Jinny's Kitchen Season 1 Korean Variety Show

Show: Jinny’s Kitchen (서진이네)

Director: Na Young-seok

Writer: Lee Woo-jung

Cast: Lee Seo-jin, Jung Yu-mi, Park Seo-jun, Choi Woo-shik, Kim Tae-hyung (BTS V), Perro the dog and Na Young-seok (Cameo)

About the Show:

The little beautiful town of Bacalar, Mexico did not know that 2022 would have the who’s who of Korean Entertainment Industry introducing a little Korean flavour to them. They did not see it coming that Na Young-seok would be bringing his famous kitchen/restaurant variety show to their country. Youn Yu-jung has passed the baton to Lee Seo-jin, her right hand man and her oldest son from Youn’s Kitchen. Lee Seo-jin has finally taken over Na PD’s Kitchen variety show as the 사장님 or the Boss. It’s finally his kitchen, Jinny’s kitchen, hence the title 서진이네, roughly translated as “Seo-jin’s Place/ It’s Seo-jin’s”.

Na PD is back with his variety show, passionate about introducing Korean food to every corner of the world. This time he gets to do it with Lee Seo-jin who is even more passionate about work, food, sales and profit and the cast and the staff had no idea just how passionate he could get.
The five cast members, that is, Seo-jin, the Boss/President/restaurant owner, Yu-mi, the director, Seo-jun, the general manager, Woo-shik and Tae-hyung the interns embark on this passion filled journey to introduce the taste of Korean food to Balacar, Mexico. What they hadn’t anticipated was maybe Balacar was too ready for their food. Their food journey may have started on a slow note, but is it how it would continue? 

The Kimbap, the Chibab, Ramyeon, tater dog, hot dog, Korean Chicken, etc were on a full display for the eager, enthusiastic and food loving Bacalarians. 

How will this new journey of the five change the views about Korean food in Balacar?

What I love about the Show:

Just when you think Na PD cannot upgrade from his already released best productions, he comes back with bigger, better and brilliant.

The Youn’s Kitchen fans would know just how important the cast and the show is for us fans/admirers.
We saw a bunch of our favourite exceptional and talented Korean actors set up kitchens/restaurants across different parts of the word, taking Korean food to their plates. From grocery shopping, ingredients prepping, cooking, making desserts, inviting customers in, managing the crowds, serving, washing utensils, to closing up the restaurant, you name the task and they did it all. The entire production team and the cast delivered, y’all!!!

The Ambience, the restaurant itself, the visuals (both of the food and the actors), the lovely customers, Perro the dog, the hardworking crew and staff, the beautiful country of Mexico (especially Balacar), is the reason why the show gained so much love.
But I need to speak about our beloved five- 

1) Lee Seo-jin – Up until the last season, he was our beloved oldest son. 

Now he is the oldest hyung/oppa (Brother). The younger ones could all the time depend on him for support, love (which he shows in his own style, cold on the outside soft on the inside style). Jinny’s kitchen ran successfully, thanks to the extremely passionate and workaholic Lee Seo-jin. It is fascinating to watch Seo-jin in his zone. The kitchen is his, the rules are his and he’s finally the boss. I loved watching him coolly run the kitchen and make it the success that it was. Behind the kitchen doors there was chaos, but behind the billing counter there was a man whose calm demeanour kept the restaurant running. He spoke English to the locals, cleaned the tables after their meals, made the customers comfortable, took care of his younger siblings and took extra care of the profit making. All in all, he was the most reliable and dependable one, since he was the oldest sibling of the cast and the crew as well. 

