Advertisement

Chef and My Fridge: the South Korean cooking show that will get you to clean out your fridge

South Korean TV producers don’t shy away from voicing our deepest, inner desires. At least, this was what I told myself as I tried to figure out how to best explain the appeal of the variety cooking show that is Chef and My Fridge (Please, Take Care of My Refrigerator), with a selection of episodes from its four seasons currently streaming on Netflix.

With their one and a half hour long episodes, South Korean shows are a boon for lockdown hours. But Chef and My Fridge can also help prevent biological experiments in the depths of your kitchen from getting out of control, as well as gently suggesting you don’t need to acquire any more plastic takeaway food containers.

Related: The Goop Lab: wellness feels surreal right now, but it's worth it for episode three

The conceit of the show is this: eight well-known chefs specialising in different cuisines, and two hosts (Kim Sung-joo and Ahn Jung-hwan, who took over from Jeong Hyeong-don and others after episode 66) go through the fridge belonging to a celebrity guest. That is, their literal fridge – the producers actually cart the celebrity’s fridge on to the set. The celebrity then issues two challenges for dishes they want to eat. Four chefs pair off and have 15 minutes to battle each other by creating those dishes using only what is in the fridge. It’s a lesson in creativity, frugality and in the obstinate nature of one’s personal tastebuds. Can you concoct something resembling real food out of packeted medicinal tonics? Apparently, you can. Can you make churros out of tofu and cinnamon biscuits? Yes, you just need an empty mayonnaise bottle.

But the show isn’t just great for cooking tips, such as how to deepfry things and have the batter remain snow-white (hint: potato starch is your friend). There is irreverent teasing and banter between all the characters, with a side helping of snarky overlaid graphics, plus the gossip-worthy morsels that come from such an intimate peek inside celebrities’ lives. It’s a show designed to target the celebrity voyeur and frugal foodie in all of us.

Over the course of the series, both the chefs and the celebrity guests become more relatable, with friendly rivalries developing. Guests’ partners and mothers panic at the news of their loved one being on the show, and swoop in to stock and organise the fridge beforehand. It won’t be long before you’re questioning whether you would want anyone looking too closely at the insides of your fridge and embarking on an organising binge.

Related: The Other Two: what happens to adult siblings when their teen brother becomes Insta-famous?

You find that some people go fishing often, some rely on ready-made meals, some have alcohol because they don’t cook. You learn that the members of K-pop group Twice love offal and that rapper G-Dragon has more truffles and abalone than anyone should. And that nearly everyone has a loving parent who provides homemade banchans or side dishes in a variety of snazzy plastic containers.

But Chef and My Fridge also shows us that some things are not out of our reach, whatever our grocery budget might be; that five-star dishes and even a four course meal can be made in under 15 minutes. Even the chefs learn and improve as the show goes on, stealing tricks from each other.

I did say this show might put you off ordering in. But maybe you should – right before watching the first episode – because this show will make you hungry. You will need something to eat. And then you can go and cook everything that remains in your fridge.