President Lee Jae-myung and his wife, Kim Hea-kyung, appeared on the variety show "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator" (Naengbuhae), which aired at 10 p.m. on the 6th on JTBC. After tasting the so-called "Kim Poong cuisine," Lee widened his eyes in surprise, and Kim gave a favorable review, saying, "Why is this good."
As the broadcast began, MC Kim Sung-joo introduced the presidential couple as "the most epic guests ever," and Lee laughed, saying, "This is very awkward." Kim's 2018 cookbook, "Let's make rice," was also featured on the show.
On appearing on Naengbuhae's Chuseok special, Lee said, "When it comes to exporting Korean culture, food becomes a great industrial force that grows the Republic of Korea," adding, "K-pop or drama and other culture are important, but the real core of culture is food."
Kim said, "As a mother, I cook home meals at home. When I watch Naengbuhae, the chefs take ingredients and create dishes with such ingenious ideas," adding, "It would be nice to make food that can invite foreigners to our table."
Naengbuhae is a program where chefs compete in 15-minute cooking battles using ingredients from a guest's refrigerator. In this broadcast, instead of the presidential couple's refrigerator, seasonal Chuseok ingredients such as Korean beef, dried radish greens, deodeok, radish, and figs appeared.
That day, Naengbuhae proceeded under the theme of "the best K-food to captivate the world." The presidential couple chose as a cooking theme "K-food we want to promote worldwide," using dried radish greens as the main ingredient.
Lee said, "Dried radish greens have good flavor and texture. They are rich in vitamins and said to be good for health," adding, "Yanggu in Gangwon Province is famous for dried radish greens, so if we make dishes with them that people around the world can enjoy, couldn't we attach 'origin Korea' and export as much as we want."
In the second mission, Chef Jung Ji-seon and writer Kim Poong held a cooking showdown with dried radish greens as the theme. Chef Jung presented a dish called "dried-radish-greens rice cake table," featuring dried-radish-greens songpyeon with dried persimmon and jujube, and a dried-radish-greens radish rice cake with shiitake bulgogi.
Writer Kim presented a fusion pizza dish called "Lee Jae-myung pizza," topping fried scorched rice with butter and perilla-oil–seasoned dried radish greens and garnishing it with fried lotus root. The name parodies Busan's specialty "Lee Jae-mo pizza."
While Kim cooked, Lee and Kim tilted their heads at the unfamiliar methods and seemed flustered. However, both Lee and Kim gave their vote to Kim.
Lee first tasted only the lotus root, opened his eyes wide in surprise, and said, "It's different from how it looks," adding, "We should make this (fried lotus root) an independent product." He was also surprised after tasting the dried-radish-greens seasoning, saying, "The cooking process earlier was really not it. The seasoning is spot on." Kim also said, "Why is this good," adding, "I couldn't imagine the combination of butter, dried radish greens, and perilla oil, but it's good."
Regarding why he gave his vote to Kim, Lee said, "Isn't the theme dried radish greens," adding, "He really brought out the theme. He did it playfully, but the taste was no joke."
In the first mission earlier, Chef Choi Hyun-seok prepared samgyetang with a crispy skin, "hybrid chicken." Chef Son Jong-won presented "Aja Ajat," made with traditional methods. "Aja Ajat" is four types of snacks that use pine nuts as the main ingredient, with plenty of yuja, baby shrimp, and deodeok. In this matchup, Chef Son won.
It was the first time in eight years that the presidential couple appeared on a variety show since SBS's "Same Bed, Different Dreams 2" in 2017, when Lee was Seongnam mayor. It was the first broadcast appearance since his inauguration as president. According to the presidential office, the show was recorded on Aug. 28.