2) Jung Yu-mi – Our beloved Yu-mi still has her charm intact. She does her job efficiently, though she worries at times when there are big multiple orders. She is the fun sibling of the group. The adorable loving noona to the donsaengs, and the chaotic dongsaeng to Seo-jin, Yu-mi is always a delight to watch. She is the sibling the younger ones always go to when they have complaints, when they want to gossip about their boss/hyung Seo-jin, when they want to eat some Ramyeon, when they want to just have fun while putting off work for some time. She is the sibling who never says no to the shenanigans. She is the favourite child of the big group. Yu-mi is exceptional with her work, maintaining neatness and hygiene while cooking and though slow, her work is close to perfection. Her Kimbaps are the reason people keep flocking to the restaurant. Yu-mi is the ever-smiling chill second child of our beloved five. 

3) Park Seo-jun: Seo-jun is the middle child who is always exceptional with their work. Seo-jun is the child who has his fun silently but loves to watch his siblings bond with each other. He is the favourite child. With all his perfect qualities, no wonder he is Lee Seo-jin’s number 1. Seo-jun is the best cook kitchen, handling the hot dogs, the tater dogs, the ingredient prep, the meal prep, the Ramyeon, and the Chibab. There is nothing that Seo-jun cannot do. His favourite past time in between breaks is to watch Tae-hyung and Woo-shik’s shenanigans, laugh uncontrollably at their mischief and pull Seo-jin’s leg. Park Seo-jun is the sibling who every member of the family knows will do their work perfectly and they can stay rest assured. Seo-jun is the dearest hyung to the maknaes and the favourite dongsaeng to the older siblings. No wonder Youn Yu-jung had a soft spot for him.

4) Choi Woo-shik: The second youngest sibling, Woo-shik came as a surprise to me with his notorious personality. Watching him in dramas, I was under the impression that he was the silent kind. But he along with Kim Tae-hyung are a match made in heaven. He is always dramatic with his expressions and behaviour. In my personal opinion, Choi Woo-shik is the MVP of the show. Although he joins midway and that too as an intern, he took over multiple responsibilities effortlessly and executed them impeccably well. He put in efforts to learn Spanish and communicated with the customers in their local language. He was effortlessly funny and the energy booster of the group. He made his hyungs and noona laugh and smile and joked and played around with his dongsaeng Tae-hyung. There was never a dull moment in the show because of Woo-shik. He was shy but he still went to promote the show by distributing the flyers. He helped his Seo-jin hyung at the seating area with the guests and behind the billing counter with order placement and suggestions. He helped Yu-mi, Seo-jun and Taehyun with cooking. He went out to buy the ingredients, invited guests from other restaurants, chatted with the customers who were waiting and kept Perro company. Woo-shik is the sibling who keeps the team going with his ever so bright, clingy, jumpy and loving personality.

5) Kim Tae-hyung: The maknae or the youngest sibling of the group, Kim Tae-hyung is the maknae on top in every sense. He shed his BTS V personality and aura behind and performed par excellence as an intern in the newly established Jinny’s Kitchen. His performance graph was also appreciated and acknowledged by Seo-jin and Seo-jun and was promised a promotion. ARMY or the BTS fans know how V is known to not cook on the group and sticks to washing the vessels as his help. But it came a big surprise to me how brilliant he was with his quick vessel washing techniques but also managed to assist Seo-jun and quickly learn cooking and put up tasty and magnificent dishes. His puppy like personality playing around with Seo-jin, his late night Ramyeon eating sessions with Yu-mi, him getting coddled by Seo-jun and his dramatic snippets with Woo-shik are all a reminder of the fun filled personality that V/Tae-hyung has. He loves everybody and everybody around him falls in love with him. Tae-hyung is our beloved maknae who is the glue between his siblings keeping them all close and tight knitted.

My favourite Writer-PD duo are always doing their best to deliver the best of the best Korean variety shows. Jinny’s Kitchen is no different. From Jinny’s kitchen season 1, their special on Prime and their appearance on game caterers, everything about Jinny’s Kitchen is my favourite.
The most reliable Korean variety show legends are Na Youn-seok, Shin Won-ho, Lee Woo-jung, Channel 15 ya team and the Egg is Coming team. 

Be it the dramas or the variety shows, you know this dream team can’t go wrong.