'Youn's Kitchen' highlights 'slow life' in speed-oriented Korean society

Members of the cast for the recenlty ended tvN reality show "Youn's Kitchen" pose in a promotional photo. The Food-and travel realty show's biggest appeal is that it harks back to the viewers' desire to live a slow life in Korea's higly competitive society. / Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Park Jin-hai

When director Na Young-suk, well-known for his “Flowers” reality series and “1 Night 2 Days,” came up with the idea of “Youn’s Kitchen,” some voiced conern that it migh become the same old show.

Food-and-travel reality shows have passed their prime and are now on the wane.

However, viewers’ responses to “Youn’s Kitchen” have been amazing. Since it premiered with a 6.2 percent viewership in March, the nine-episode show’s viewership rose to 14 percent and its final episode aired on Friday. The variety show is the second most popular after MBC’s “Infinite Challenge” this month.

The Friday show, starring Youn Yeo-jung, Jung Yu-mi, Lee Seo-jin and Shin Gu, broadcasts how these celebrities open, cook and run a pop-up Korean restaurant on a small island near Bali, Indonesia, all within one week.

In the last director’s cut that aired Friday, where they reunited at a cafe in Seoul and talked about their experiences on the island, the veteran actress who was cast as the store owner and lead chef, puzzled over the show’s huge popularity, said, “Is this fun (to watch)?”

As she wondered, except one episode where the first restaurant had to be taken down only one day after its opening due to the local authorities’ beach-cleaning initiative, no dramatic incidents arose.

At the beautiful beachside restaurant, Youn cooks, actress Jung supports Youn’s cooking, actor Lee works as the manager and veteran actor Shin greets customers and receives orders as the waiter.

Through microphones installed at each table, conversations of customers from all over the world about the dishes served and the restaurant were picked up and translated.

Viewers said they found the show relaxing and healing. A watcher said, “As a mother of two, I am reluctant to travel, but the show gave me vicarious satisfaction,” while another said, “The show’s tension-free, plain and natural storytelling was good and made me think about slow life.”

While the cast is tasked with actually operating a business, the show's focus was not selling more food, but providing viewers with a sense of relaxation and healing. Director Na previously said, “The place is like a paradise and it shows an easy, slow and happy life. It's something that is unlikely to happen in real life in particular for the young generations of today. So I thought of perhaps delivering an indirect experience.” And the program lived up to that purpose.

Culture critics say the reality show’s biggest appeal is that it harks back to the viewers’ desire to live a slow life in Korea’s highly competitive society.

Culture critic Jung Duk-hyun describes the restaurant as a fantasy workplace, where work and play coexist in one place. “Youn’s Kitchen is both a place for work and play. They work in a place where sea turtles are swimming out front. This is in stark opposition to our reality, where the workplace is almost a battlefield and completely separated from any place for play,” Jung said.

Another critic Ha Jae-geun mentions an episode where Shin hands over the menu and stands beside customers waiting for them to order. “In the Korean way, waiters stay at the table to quickly receive orders and chefs struggle for time to deliver the order quickly. When Shin didn’t recognize this and served in the Korean way, Lee advised him not to. Watching the scene, there came the sudden realization on the part of viewers that there is another way of life other than being hurried and beating others to survive,” he said.

“When the kitchen was busy, only the Korean staff and viewers watching it on screen were anxious about the serving time. Surrounded in cut-throat Korean society, where speed is a virtue, the show reveals everybody’s fantasy about a slow and easy life, delivering viewers a sense of relaxation and healing.”