said producer Na Young-seok.

Na also added that not all the necessary ingredients are available to cook different dishes in Gochang although there are small fields near where they are shooting. Na allowed the actors to work part-time for local residents and earn money to shop for the necessary ingredients in nearby towns.

"Of course we had the actors farm the crops for their part-time jobs as part of the entertaining segments of the show. But we used a documentary filming technique when shooting the actors working in the rice paddies, because rice is the main source of food for Koreans and it is important to show how rice is farmed," said Na.

Three Meals a Day will premier at 9:45 p.m. this Friday.

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