By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
May 7, 2023
☆☆☆☆
I know. This isn’t a K-drama, per se, because it’s a reality series. The concept? A group of telegenic Korean celebrities run a custom-built snack bar in Bacalar, Mexico, for … one week. In its own way, it had all the elements of a fun K-drama minus any love triangles. Was there a 2nd male lead? Of course! As well as a 3rd and a 4th and so on. It shifted every few minutes, depending on who’s on screen — Park Seo-joon of “Itaewon Class,” “Parasite” actor Choi Woo-shik, BTS vocalist V, and the dimpled head of Jinny’s Kitchen, Lee Seo-jin (“Behind Every Star”).
The sole woman on the program is Jung Yu-mi, who was the female lead opposite Gong Yoo in the films “Train to Busan,” “The Crucible” (also know as “Silenced”), and “Kim Ji-young: Born 1982.”
Lee and Jung had appeared together in both seasons of “Youn’s Kitchen” — another food reality show that was set in Indonesia and Spain, with Park joining them in the second season.
Each episode essentially feels like a case of “Groundhog’s Day,” where the same thing that happened the previous afternoon occurs again. Lee worries if they’ll make enough money that day, chef Park and his intern V ponder about how much food they’ll have ready to go in case of a customer influx, Jung frets if she can make kimbap fast enough, and the bilingual Choi is the waiter who occasionally entertains guests by pointing out his colleagues’ fame.
There’s a bit of theatrical exaggeration from some of the customers, all of whom have signed releases to appear on the reality series. Some pontificate on the authenticness of what they’re eating (ㅋㅋ, it’s a corn dog, dude!) and others primp so they’ll look pretty when the show airs. In the final episode, a Korean family that resides in Mexico comes for a meal. The grandmother is overly polite, making effusive comments about the meal that no Korean halmoni in her right mind would find that special.
As someone who doesn’t like to see food wasted, I was disappointed that the crew didn’t make use of the hot dog tips that they cut off so the corn dogs would fit better into the fryer. Hello? They could’ve breaded and fried them and sold them as a fun appetizer!
Reality didn’t come into play with the open-air restaurant’s set up, which was super cute, but lacked essentials like … a door to prevent any potential thefts! But, again, this is a TV show where security guards and the production crew most likely kept tabs on the kitchen for that week-long duration.
Still, this series was so soothing to watch — in the same way that Rain’s “The Hungry and the Hairy” was.
Extra points for the cute doggo, Perro, who made his way to “Jinny’s Kitchen” everyday.
Airdates: Ten 90-minute episodes aired from February 24 to May 5, 2023 on Prime Video.
© 2023 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved
I really enjoyed Jin’s cooking…I laughed watching them interact…when they were cooking…in their spare time and I craved every dish…I even made the fried chicken, the noodle soup and the stir-fried pork with vegetables .. I learned to cook Korean because they shared their recipes.. ohhh God these Koreans have me at their feet 💜🫶🫰
Haha! Another one of my non-Korean friends said she made the fried spicy chicken from the show and it turned out delicious! I love these shows. They’re so relaxing and fun to watch!