KOREA FOUNDATION

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the most frequently used word in Korean mass media these days is “home-cooked.” Television screens nationwide were once filled with scenes of celebrities as they feasted on the lavish dishes served at restaurants all around Korea, but programs nowadays focus on showing how to fix simple and quick meals using readily available ingredients.
  Two programs that exemplify this trend include tvN’s Mr. Baek the Homemade Food Master and JTBC’s Please Take Care of My Refrigerator. In the former, celebrity chef Baek Jong-won shows viewers how to prepare simple and quick dishes at home. With a similar theme, instead of showcasing exotic dishes containing ingredients unavailable in the neighborhood store, the latter program invites chefs to prepare dishes with the ingredients commonly found in the refrigerator of a typical Korean household, resulting in creative delights that viewers can easily make on their own.
  Businesses are also capitalizing on this craze for home-cooked meals. Sales of foods in single-serving packages and small-size kitchen appliances, both targeting single-person households, are on the rise, while Korean-style buffets that specialize in home-cooked favorites are enjoying massive popularity as well. Everywhere, there are restaurants that strive to offer healthy and balanced home-style meals at reasonable prices.
  So what is behind this sudden interest in home-cooked food, which is enough to inspire what could be called a kind of home-cooking revolution? Jaded by the extreme tastes and synthetic flavors encountered while dining out, people have since shifted their focus to more ordinary but healthy meals; but that’s not the whole story. There are experts who cite society’s growing sense of loneliness as a vital factor that has fueled the recent popularity of home-cooked goodness. In short, people are seeking to overcome the void of their everyday lives through home-cooked comfort food. In an interview by a leading daily newspaper, a typical office worker said she gets home at eight in the evening and reheats a meal she prepared during the past weekend. “It’s more relaxing this way,” she said. “I would usually grab a bite near the office around six and get back to work, but I intentionally worked all the way through today just to be able to eat at home.”
  More than just a meal, home-cooked food can soothe the emotional emptiness we experience due to the intensity of our modern lifestyles. Though it may not have come from your mother’s kitchen, the term “home-cooked” is meant to suggest simple and healthy meals, which at times are exactly what our bodies and souls need to sustain us so that we can take on another day.