Jinny's Kitchen (also known as Seojin's or its full title Seojin's Korean Street Food; Korean: 서진이네; Hanja: 瑞鎮家; RR: Seojin-ine) is a South Korean television reality show that premiered domestically on cable channel tvN and its platform streaming service TVING on February 24, 2023, and internationally on Prime Video.[2] The first season comprises eleven episodes. The second season aired on June 28, 2024.[3]
| Jinny's Kitchen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Promotional poster for Season 1 | |
| Also known as | Seojin's |
| Seojinny-ne | |
| Genre | Cooking show Reality show |
| Written by | Kim Dae-joo |
| Directed by | Na Young-seok |
| Starring | See list |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
| Original language | Korean |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (as of July 5, 2024) |
| Production | |
| Production locations | |
| Running time | 90–110 minutes |
| Production company | Egg is Coming (CJ ENM Studios) |
| Original release | |
| Network | tvN |
| Release | February 24, 2023 – present |
| Related | |
It is the second spin-off of Youn's Kitchen (2017) after Youn's Stay (2021), with the goal of forming a franchise.[4]
A two-episode spin-off special, named Jinny's Kitchen: Team Building (Korean: 출장소통의신 - 서진이네편; Hanja: 出差·沟通之神之瑞镇家篇; RR: Chuljang Sotongui Sin: Seo Jinine Pyeon), was later released on Amazon Prime.
Premise
The show is a spin-off of the television reality show Youn's Kitchen (2017), as Lee Seo-jin finally becomes a restaurant owner after working as a manager under Youn in the previous series. He opens Jinny's Kitchen in the small town of Bacalar, located in southeastern Mexico, to introduce Korean street food to customers.
In season 2, the cast flies to the capital of Iceland, Reykjavík, to serve warm and spicy Korean dishes. The store sign is thereby replaced by "Seojin Ttukbaegi"[5] (Jinny's Kitchen hot pot). Seo-jin change back his attitude and put the customer first before the revenue. Meanwhile, the head chef changes every day.[6]
Cast
| Name | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1[7] | Season 2[8][9] | |
| Lee Seo-jin | Himself and the restaurant owner / CEO | Himself, the restaurant owner / CEO and head chef |
| Jung Yu-mi | Herself and executive director | Herself, managing director and head chef |
| Park Seo-joon | Himself, senior manager and the head of kitchen | Himself, director and the head of kitchen |
| Choi Woo-shik | Himself and an intern | Himself, assistant manager and head chef |
| Kim Tae-hyung / V of BTS | Himself and the new intern | —[note 1] |
| Go Min-si[note 2] | — | Herself, the new intern and head chef |
Episodes
Series overview
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 11 | February 24, 2023 | May 5, 2023 | |
| Team Building | 2 | October 12, 2023 | October 19, 2023 | |
| 2 | TBA | June 28, 2024 | TBA | |
Season 1
| No. overall | No. in season | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | February 24, 2023 | |
In Seoul, the stars of the show—except V of BTS, who has other schedules—all gather to speak about the new program. Na PD announces his intent to extend the Youn's Kitchen franchise and introduces the new roles to the cast. Old Youn's Kitchen cast Lee Seo-jin, Jung Yu-mi and Park Seo-joon are promoted to executives while Choi Woo-shik stays an intern since he'll work for the first time in a restaurant. Because of his career, Woo-shik will also join the team in Mexico 2 days after. The main theme for this season is "snack bar", food that is usually sold in Korean streets, which concerns the new boss. Less than two weeks before opening, the executives meet with chef Lee Won-il to develop the menu and receive lessons in the kitchen. One week later, it's the interns turn to learn, before they fly to Mexico to discover the restaurant and the city the next week. As they test their recipes, do grocery shopping and get the preparations ready, they notice that it takes more time than they expect. They also determine the menu and set the price with the production staff. After an hour of waiting, they get their first customers. Menu:
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| 2 | 2 | March 3, 2023 | |
The freshly opened Jinny's Kitchen instantly becomes one of the most popular restaurants in Bacalar. Intern Tae-hyung is now in charge on cooking the rice. So to always gain more, new items are added to the menu. On day 2, Woo-shik is back from Atlanta and is immediately thrown in the job. The cast also makes friend with a stray dog they nicknamed Seo Jin. Additional items:
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| 3 | 3 | March 10, 2023 | |
