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Franchise CEO Baek Jong-won is Korea’s new favorite chef

June 17, 2015
"Mr. Baek's Homemade Food" (Yonhap)

“Mr. Baek’s The Homemade Food Master” (Yonhap)

The hottest star chef in South Korea right now? Restaurant franchise mogul Baek Jong-won.

His new cable tvN program, “Mr. Baek The Homemade Food Master,” reached a 5 percent viewers’ rating for its fifth episode Tuesday according to Nielsen Korea, Yonhap reported.

The same day, public broadcasters KBS and SBS — along with MBC, three networks that have taken a hit in recent years from the rise of cable — scored 4.4 percent for “Our Neighborhood Variety Sports” and 3 percent for “Some Man Some Woman.”

Baek teaches four male celebrities how to make homemade food with easy recipes and a flood of cooking tips in the show.

He rose to popularity earlier this year with a similar appearance on MBC’s “My Little Television.”

The chef owns a handful of franchises that each serve different categories of food, from black noodles to traditional Korean fare. Branches number in the hundreds.

Cooking programs and their star chefs have seen a noticeable surge in demand in the recent Korean TV landscape — according to Newsis, another cable show, JTBC’s “Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,” recorded 6.1 percent in viewers’ ratings Monday night and ranked No. 4 in a Gallup Korea poll of Koreans’ favorite TV shows.