[Exclusive]"Black and White Cook 2" Kim Tae-woo's belief.."You need to cook 10,000 times" [Interview 2]

*This content was translated by AI.

• "Black and White Chef 2" Fan Teacher Kim Tae-woo Interview

Chef Kim Tae-woo, a fan chef of "Black and White Cook 2," confessed his thoughts on the unilateral cooking path over the past 25 years.

Chef Kim Tae-woo told the story of Netflix's original entertainment show "Black and White Chef: Season 2 of Cooking Class Wars" (hereinafter referred to as "Black and White Chef 2") in an interview with Star News held at somewhere in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 14th.

"Black and White Chef 2" is a fiery cooking class war between chefs of Jaeya's master "Black spoon" who try to overturn the class with only taste and Korea's best star chef "White spoon" who try to protect it, and not only the program but also the performers are drawing attention every day.

Chef Kim Tae-woo's cooking life begins when he was a 17-year-old first grader in high school. He said, "I'm from the first generation of Busan Jori High School. I don't know what I was into, but I went to Jorigo and took cooking classes hard. During the vacation, I went to practice somehow. "I've been strong in independence since I was young," he said.

It's already been 25 years since I've only walked the single path of cooking. Every choice was for cooking, from working in Palseon at the Seoul Shilla Hotel, which he applied for as a university practice, to studying in Japan.

Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "Palseon was the best in Korea. The energy of the site was enormous. At that time, I was 20 years old with little experience, so I was so scared every time I went to work. The grandeur of the kitchen is immense. I think I made a mistake 100 days ago. But because I learned well at that time, I started to see everything in the kitchen at the next store," he recalled.

Chef Kim Tae-woo, who challenged himself with the nickname "Fan Dosa," is the owner of the Tokyo Table, a representative Michelin restaurant in Busan. Tokyo Rice Table, a restaurant specializing in eel dishes, has been selected by Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025 consecutive years.

In response to the process, Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "I had a pretty hard time," adding, "The cooking method I'm pursuing is quite laborious, but I really wanted to let Koreans know about the dishes made in this way. It is the chef's ability to deliver food. "I held out until the end, thinking that the customers would understand if I insisted on my way," he confessed.

In his late 20s, when he decided to study cooking, he left for Tokyo, Japan. He said, "I didn't have any solidarity, so I headed it to the bare ground. I couldn't go to a Japanese language school because I had no connection and no money. At that time, I remembered all the lines in a whole while watching a cooking drama every day."

He continued, "I left for Japan with three eel restaurants in mind. The first of them was "Jubako" in Akasaka, Tokyo. I made a reservation there and ate. After finishing the meal, I asked the hall server, "Can you call the boss?" and then I knelt down as soon as the boss came out. "I asked in Japanese, 'Can you accept me?' and he asked for time to think," he said, describing the moment he opened a kite at Jubako, an eel restaurant with a 230-year history in Japan.

Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "After that, my teacher contacted me and told me to go to work, so I trained there. They also gave me a separate place to stay. Even now, I see you every time I go on a business trip to Japan. There are so many noble people I met in Japan," he said, immersing himself in memories in Japan.

"Using fans is also the way Jubaco used to do it," he said. "There is an expression that means, 'You have to fan 10,000 times to grill an eel.' Some may see it as bluffing, but fans are absolutely necessary in eel dishes. It is absolutely necessary," he stressed.

Chef Kim Tae-woo, who says there must be "tense" in the kitchen, puts the most emphasis on manners and attitudes when hiring staff or seeing people who will be in a work relationship. In response, he said, "Wouldn't those two complete one person. If you are a person who keeps manners and attitudes with a will, you think, "I want to have it, this person." I'm very sharp in the kitchen. We have to take full responsibility," he said.

In that sense, I keep thinking about how I can give better opportunities to my family members. I think that's something I can go up with. In order to do this, I think we should communicate one by one and sweat together," he said.

Then, what is 'cooking' to Chef Kim Tae-woo. Chef Kim Tae-woo, who was asked the question, said, "I'm a cook. I'm the one who feeds my well-cooked meal," he replied.

The theme of the final of "Black and White Chef 2" was "Cooking for Me." When asked what kind of food he wanted to cook for him, he thought for a long time and said, "I want to cook freshly cooked rice that steams well." "Isn't Korea a rice seed?" he said with a bright smile.

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*This content was translated by AI.