Edward Lee used a face mask during the cooking battle with Choi Hyun-seok.
The first broadcast of the JTBC entertainment program 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator' (directed by Lee Chang-woo and Lee Rin-ha) aired on the afternoon of the 15th, featuring the white team of Lee Yeon-bok, Choi Hyun-seok, Kim Poong, and Jung Ho-young, and the black team of Edward Lee, Choi Kang-rok, school meal master Lee Mi-young, and Chinese goddess chef Park Eun-young.
On this day’s broadcast, Edward Lee shared, "I flew for 15 hours to come to Korea. It was that important! Nice to meet you. I opened a new restaurant in Washington," updating everyone on his recent activities.
When asked by Kim Sung-joo if he felt the increased interest in Edward Lee after the show, he replied, "I have so many fans, and I love it. Everyone in Korea asks for autographs and photos," expressing his gratitude.
Choi Hyun-seok stated, "I’ve now removed the saltiness and humor and started focusing solely on cooking. I need to show that cooking itself is fun," introducing his cooking philosophy. When Kim Poong teased, "So you’re admitting that you’ve been caricaturing until now?" Choi Hyun-seok responded, "Stop it," looking incredulous.
Park Eun-young shared, "I applied to be a new chef on 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator' after seeing the announcement, but I didn’t receive any response. But look, I’m sitting here, right? I thought, 'Oh, Eun-young has made it!'" and laughed.
Kim Sung-joo remarked, "The 'Black and White Chefs' are rowing when the tide is high, but this person has been particularly absent. Choi Kang-rok?" calling out to Choi Kang-rok. The shy Choi Kang-rok stammered, "I was just watching... I was wondering what was going on when someone said I had disappeared. I had no boat. At first, I even declined 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,' but Ho-young has a connection, you know," fumbling over his words.
Jung Ho-young revealed, "Chef Choi Kang-rok is a junior from my Japanese culinary school. I used to work at a fish shop, and Kang-rok wanted to do it, so I passed it on to him. With this relationship, I wasn’t sure if I could join 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator' again, so I thought, let’s use Choi Kang-rok! That’s how I ended up here," sharing the backstory of his participation in 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator.'
Choi Kang-rok, known for his braised dishes, added, "I’ve never thought of the 15-minute time frame as the time to prepare and complete a dish. Just washing? I started to worry a lot about the 15-minute cooking battle. My family said I was talking in my sleep, saying, 'It’s done!'... I must have done something in my dreams. But I couldn’t finish even in my dream," sharing a nightmare that made everyone burst into laughter.
On this day, the teams were divided into original chefs vs challengers, and Park Eun-young expressed, "I want to compete against Chef Lee Yeon-bok. He and Chef Lee Kyung-rae are like the two great mountains I serve," revealing her desire to compete against Chef Lee Yeon-bok, surprising the panelists.
The first refrigerator owner was revealed to be Young-tak and Calm Man, and the chefs competing with the ingredients in Young-tak's refrigerator were Lee Yeon-bok vs Lee Mi-young, and Edward Lee vs Choi Hyun-seok.
In Young-tak's refrigerator, eggs, Cheongyang chili powder, prepared vegetables, mother’s homemade sauce, fresh oysters, kimchi, bulgogi, semi-dried flatfish, prepared flower crabs, and octopus were found, and the first battle was between Lee Mi-young and Lee Yeon-bok. Kim Sung-joo announced, "There’s a new rule," saying, "We will give benefits to chefs who are unfamiliar with 15-minute cooking. The first benefit is starting 1 minute early. The second is a 1-minute STOP right, which can pause the opponent's cooking for 1 minute," explaining the hidden rules.
Lee Mi-young said, "I will prepare a full course meal to energize everyone. For Young-tak," and prepared braised octopus kimchi, while Lee Yeon-bok stated, "I will prepare tteokbokki and dumplings," getting ready for BOK SHOW (Bok Show).
Lee Yeon-bok, who decided to quickly remake the dumpling filling, faced a crisis as his hands got tangled, while Kim Sung-joo tasted Lee Mi-young's dish and shouted, "It’s salty!" making everyone’s hearts race. In contrast, he shouted about Lee Yeon-bok's tteokbokki sauce, "It’s a bit salty!" and Lee Yeon-bok replied, "Isn’t tteokbokki supposed to be sweet?" pouring in soy sauce.
After tasting Lee Yeon-bok's tteokbokki, Young-tak commented, "This might be the best food you can make in 15 minutes!" After tasting Lee Mi-young's octopus kimchi stew, Choi Hyun-seok said, "The octopus and kimchi go well together," giving an honest reaction. The voting results showed that Chef Lee Yeon-bok won, and Young-tak explained, "First of all, it was delicious, and the base was so good that I felt a bit more energized to eat more," revealing his reason for choosing Chef Lee Yeon-bok.
In the second round, it was Choi Hyun-seok vs Edward Lee, with Choi Hyun-seok preparing an 'Egg Foam Crazy' omelet, and Edward Lee preparing 'Egg World' egg rice. Edward Lee spread the rice, sprinkled seaweed powder on top, and shaped it with a round mold, while Choi Hyun-seok mixed crab meat and oysters and stir-fried them in a pan.
With the 1-minute stop right, Edward Lee shouted "Stop!" as Choi Hyun-seok placed the omelet batter in the heated pan, causing other chefs to exclaim, "What to do!" and "Omelet!" while laughing. At that moment, Edward Lee took out a face mask and said, "I want to win fairly. I can’t cook for 1 minute," applying the mask to his face, which made Choi Hyun-seok feel a sense of crisis at Edward's comedic timing, causing his expression to stiffen.
With only 7 minutes left, Choi Hyun-seok accidentally discarded all the broth and had to make it again. At the same time, Edward Lee faced a crisis as he burned the meringue and exploded the soy sauce yolk while successfully preparing his dish.
JTBC's 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator' airs every Sunday night at 9 PM.
[Seo Ye-ji, Star Today Guest Reporter]
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