Seo Jang-hoon, the 'kind landlord'... "I have never asked a tenant to leave first" [Millionaire Next Door]

*This content was translated by AI.

Broadcaster Seo Jang-hoon has proven himself to be a "kind landlord."

In the EBS program "Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Next Door," airing on the 5th, the dramatic life story of Lee Gyeong-ae, a 50-year veteran vegetarian cuisine researcher who has won the Presidential Award three Cha Rye (수상) times and is known as a "Vegetarian Cuisine Master," will be revealed. Lee Gyeong-ae, a master of Korean cuisine recognized for her Han Min-guk-eul (CEO) achievements, is also well-known as the "cooking teacher" to many prominent restaurant owners. This broadcast will introduce not only Lee Gyeong-ae's decades-long philosophy on vegetarian cuisine and the secret behind her special cooking skills that even Seo Jang-hoon could not help but admire, but also the heartbreaking past hidden behind her glamorous success. Lee Gyeong-ae, who suffered from extreme poverty in her childhood due to her father's gambling debts, endured such difficult times that she once said, "I dug ginger out of a ginger field to eat it and sold my hair just to get food." The journey of this girl, who later became known as the "rice-serving auntie," spreading warmth to countless people, and rising up as a Han Min-guk-eul (CEO) "Vegetarian Cuisine Master," will be shared with viewers.

Lee Gyeong-ae's culinary career began in a small Chinese restaurant. Despite having no capital for business, the Chinese restaurant she opened by borrowing money became so popular from the very start that it could not keep up with the flood of orders. Although she started the business without even knowing the Chinese menu items properly, word-of-mouth spread solely because of her innate cooking talent, and customers never stopped coming. As she slowly paid off her debts and thought things were finally looking up, an unexpected trial arrived. Because her business was so successful, a competing company bought out the entire building where Lee Gyeong-ae's Chinese restaurant was located, forcing her to vacate the premises just six months after opening. Afterward, Lee Gyeong-ae's husband left for Saudi Arabia to earn money, and the couple had to endure a long separation of four years. Using the money her husband earned in Saudi Arabia, Lee Gyeong-ae opened a coffee shop in a prime location. Once again, her exceptional cooking skills attracted customers, but three years later, she received another notice from the landlord asking her to move out. Upon hearing the story, Seo Jang-hoon expressed his bewilderment, saying, "I don't understand why landlords do this," and then added with a smile, "For your information, I have never asked a tenant to leave first."

These repeated failures plunged Lee Gyeong-ae into deep despair. Having been driven out with nothing, she went through such difficult times that she even considered extreme measures, but from within this crisis, she found a new path. The "herbal tea" she used to drink as a child to stave off hunger when there was no food became the starting point of Lee Gyeong-ae's vegetarian cuisine today. The small restaurant she opened with her husband kept expanding due to the crowds of customers pouring in like clouds, growing larger and larger. However, the anxiety that they might be driven out by the landlord again never disappeared. Eventually, the couple decided to buy land, adding loans to their savings. When they announced plans to build a restaurant on what was then just open fields, people around them poured out concerns such as, "You're crazy," and "How can you build such a large building in a rice field?" However, defying all expectations, the restaurant became a popular spot within just one year, generating maximum daily sales of 20 million won, drawing so many customers that traffic in the area came to a standstill. Lee Gyeong-ae recalled those days by saying, "I was so busy I didn't even have time to go to the bank; I would put money into rice sacks and sleep with them."

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*This content was translated by AI.