*This content was translated by AI.
- "Black and White Chef 2" Fan Teacher Kim Tae-woo Interview
Chef Kim Tae-woo of "Black and White Cook 2" recalled the most "Dopamine" moment during filming.
Chef Kim Tae-woo recently 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") through an interview with Star News held somewhere in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
"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 chef Kim Tae-woo participated in "Black and White Chef 2" under the nickname "Fan Dosa."
He drew the attention of viewers at once as his trademark was the weight that gave him a glimpse of his craftsmanship, similar to his elegant fanning.
Chef Kim Tae-woo, who met with Star News, said, "I'm a person who serves cooking, but I'm actually an introvert," adding, "I'm receiving a lot of requests for selfies, and when I'm walking past the street, he opens the car window on the road and greets me." As an introvert, I feel a little uncomfortable but grateful that you thought it well."
Season 2 may be recalled as it was a great success following season 1, but Chef Kim Tae-woo seemed to take care of himself at times like this. He said, "It's been sent around the world, but we're working with the mindset of paying more attention to what we've been doing. Quality is more important than increasing sales. We are further enhancing the quality of the store by talking to our family members (employees)," he said.
"Black and White Cook 2" was filmed in the first half of last year. It's been some time since the filming was over, but the black spoon chefs are socializing. Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "Something has become sticky. I try to get together about once a month. Everyone is really on good terms," he said with a smile.
In addition, regarding being held up in the first round and getting accepted, he said, "I had no regrets because I prepared it perfectly and delivered it to the judges. The judges are also an individual. I thought I was good at 70 out of 10. "If you fall, there's nothing you can do about it." "I did my best," he said with a humble attitude.
Chef Hudeokjuk is an indispensable person when talking about Chef Kim Tae-woo in "Black and White Chef 2." Since the two worked together at the Palseon Hotel in Seoul more than 20 years ago, they reunited in this "Black and White Chef 2" to show a dramatic narrative.
Chef Kim Tae-woo surprised everyone by challenging Hudeokjuk in the process of identifying a one-on-one opponent and saying, "I was in charge of steaming when the teacher turned the wok on the armline." "It's been more than 20 years," he said of Chef Hudeokjuk, who was reunited with him through cooking. At that time, I couldn't even meet the teacher's eyes. I was a complete baby and the teacher was like a sky. I looked up to him. When I faced the teacher in the second round, I thought, "I can be away," he said, expressing respect.
The main ingredient from the confrontation with Chef Hudeokjuk was Taean crab. Chef Kim Tae-woo drew attention by roasting crabs and Chef Hudeokjuk chose to steam them.
At the time, Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "The cooking image was drawn in five minutes. After that, the recipe was specifically caught. As I expected, Taean crab came out as the main ingredient and judged by instinct and intuition. The reason why I baked crabs is because I've been dealing with charcoal for more than 20 years, so I've drawn a cooking method that fits it," he explained.
The two, who made perfect dishes in their own style, tied the game and created an exquisite scene. In addition, both Jongwon Baek and Anseongjae are exquisite in chewing crab shells in each dish, making it an indispensable scene when referring to "Black and White Chef 2."
Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "(When I got the tie) my heart was pounding. In fact, it's enough to fall, but it just boiled because the score became one-on-one. "I went crazy with dopamine," he said, drawing laughter.
Many chefs who appeared in "Black and White Cook," which achieved global success last season, have since taken steps closer to broadcasters and entertainers. It was also natural that the store where he was working became busy. Was there anything you were worried about as much as you appeared in "Black and White Cook 2" with guaranteed hits.
In response to this, Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "I had no goal or greed to go up to. I just wanted to do my best to cook what I could and leave it to the judges' judgment," he stressed.
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.
"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.
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.
After the broadcast, Chef Kim Tae-woo drew more attention as he resembled actor Cho Woo-jin. In many online communities, the names of Chef Kim Tae-woo and Cho Woo-jin were mentioned together, with reactions such as "It's just Cho Woo-jin with glasses," "The visuals of the two at least having a relationship with heterogeneous cousins," and "I was surprised to know that Cho Woo-jin was cooking." In particular, this reaction grew even more recently when Chef Kim Tae-woo wore glasses on Chef Ahn Sung-jae's YouTube channel.
Chef Kim Tae-woo said, "When I heard such a story (before appearing on 'Black and White Chef 2') about "Looking like Cho Woo-jin," I thought, 'What are you talking about when you don't look like him at all?' But when I saw my face on the show, it really looked like me. To be honest, I admit it. These days, I'm hearing a lot that I look like actor Cho Woo-jin," he said, bursting into a hearty laugh.
In addition, Chef Kim Tae-woo is loved as a character with both seriousness and humor. In fact, chefs who appear on "Black and White Cook" are receiving love calls on various broadcasts. When asked about his intention to appear on entertainment programs in the future, he answered flatly, "I don't want to be a broadcaster."
"That's how I am at the moment. I don't want to get too absorbed in broadcasting or entertainment. I have work to prepare, and I have a lot of family members to take responsibility for. "If it's an entertainment show that observes my daily life or a small broadcast like that, it might be okay, but I don't want to go all in on the broadcast," he explained.
Chef Kim Tae-woo's 'preparation' is the next step in cooking. He is currently working on a cooking research institute and preparing to open a yakiniku store, said, "I can't show you all 25 years of my cooking life, but I'm constantly preparing the next step and the next menu."
He said, "The cooking lab will be completed soon, where I want to develop a menu and come up with a completely tested dish. The yearning for yakiniku has been going on for 16 years. Imagine eating rice there. "Isn't that driving people crazy?" he said with a smile full of excitement.
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*This content was translated by AI.