They end day 2 busily, but it still isn't satisfying enough for the owner Lee Seo-jin. The cast think of a way to increase revenue while matching cultural Korean tradition and create "Jinny's combo". Plus, they add an extra spicy dish to the menu with Mexican tastes in mind. While the amount of tasks of interns Tae-hyung and Woo-shik keeps increasing, they start to feel very tired. The stray dog is renammed Perro (dog in spanish). Additional items:
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| 4 | 4 | March 17, 2023 | |
After their last three busy days and reaching Seo-jin's goal of 10,000 pesos, the boss gives a well-deserved day off to the team. The team spends time in their villa and on the lake, but when they reopen on Tuesday, they experience an empty restaurant for the first time with empty streets. To attract new customers they start to distribute brochures. Additional items:
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| 5 | 5 | March 24, 2023 | |
As the night comes, Seo-jin decide to close early. They try a new dish with rice to follow various customers asks. The cast also discuss new strategies and goals. They discover that stores are closed on Wednesday and hope this will help us attract new customers. The next day, the employees confront Seo-jin on how he changed since becoming the boss. Interns are in charge of grocery shopping alone and take the opportunity to buy shirts in a local shop whilst Seo-jin gives a bilan on his employees. Additional items:
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| 6 | 6 | March 31, 2023 | |
Since regular and new customers keep coming, they are quickly fully booked, forced to find extra chairs and the 10,000 goal is unexpectedly reached a second time. Yu-mi show again her meticulous side by helping in the back kitchen when needed. Tired Seo-joon wants to go home. On day 6, Tae-hyung assist the head chef and Woo-shik tries harder in the service. Additional items:
| |||
| 7 | 7 | April 7, 2023 | |
The team keeps on dealing with heavy amount of customers. From the first half of the day, they already reach 6,000 pesos mark, leading them to make even better profit. Seeing his employees exhausted, Seo-jin suggest a morning off. To add more rice dishes, they decide to remove the Tteokbokki and the combos menus. Yu-mi offers to be in charge of these new dishes since only two days are left. While the team go jet skiing, Seo-jin go grocery shopping alone. Meanwhile, customers are already waiting in front of the restaurant. Additional items:
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| 8 | 8 | April 14, 2023 | |
For the penultimate day, the team wears the shirts previously bought by the interns and a Jinny's Kitchen patch. Day 7 starts with 3 reservations before opening and even Perro is already waiting in the restaurant. People not only come eating but also order take-outs. A rival restaurant visits Jinny's Kitchen too. So, to cope with the high number of customers they add a new table and a waiting list is created. Yu-mi manage to do 2 gimbap at once while Tae-hyung is suspected of stealing. | |||
| 9 | 9 | April 21, 2023 | |
With the goal of 12,000 pesos in mind, the crew wears a special t-shirt with the restaurant logo and makes the biggest preparations since the start of the show. Tae-hyung makes his first corn dog. They also prepare a Dalgona game, repopularized by the Netflix series Squid Game. Seo-jin shares that he wants to remove his image of being a money-hungry person but seeing the restaurant running low, he announces that it won't close before they reach at least 10,000 pesos. The restaurant faces a rough start because of the England vs France match during the FIFA World Cup. | |||
| 10 | 10 | April 28, 2023 | |
During quiet times, Seo-joon trains the interns: Tae-hyung for the corn dog and Woo-shik for the rice dishes. Despite minor mistakes at first, the team quickly handles the numerous orders, leading them to reach the 12,000 pesos goal at the last minute. They happily end the shooting. | |||
| 11 | 11 | May 5, 2023 | |
The special episode starts with individual bilan interviews with the cast. Then, they reunites after 4 months over a meal and answers questions from viewers. Statistics on the journey, deleted scenes and interviews of customers are revealed. Finally, they play in two teams a traditional Korean board game called Yut Nori to win a luxury bottle of alcool and gift cards. To add to the difficulty, they are required to speak exclusively korean, without saying words from foreign languages. Teams oppose Seo-jin and Yu-mi against the three others. | |||
Team Building
