Centered on Paik Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, and with singer John Park taking charge of the dining room, the Baek Sajang 3 team demonstrated operating skills at a complete level, from food preparation to serving.
On the night of Mar. 3, the tvN variety show Baek Sajang 3 aired, featuring Hanpanjip's Paik Jong-won, Lee Jang-woo, John Park, Kwon Yuri and Yoon Si-yoon on their fourth day of business in the gourmet country of France.
That day, Hanpanjip introduced a new menu item aiming for its highest-ever sales: bossam. Paik Jong-won transformed the Korean-style bossam—boiled pork wrapped in kimchi—into a "hanpan" dish suited to local tastes. For this, he used meat roasted in an oven rather than boiled to achieve a crispy outside and tender inside, well-seasoned shredded radish, spicy-sour squid-and-shrimp salad, various wrap vegetables such as endive, napa cabbage and cabbage, cucumber salad and greens, salad, and special salted shrimp and ssamjang, all arranged attractively on a single griddle plate to complete the "bossam hanpan."
Because it was a new menu, explaining how to eat it was important. Paik Jong-won urged the dining-room staff, saying, "You have to explain it well," and "Bossam, wrapping is said to be eating fortune, right? You have to show them that eating pleasure." Local patrons who saw the bossam hanpan were amazed at the structure, which resembled a multi-course meal on one table, and even after reading the written explanation, they asked the staff to explain how to eat it.
To that end, led by dining-room master John Park and including new Baek Sajang 3 member Yoon Si-yoon, they actively explained the wrapping method. Yoon Si-yoon put on gloves and picked up chopsticks to demonstrate the wrap and encouraged customers to take the first bite, while John Park, true to his role as the Baek Sajang series' dining-room master, used his outstanding language skills to explain it in a way people from diverse cultures could easily understand.
With the flavors crafted by Paik Jong-won and John Park leading the detailed explanations, and the stable restaurant operations honed over three seasons, Baek Sajang 3's new menu, the bossam hanpan, drew enthusiastic responses from the first lunch service. Riding that momentum, they were able to sell 40 servings during lunch—half of the target 80 servings set to reach their highest sales—almost instantly.
Improvements continued even during break time. In response to Paik Jong-won's question, "Was there any problem?" John Park answered frankly, "The floor seating didn't sell." They had set up a floor bench in front of the window terrace to introduce Korean culture, but locals in France, uncomfortable with seated-on-the-floor dining, avoided those seats, leaving only those spots vacant. Paik Jong-won quickly decided, "Then let's change them to table seats," and converted the floor seating that had been arranged with three cushions into four two-person tables, securing eight seats.
Building on that momentum, the dinner service opened with three parties entering at once, raising expectations for smooth business. However, contrary to expectations, no additional customers appeared as the peak time approached.
Sensing a crisis, Paik Jong-won acted quickly again. "Let's try it now, makgeolli bread, we need to show something," he said, placing the steamer for the makgeolli bread—added as an evening dessert—by the window so passersby could see it. He also moved the cutting station for the bossam meat to the window and deliberately sharpened his knife as a performance to attract attention. His calculated behavior, pretending not to notice passersby, drew looks.
Yoon Si-yoon actively promoted it as a "Korean restaurant," and John Park guided customers with an even more relaxed manner, beginning to generate additional sales. In particular, John Park showed smooth, reliable serving by understanding in French a family customer's comment that their son had a nut allergy.
Led by Paik Jong-won with Lee Jang-woo joining the kitchen team producing a stable new menu, and with John Park at the center and Kwon Yuri and new member Yoon Si-yoon in the dining-room team, serving proceeded without interruption to encourage table turnover. Over three seasons, the Baek Sajang team's business skills appear to have reached full maturity, offering a sense of stability.
Of course, at the end of the broadcast Paik Jong-won looked worried despite reheating the makgeolli bread, saying, "The makgeolli bread dough wasn't done enough," which raised tension. But the preview showed him retrying the makgeolli bread, suggesting the process of challenging a new menu on the evening of the fourth day. Attention is focused on the world of Korean cuisine sales that Baek Sajang 3 will present.
[Photo] tvN source.
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