Culture ministry launches Korean Cook-Off with Arirang TV

The culture ministry said Monday it has produced a five-part cooking competition in which Korean mothers and foreign residents in South Korea pair up to cook home-style Korean food, with the series set to air on Arirang TV from Oct. 12 to 16.

The program, titled Korean Cook-Off, follows five teams as the foreign participants learn the techniques and seasoning secrets of Korean home cooking from mothers known for their skill in the kitchen. It airs each morning at 8 a.m. through Friday, with reruns at 7 p.m. and again at 12:30 a.m. the following day. A marathon of all five episodes is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 18.

The foreign contestants are Antonio from Venezuela, Gladys from Ghana, Przem from Poland, Dildora from Uzbekistan and Emma from France, selected from among foreign residents with at least intermediate Korean. The five Korean mothers on the show are Chae Jeom-sik, Son Ye-sun, Park Yun-ok, Kwak Yun-ja and Lee Kang-hwa. The Korean participants were drawn from cooks known through broadcast programs and from an open call through parenting forums and social media, while the foreign cast was recruited through foreign community groups, universities and Korean food education programs.

The series begins with the foreign participants visiting the homes of their Korean partners to learn family recipes and long-practiced cooking methods, before the teams prepare home-style dishes and regional specialties applying what they learned alongside their own ideas.

The ministry described the show as an attempt to present home cooking as a shared cultural ground, saying it expects audiences abroad to warm to Korean food and to Korean culture more broadly.

"Korean Cook-Off is a special journey in which Koreans and foreigners come to understand each other's cultures and share affection through home-cooked meals," a ministry policy official said.

Arirang TV, the international broadcaster operated by the Korea Foundation for International Broadcasting Exchange, will carry the program on television, with the episodes also posted on YouTube. The ministry said it plans to distribute the series to broadcasters at home and abroad and to free ad-supported streaming television platforms later.