| No. overall | No. in season | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | 1 | October 12, 2023 | |
On September 1st, the cast is invited in the new head office building of Egg is Coming (production compagny of the show). To strenghten the team spirit, Na PD has organized a retreat in Goseong consisting in a series of games for the cast, with the help of Earth Arcade and 2 Days & 1 Night crew. The CEO of Egg is Coming, Lee Myung-han, also offers them whiskey. The retreat starts with a competition to eat dakgalbi in Chuncheon, opposing the employers against interns and Ye-seul PD. They have to win a quiz, Jegichagi in Misa Gyeongjeong Park and Reverse Rock Paper Scissors in front of the restaurant. The loser has to grill the food for the winner team. Seo-jin doubts the purpose of the retreat that seems to tear them more apart but is ready to give it a chance if the show becomes more successful than Jinny's Kitchen. Finally, a Ddalgi game (Strawberry Game) determine in which room they will each sleep. | |||
| - | 2 | October 19, 2023 | |
The cast ends the day as one united team with a game of completing the sentence to choose their dinner. Tired Woo-shik is particularly struggling. The next day, they are divided again to win gift cards through a speed quiz. They are separated in 3 teams with Woo-shik being in two of them. Then, as one team they play shoe archery, table tennis in doubles and group skipping against the show crew and lose. | |||
Season 2
| No. overall | No. in season | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 1 | June 28, 2024 | |
The cast reunites in the headquarters of Egg is Coming, meets new cast member Go Min-si, discuss promotions and dishes to serve, and learns about the new restaurant location. Then, days later they learn how to cook the three main dishes with the one-star Michelin Guide chef, Eom Tae-cheol, and practice for days. Gomtang and other pot dishes are set to be the signature dishes to warm the customers in the cold Reykjavík city. Later, they visit their restaurant next to Lake Tjörnin and observe the high prices in Iceland. With a bigger restaurant, they match bigger preparations and plan on opening 3 hours during lunch and dinner time. Seo-jin switches the restaurant motto into "customer is king". Although Seo-jin is proud to have an intern like her, Min-si is advised to take care of herself to avoid being overworked. Woo-shik burns himself but is selected as the first head chef by Seo-jin, thinking there won't be lots of customers. The restaurant becomes unexpectedly busy as soon as opened. Menu (+ side dish):
| |||
| 13 | 2 | July 5, 2024 | |
D1 sets record as the best start in the franchise with 55 customers served. It becomes hectic in the kitchen as the restaurant is fully booked within minutes and additional orders are made. Woo-shik and Min-si still manage to quickly prepare orders. Yu-mi and Seo-joon occasionally jump in the kitchen to help and serve as a bridge between dining hall and kitchen. They run out of ingredients prepared to last several days and use their 3 hours-break to restart the preparation and grocery shopping. They also don't have enough printed menus. Despite being happy, Seo-jin feels sorry for sending people back without feeding them when they run out of ingredients once again. Seeing his staff tired, he asks them to stop working but Min-si especially won't stop. Additional items:
| |||
Production
Casting
The original cast of Youn's Stay, minus Youn Yuh-jung, who chose to focus on other projects, returned for Jinny's Kitchen. Lee Seo-jin is promoted as restaurant owner in the show while Jung Yu-mi becomes the executive. This new promotion is considered as key to the new season as the new owner's philosophy is all about revenue.[10] Youn's Stay cast member Choi Woo-shik and Park Seo-joon also joined the cast.[7]
Singer V of BTS, who is also known in the entertainment industry as part of a group of friends - with actors Park Seo-joon, Choi Woo-shik, Park Hyung-sik and rapper Peakboy-called the "Wooga Squad".[11]
On February 20, 2024, SPOTV News revealed that the actress Go Min-si was offered to replaced BTS's V in the new season, absent due to mandatory military service. Yet, they also add that CJ ENM official declined to confirm it.[12] On March 18, Go Min-si is spotted filming with the rest of the cast.[8] It is revealed that she did various jobs, including as a wedding planner[13][14] and part-time jobs at a barbecue restaurant and a cafe, before becoming an actress which comforted Na PD in his decision to have her join the show. She also played in the film The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion alongside Woo-shik[12] and in the drama Live with Yu-mi.
