Oh Sang-jin, center, is the host of “The Grand Battle of Hansik.” With him, from left, are chef Oh Se-deuk, who owns a French restaurant; hansik cook Shim Young-soon; Cho Hee-kyung, the owner of Bicena, a modern Korean restaurant, and food critic Go Hyung-wook. Provided by CJ E&M

There have been many cooking competitions but none of them touched upon hansik, or Korean food. That is probably because the process of making hansik is complicated and time-consuming compared to its Western counterparts, according to Seok Jung-ho, a producer who has been making food shows on O’live TV.

While producing the successful food competition show “Master Chef Korea,” Seok always wanted to launch a food survival show with a hansik theme and “Hansik Daecheob,” which is roughly translated to “The Grand Battle of Hansik,” is his brainchild.

The 10-episode show stays true to the format of cooking survival shows by assigning missions and eliminating participants with the lowest scores each week, but the show differentiates itself by grouping participants based on Korea’s provinces.

Two participants pair up to represent each province from Seoul to Gyeonggi to Gangwon to North Jeolla to South Jeolla.

Since the food of each province is very different, it adds more entertainment factors. For example, Jeolla Province uses a lot of seasoning. Naturally, taste is strong and spicy, while food in Chungcheong Province is relatively bland and mild.

“The main purpose of this show is enabling viewers to find out forgotten local tastes and delicacies,” said Seok.

Participants were chosen by the production team through several rounds of screening. Most of the participants are food experts or masters in their own region.

Meanwhile, judges comprise of four culinary experts including Shim Young-soon, who has been cooking hansik for 40 years; young French chef Oh Se-deuk, who uses a lot of local Korean ingredients at his French restaurant in Banpo-dong, southern Seoul; food critic Go Hyung-wook and Cho Hee-kyung, who owns a modern Korean restaurant, Bicena, in Itaewon, central Seoul.

“The biggest virtue of this show is probably we can see and taste local delicacies which are hard to find these days,” said Go. “When we shot the first episode, we assigned participants to prepare a local dish that was favored by the king and the Seoul team brought cow’s brains for their main dish.

“The last time I ate the cow’s brain dish in Seoul was 10 years ago. I was thrilled to see that again.”

The first episode of “The Grand Battle of Hansik” will be aired at 10 p.m. on Saturday on O’live TV.


BY SUNG SO-YOUNG [so@joongang.co.kr]