President Lee promotes K-food on primetime TV

President Lee Jae Myung and first lady Kim Hea Kyung discuss Korean food on popular JTBC cooking show “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," which aired Monday evening during the Chuseok holiday. Captured from JTBC Youtube

The presidential couple stepped out of politics and into primetime TV, drawing wide attention with their appearance on “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,” also known internationally as “Chef & My Fridge” on Netflix.

The episode, which aired Monday evening during the Chuseok holiday, marked President Lee Jae Myung’s first appearance on an entertainment program since taking office. The broadcast had drawn public attention even before it aired, after critics questioned the timing of its filming shortly after a national network outage triggered by a fire at a government data center in Daejeon.

On the show, the president, who stepped out of the political arena and into primetime TV, told viewers that the goal was to help showcase Korean food as a key cultural asset.

“Culture is one of our most important strengths,” Lee said during the broadcast. “K-pop and dramas are vital, but at the heart of it all is food. Once people fall in love with a taste, it rarely fades. That’s why K-food has staying power.”

Lee’s comments reflected his broader effort to promote Korea’s soft power through its cuisine, emphasizing that ingredients such as siraegi, dried radish greens often used in stews, could be branded and sold abroad.

Calling braised mackerel with siraegi his favorite dish cooked by the first lady, Lee described it as “a nostalgic food that’s delicious, rich in vitamins, and healthy,” adding that “with the ‘Made in Korea’ label, it’s something we could easily export worldwide.”

Contestant chefs were asked to create “K-food to share with the world” and “K-ingredient to share with the world: siraegi,” producing inventive takes such as siraegi pizza and baby shrimp gangjeong, or sweet fried shrimp.

In the first showdown, the presidential couple chose the shrimp gangjeong over a modernized samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup).

“The samgyetang was excellent,” Lee said, “but the shrimp dish feels more distinctly Korean. It’s easier to store and ship overseas, with more potential for export.”

The second round pitted a unique pizza dish made with siraegi and nurungji (scorched rice) against siraegi songpyeon, a twist on traditional rice cakes. Sampling the pizza’s lotus-root tempura topping, Lee suggested it could become “a standalone product.”

First lady Kim Hea Kyung added a lighter touch, recalling a recent visit to New York where she taught children to make gimbap.

“People used to call it sushi,” she said with a laugh. “Now they proudly say gimbap.”