Filming
While the TV show was filmed in Bacalar in Mexico, the special episode "Jinny's Kitchen Director's Cut with Na PD" took place in Itaewon-dong, Seoul in South Korea. The special episode reunites cast members to recall and talk about the memorable moments of the show and was filmed around May, about two months after the pre-recording of the press conference for Jinny's Kitchen.[15] It aired as the 11th episode.
Pero, the stray dog that suddenly came to the restaurant during the filming of the show, has been adopted by one of the crew members living in Mexico, after paying for vaccinations and treatment for his sore leg.[16]
On February 15, 2024, tvN informs through various medias that a second season is in the process. However, the filming location is kept secret like season 1 for safety and filming reasons, as well as the cast members.[17][18] On the same day, according to SPOTV News, it is announced that the cast is scheduled to leave for Iceland in mid-March and begin filming Season 2.[1] The filming started on March 18 in Reykjavík, Iceland, confirming the presence of Go Min-si and that the filming was not affected by the ongoing series of volcanic eruptions in the Reykjanes peninsula.[8] Season 2 was set to be broadcast on June 28, 2024[3] with a goal to attract viewers before the Paris Summer Olympics.[5]
Promotion
In early February, the cast featured in a special episode of The Game Caterers, Na Young-seok PD's YouTube variety show to promote Jinny's Kitchen.
In April 2023, Kim Tae-hyung group's BTS channel shared part of the Jinny's Kitchen Press Conference and of Tae-hyung's appearance in the Game Caterers.[19] The press conference for season 2 has been shared on both Na PD and CJ ENM Global YouTube channels on June 28, 2024, the morning of the release of the first episode.[14]
In a video filmed in the end of 2023 and posted on June 17, 2024 on Na PD's Youtube channel, Tae-hyung advices Go Min-si to be fast in her tasks and be ready for when he comes back from his military service.[20] In July 2024, productor Na commented the first episode of the second season in a live YouTube broadcast alongside productor Park Hyun Yong and writer Kim Dae-joo which have both worked on Jinny's Kitchen. In this live, Na PD confirmed wanting Tae-hyung to rejoin the cast after his military service but the hierarchy in the restaurant still have to be determined.[21]
Reception
Critical response
Popular culture critic Kim Heon-sik analysed the anticipation of Jinny's Kitchen's international success by referring to BTS V as "a leading figure in K-culture" and pointing out that, if it is difficult for entertainment shows to be a global hit since it has to be based on cultural understanding, "the 'food' code is also advantageous from a multicultural perspective" and with the rise of interest in Korean culture, "[Jinny's Kitchen] doing business as K-food will be of interest to overseas viewers and will have points of empathy. [...] The appearance of V, a leading figure in K-culture, and the Hallyu craze with K-food and other things, combined with PD Na Young Seok's witty entertainment will create a synergy effect."[22] With the same anticipation, the BBC cited Jinny's Kitchen while predicting Korean reality shows as "the next Korean cultural trend".[23]
On March 26, 2023, Jinny's Kitchen ranked 15th in the "Most Watched TV Shows" category on Amazon Prime Video worldwide. It also entered the top 10 in 12 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.[24] It remained the most watched TV show for the first half of 2023 on TVING, CJ ENM's streaming platform, as reported by India Today.[25]
Reviews for the show have been mainly positive. To Philiana N. from TheWrap, Jinny's Kitchen stands out because of "how wholesome and unpretentious it is", the complicity between the cast and the appetizing food. She also describes it as "a refreshing reminder that there is value and joy to be had in a reality show that isn't loud or over-the-top, and instead celebrates the small, seemingly inconsequential wins that may be boring on paper but are extremely relatable to the everyday person."[26] On IMDb, the series has a rating of 8.9 on 10 based on 3 800 critics.[27]
