Chefs, hidden singers take over small screen
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“Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” / Courtesy of JTBC
By Kwon Ji-youn
Chef entertainers and hidden singers dominated the small screen in the first half of 2015, with restaurant franchise mogul Baek Jong-won out in front and producer Na Young-seok behind the cameras.
Cooking, dining and mystery were the key words that held sway over television programs on both the three major broadcasters and cable channels this year. Popular programs included cooking shows like MBC’s “My Little Television,” JTBC’s “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,” tvN’s “Three Meals a Day” and MBC’s “House Cook Master Baek,” and mystery music shows like JTBC’s “Hidden Singer,” Mnet’s “I Can See Your Voice” and MBC’s “Mask King.”
Baek, in particular, went from actress So Yu-jin’s husband to “sugar boy,” enticing viewers with his shy charm and skills in the kitchen. He first appeared on “My Little Television” in its pilot, offering his hard-boiled recipes and tips.
“Three Meals a Day,” helmed by producer Na, invited Cha Seung-won to a small fishing village on Manjae Island, where the actor spent most of his time broiling eels, seasoning vegetables and squabbling playfully with fellow actor Yoo Hae-jin. Cha enchanted audiences with a maternal charm hidden behind a 188-centimeter lithe, muscular body and rugged mask, on top of skills in the kitchen that even he found surprising. In countless episodes, producer Na could be spotted somewhere within the angle, bickering with Cha or Lee Seo-jin about their next cooking project.
And yet it was “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator” that truly saw chefs take over the entertainment prime-time. Combining competition with entertainment, star chefs Choi Hyun-seok, Sam Kim and many others, took turns creating dishes in a 15-minute time frame, with ingredients readily available in the celebrity’s refrigerator. In fact, cooking has now become a main feature on a majority of entertainment shows. Star chefs have made guest appearances on KBS’s “1 Day 2 Nights” and “The Human Condition” as well as SBS’s “Healing Camp” and “Law of the Jungle.”
When these broadcasters weren’t cooking, they were singing. “Mask King,” which airs Sunday evenings, has been roping in viewers with performances that are at once exhilarating, suspenseful and moving. In "Mask King," contestants are judged solely on their performances with their identities hidden behind masks and costumes, thereby steering the spotlight away from what the contestants look like, or what they are wearing, and instead placing it on how well they sing. Idols in particular have been breaking all sorts of stereotypes.
KBS’s drama series “The Producers,” which boasted a star-studded cast, original setting and impressive cameos, was a head-turning experiment that certainly broke new ground.
The latter half of this year has an endless supply of competition shows and sequels. A second season of “I Can See Your Voice” is set to air, as is a fourth of rapper survival show “Show Me the Money” and a second of “Unpretty Rapstar.” tvN’s “Reply” series will return in a 1988 setting, and a slot has been set aside for “The Genius
Grand Final.” Mnet’s “Superstar K” will attempt a seventh season.