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

June 17, 2015

“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.