Last week, Hwayobi had been eliminated from ‘Master Chef Korea Celebrity‘, leaving Son Ho Young, Fei, and Shin Bong Sun to battle it out in the finals. The three celebrities battled fiercely on the final episode on the 12th as they were instructed to make a 3-course meal with Korean food.
Son Ho Young put out a ’3-color tree leaf rice wrap’ for an appetizer, a ‘chicken steamed in lotus leaves and lotus root rice’ as the main course, and a ‘rice wine strawberry sherbet’ as dessert.
After tasting the food, the judges said, “The rice wrap is pretty, but it’s such a small portion. Even so, the sauce and vegetables go along with it very well. The lotus leaf chicken would have been better if the chicken wasn’t overcooked, but it was good. But if you tied up the lotus leaves, it would have been more fun to eat. The dessert is amazing. Because you put the strawberries in the rice wine, the unpleasant feeling you get when you drink it vanishes. It was a good idea. I’m surprised at your growth within just a few episodes. These are amazing dishes that would be good enough to serve to foreign envoys with just kimchi on the side.”
Fei’s dishes included a ‘pan-fried beef with spring vegetables’ as an appetizer, a ‘bulgogi sauce seafood hot pot’ as the main course, and a ‘three-color injeolmi (a type of rice cake coated with bean powder) and persimmon punch’ as dessert.
The judges stated to her, “The pan-fried roast beef was properly compelented by the vegetables and the sauce. But chewing the meat didn’t feel so good. You should have cooked it a bit more. If you made it a little smaller, it might have been easier to eat. The bulgogi sauce didn’t go well with the hot pot. The thing you were amazing at is the rice cake. It was just as tasty as the amount of effort you put into it. You understood how to properly make Korea’s rice cakes. It is the best dessert in ‘Master Chef Korea Celebrity’ so far.”
Shin Bong Sun put out a ‘shrimp tangpyungchae (mung bean jelly mixed with vegetables and beef)’ as an appetizer, a ‘pork seasoned with dwenjang and mukeunji (aged kimchi) roll’ as the main course, and a ‘plum tea and sweat potato/pumpkin custard’ as dessert.
The judges said, “There are many ingredients that go in tangpyungchae. I thought it would taste good because of the shrimp, but I can only taste the bean jelly which was overpowering. Your main course would have tasted better if you seasoned it more, but it was still good. I thought you put a lot of effort into shaping the dessert into a circle and making each notch. The color is beautiful as well. It matched well with the plum tea. The presentation is very luxurious, and it would be a dessert that would be amazing anywhere.”
In the end, Son Ho Young won the entire competition, winning him the 100,000,000 KRW (approximately 88,500 USD) prize money, as well as hosting his own cooking program. He couldn’t help but cry in happiness and he said, “I’ll pay for everyone’s food today. This isn’t everything. I really want to be an actual chef. I’ll learn more. I’m happy when I cook.”
According to his label, Son Ho Young will be donating all of his winnings to charity. His label said, “He’ll be donating his entire winnings after the taxes. He always donates anyway, so he decided happily that he would donate. He’ll be donating to a good program that matches well with the show.”
Congratulations to Son Ho Young!
