SEOUL – South Korean celebrity food entrepreneur Paik Jong-won has announced that he will be discontinuing his TV appearances in an apology video. The clip was posted to his YouTube channel on May 6 following a string of controversies.
The news comes as Seoul Gangnam Police Station said the 58-year-old is under investigation. There were allegations that his food and beverage company Theborn Korea claimed the ingredients used for its porridge product were sourced in South Korea when they were not.
This follows claims that a soya bean paste produced by his company was marketed as domestically made despite using imported ingredients.
Paik is Theborn Korea’s founder and largest shareholder.
Despite having never worked as a restaurant chef, he earned a reputation for being an approachable and humble celebrity chef by giving business advice to struggling small eateries and sharing easy-to-follow recipes with viewers in his TV programmes.
The allegations have hit Paik hard and damaged his image as an advocate for South Korea’s agricultural and livestock industry, as he often spoke of the importance of using home-grown and domestic ingredients.
“I will suspend all television appearances on all programmes except for the ones that are already in production. I will focus all my energy and passion on Theborn Korea, as an entrepreneur, not a television personality,” Paik said in a five-minute clip.
His announcement comes just a day after the hit Netflix cooking competition series Culinary Class Wars (2024), which Paik fronted as a judge, won the top honour of Grand Prize in the TV category at the Baeksang Arts Awards on May 5.
He did not specify whether he would be stepping away from the second season of Culinary Class Wars, which reportedly started filming in late March and is slated to premiere on Netflix later in 2025.
Theborn Korea, which operates multiple restaurant and cafe franchises, is also accused of breaking several laws related to food and livestock sanitation.
There was a claim that it violated South Korea’s food safety law when it seemingly failed to refrigerate meat used at a barbecue festival in 2023. It also allegedly used a pesticide sprayer to dispense sauce on the barbecue meats at the same festival, though it maintains that it acted in accordance with the law.
Paik said he is to be held accountable for all the accusations related to quality and hygiene issues of the company’s products. He said he would treat 2025 as a “new founding year” for the company, which was started in 1994, and dedicate himself to reforming the company and its corporate culture.
He added that he would launch an additional large-scale subsidy plan for franchise owners under Theborn Korea. The company has a presence in Singapore with food establishments such as Bornga, Paik’s Noodle, Paik’s Bibim and Paik’s Coffee.
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Paik had previously pledged five billion won (S$4.62 million) to help franchise owners hit by the recent controversy, including exempting them from royalty fees for three months.
Separately, a former television producer claimed that Paik made unreasonable demands while starring in the variety series My Little Television (2015 to 2017), by insisting on working with writers he picked and pushing out cast members he disliked.
While he did not directly name My Little Television, he referenced allegations of him abusing his power on set.
He said: “If my words or actions hurt anyone during production, that is entirely my fault. I should have remained humble, especially after receiving so much support.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
- Additional reporting by Jan Lee
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