According to Na PD during a YouTube live broadcast, the crew had to mention BTS V and the program's streaming platform Amazon to prove their credibility to the house owner for season 2 in Reykjavík (Iceland).[28] While the owner was unaware of the show's popularity, the season 1 success led to the restaurant being fully booked in less than half an hour after the opening.[29] Moreover, the new JTBC variety show My Name Is Gabriel originally scheduled to air every Friday at 20:50 (KST)[30] was moved to 22:30 slot starting from the third episode (July 5) to avoid competition with Jinny's Kitchen.[31] Ilgan Sports reminds us however that this mechanical evaluation solely based on viewership ratings isn't enough to correctly report the situation. Indeed, Jinny's Kitchen is a franchise entertainment program with a first season highly watched, broadcast on a channel (tvN) generally more viewed than JTBC and on a streaming platform (Tving) which has a much higher number of domestic subscribers than Disney Plus, where My Name Is Gabriel is released.[32]
The change of schedule has resulted in an increase in viewership ratings for both programs. Jinny's Kitchen' Season 2 Episode 2 went up 1.2% leading to 8.1% while My Name Is Gabriel's third episode went up 0.3%, bringing it to 1.4%. Overall, the combined viewership ratings of the two programs went up 1.5 points from 8% on June 28 to 9.5% on July 5, 2024.[33]
Ratings
- In the tables below, the blue numbers marks the lowest ratings in each season and the red numbers marks the highest ratings.
- This show airs on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC & EBS).
Season 1
| Ep. | Broadcast date | AGB Nielsen[34] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Metropolitan | ||
| 1 | February 24, 2023 | 8.792% | 10.338% |
| 2 | March 3, 2023 | 9.347% | 11.120% |
| 3 | March 10, 2023 | 8.390% | 9.390% |
| 4 | March 17, 2023 | 8.578% | 9.852% |
| 5 | March 24, 2023 | 7.598% | 8.649% |
| 6 | March 31, 2023 | 8.924% | 10.839% |
| 7 | April 7, 2023 | 8.097% | 8.893% |
| 8 | April 14, 2023 | 8.666% | 9.952% |
| 9 | April 21, 2023 | 8.402% | 9.913% |
| 10 | April 28, 2023 | 7.898% | 9.562% |
| 11 | May 5, 2023 | 6.777% | 7.763% |
| Average | 8.315% | 9.661% | |
Jinny's Kitchen: Team Building
| Ep. | Broadcast date | AGB Nielsen[34] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Metropolitan | ||
| 1 | October 12, 2023 | 3.797% | 4.045% |
| 2 | October 19, 2023 | 3.660% | 3.585% |
| Average | 3.729% | 3.815% | |
- Note: While season 1 episodes were all 1st place in the top 10 cable programming in terms of ratings, Team Building episodes dropped to 2nd place.[34]
Season 2
| Ep. | Broadcast date | AGB Nielsen[35] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide | Metropolitan | ||
| 1 | June 28, 2024 | 6.887% | 7.877% |
| 2 | July 5, 2024 | 8.141% | 8.433% |
| 3 | July 12, 2024 | ||
| 4 | July 19, 2024 | ||
| 5 | July 26, 2024 | ||
| 6 | August 2, 2024 | ||
| 7 | August 9, 2024 | ||
| 8 | August 16, 2024 | ||
| 9 | August 23, 2024 | ||
| Average | 7.514% | 8.155% | |
Spin-off
The same cast returned for a two-episode special titled Jinny's Kitchen: Team Building (also known as Visiting God of Communication: Jinny's Kitchen[36][37]). The episodes premiered on tvN in Korea on October 12 and 19, 2023, respectively,[38] and on Amazon Prime internationally on November 12.[39][40] Following an anonymous complaint, Producer Na, the God of Communication, organizes a retreat to improve teamwork and communication through various games. The first episode consists of a competition between the executives and interns, while in the second episode both sides play as a unified team.
Notes
References
External links
- Official Website (in Korean)
- Official Streaming Website