Show features expat grannies' home meals

Grandmother Anna from Hungary, right, and comedian Kim Young-chul are preparing to cook Goulash, a popular Hungarian dish, in the upcoming cooking show “Samcheong-dong Grandmother.” / Courtesy of KBS

By Park Jin-hai

Currently, everyday homemade meals that hold “mom's touch,” as opposed to a star chef's fancy, exotic cuisines, are taking center stage in local cooking shows.

Helmed by “House Cook Master” Baek Jong-won, who brought about the home cooking boom with his simple recipes, and veteran actress Kim Soo-mi, reputed for her master-level cooking skills in Korean cuisine, continues the home-cooked meal trend spreading her Korean side dish recipes in tvN's ongoing cooking show “Soo-mi's Side Dishes.”

In KBS' new cooking show “Samcheong-dong Grandmother,” grandmothers from six countries whose ages average around 70 have been tapped to provide diverse countries' home meals.

The show follows ordinary grandmothers from France, Hungary, Belgium, Mexico, Thailand and Costa Rica, preparing their home recipes for a pop-up restaurant in Samcheong-dong, northern Seoul. Celebrities Eric Nam, MOMOLAND's JooE, Shinhwa's Andy, Stella Jang and Kim Young-chul joined as staff members to help run the restaurant, which was open for two weeks last month.

“The show started from my simple curiosity about what other people around the world would eat for their home meals,” the show's producer Kim Pil-joon said during a press conference in Seoul, Monday.

“More than half of Korea's total population traveling overseas, and people have easy excess to the foods of various countries today, yet I wondered among those Korean travelers how many of them could have had the chance to taste real home cooking in those overseas countries. That curiosity led to this show.”

Kim says the difference his show makes from other cooking shows is that the cultural aspects are as diverse as the recipes. “Viewers can find the cultural diversity in our show. On the first day they gathered together at their residence, I was kind of worried they might have some language problems but soon I saw their hospitality overcome all other differences,” he said. “Interesting that although they look so different in one aspect, there were things that put them on the same wavelengths.”

Regarding its location, Kim said it has been an ideal place for foreigners to get a glimpse of traditional Korean culture, as well as a place where visitors can find various countries' cuisines.

Andy, who helped the chefs in the kitchen, said “I had communication problems in the beginning. But, later I could understand what those grandmothers meant by just looking at their eyes. Although they were foreign, I could feel the same granny's love and care as I do from my own grandmothers.”

He said, “I deeply appreciated their home cooking, as typical as our white rice and kimchi jjigae. I was also surprised by their cooking skills.”

Comedian Kim, known for his passion for learning English, said the show made him to look at Seoul from different perspectives. “I've always been looking outward, trying to leave the country and visit different cities in the world. Through shooting this show and learning more about Samcheong-dong, I happened to have more affection for the city of Seoul.”

The 12-episode show will premiere on Nov. 24.