Foreigners learn the taste of 'Mom's cooking'... 'Korean Cook-Off' premieres

[Financial News] Foreigners living in Korea who learned home cooking from Korean mothers are taking part in a Korean cooking competition. They will put their own stamp on recipes passed down through families to create Korean dishes.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 12th, the five-part variety show 'Korean Cook-Off,' co-produced with the Korea International Broadcasting Foundation (Arirang TV), will air daily at 8 a.m. on Arirang TV from that day through the 16th. Five Korean mothers and five foreign participants will pair off one-on-one, forming five teams in total.
The Korean mothers appearing on the show are Chae Jeom-sik, Son Ye-sun, Park Yun-ok, Kwak Yun-ja and Lee Kang-hwa. They were selected from among home-cooking experts featured on the show and applicants recruited through open calls on mom cafés and social media (SNS).
The foreign participants were selected in collaboration with communities of foreign residents in Korea, universities and Korean-cuisine education programs, and all speak Korean at an intermediate level or above. The show features Antonio from Venezuela, Gladys from Ghana, Przem from Poland, Dildora from Uzbekistan and Emma from France.
The show first highlights how the foreign participants enjoy Korean food in their everyday lives. It then follows them as they learn about unfamiliar ingredients and cooking methods in the mothers' homes and work together to complete dishes.
Part 1 features a first meeting and a mission to form teams, while Parts 2 and 3 show cooking lessons with the mothers. After the 'Rice Thief' mission in Part 4, Part 5 determines the winner in a final competition using local specialties.
By placing the cooking lessons first, the format makes the participants' process of learning Korean cuisine a point of interest alongside the competition results. The final challenge involving local specialties offers a chance to explore the relationship between a dish's flavor and regional ingredients.
The show will also be available on YouTube. Arirang TV reruns are scheduled for 7 p.m. on the day of the original broadcast and 12:30 a.m. the following day. On the 18th, all five episodes will air consecutively from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
A policy official at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism described the program's purpose as "a special journey in which Koreans and foreigners understand each other's cultures and share warmth through home-cooked meals."

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