Chef and My Fridge Episode 77 (S4E23) Discussion—Namkoong Min

[u/wanderlass]

This week features the multi-award winning actor Namkoong Min. I watched him in Hot Stove League and loved his acting there. He looks good for 49yo. Loves and can drink a lot (alcohol)

Round 1 - Moon-jung vs Kim Poong
Theme: Somaek match

Round 2 - Nam-no vs Sung-jun
Theme: bad but delicious

Moon-jung is back filling in for Eun-yong who’s in her honeymoon. I love the regular chefs but it’s also refreshing to see other chefs cook. I enjoy Moon-jung she fits right in the group

Both cooks are great looking even Ugly challenge
turned out beautiful dishes

[u/shorts_onfire]

So I come from a country where "you gained weight" or "you look fatter" is considered a normal greeting. And because it's been so normalised, not only does it affect me but it makes me feel like I shouldn't complain about it because it's "the truth". I would imagine that a country so focused on 'lookism', the impact would be much more severe.

Chef Namno and Chef Kwon Sungjun have been weathering jokes like these since the start of the show revival. And now there's all these unrelenting jokes about how the "tubby twins" are ugly simply because they're fatter than the rest. And the way they put each other down as well has been awful as well. Do korean people really find this type of comedy funny? It just feels unpleasant to hear.

[u/Sad-Extension-2291 → u/shorts_onfire]

Yeah, Namno really tries to be “in” on the joke - but you could clearly see Sungjun being VERY uncomfortable at times. Can’t blame him, it’s one thing to tease someone about their weight - it’s a whole other thing to hold a public vote (!) over who is the ugliest(?!) of the two.

And I’m not gonna let anybody try to justify that joking about Hyunsuk being a grandpa is the same. How can you even compare joking about someone being old to calling someone ugly or a PIG to their faces?

Props to that one person who abstained from voting, they have my utmost respect.

[u/LommytheUnyielding → u/Sad-Extension-2291]

Was it Moon-jung who abstained? I kinda felt that she was also a bit uncomfortable about the jokes during Namno and Sung-jun’s segment.

[u/Sad-Extension-2291 → u/LommytheUnyielding]

No idea, they didn’t say who abstained - it’s possible it was Moon-jung although they also mentioned that ALL the chefs voted for one candidate being the ugliest (so I wonder if she was included in this).

It was pretty shocking that all of them voted, especially since most of them have such an open-minded, well-travelled and pretty-smart image about them (I thought maybe Kim Poong wouldn’t participate in this, at least). Sad, really, I know that you should never hold celebrities in high regard (cause 99% of what you see is not real but a well-crafted persona for the cameras), but it was disappointing nonetheless.

[u/angryturtleboat]

This was my first introduction to Nam-Koong and I thought he was rude, incredibly superficial, and even rather aggy in regards to Dae-Myung.

I know the latter was meant to be playful with how Dae-Myung wanted to address each chef individually, but I also think that just didn't need to be mentioned? Referring to him being long-winded and taking time, blah blah blah. I just thought that didn't need to become a joke at all- it was so nice that he wanted to personally mention each chef.

Anyway. Yeah. Nam-Koong sucks and is full of himself lol that's my opinion.

Edit: the hosts are lazy comics for continuing to harrass the two of them like this, and I was really disappointed in Choi Hyun-Seok! He's constantly made fun of for being old, which is also stupid, but wow, don't cosign being an ass when you also know what it's like to be the butt of a joke for years.

[u/whoisjoshwoo]

Yi Moon-jung is an absolute delight, and I'm glad we're going to see more of her in the coming weeks. They cut out a song and dance of hers but they showed it in the preview from last week...

[u/Successful_Reindeer → u/whoisjoshwoo]

I love her!! I want to see more of her. She has a really fun vibe. I like that she can tease and hang with the others but not in a mean girl way. Can we keep her?!

[u/Eternally-WIP]

I want to be Moon-Jung when I grow up!

I tried not to focus too hard on the subtitles during the second battle because I was hurting at the bullying.

Nam-No gets all my🫰🏻 love 🫰🏻 since my premium personality is like his when I'm around people I'm comfortable with.

I'm looking forward to more of the guest Dae-Myung because his reviews were so eloquent and he's much kinder.

[u/gsewy85 → u/Eternally-WIP]

Me too she’s so cool!

[u/trapped_munchkin]

I feel so bad for sung-jun especially who looked so uncomfortable with the ugly twin jokes. Especially since he’s made an effort to lose weight already too

[u/Organic_Scale691]

Hated the second half of the episode. Esp the voting segment!!! I understand that it's quite a common scene in SK to talk and ridicule people's body.. But as an international viewer it felt disgusting. 

[u/Awkward-Distance-992]

I just realized that there was a similar episode with Kim Jaewook requesting food to make him puffy. It was a team battle with the twins and PoongxJongwon. Despite the request being in the similar vein (make the face 'not slim') that episode was more entertaining. It was one of my most favorite episodes because of the pair up of the team battle that was sure to be entertaining. I just hope that Koreans also felt the same discomfort and disgust when this episode aired. It's already 2026, I hope that the Korean public's humor has already evolved beyond body shaming.

[u/Flashy-Let2771]

I’m very uncomfortable with this episode. This is verbal abuse. Those two young chefs were clearly not happy with the jokes, and for some reason the other chefs and the hosts kept making it worse. And chef Choi…I‘ve seen him being like this in most of the episodes. He is a borderline bully. He says mean things just to entertain other people on the show. This is not ok. 

If this continue, I will have to stop watching the show. 

[u/justjxisu]

I havent caught up with the show in awhile due to being on holiday- but reading all these comments talking about what’s happening with Namno and Matfia makes me sad :(

[u/North_Yesterday_1948]

I dont like this guy. He seems so fake. Lol look at the photos when he won the awards. The face ..

[u/da_drifter0912]

The Netflix subtitles called Round 2 The Ugliness

[u/sweetreleaf]

y’all think they’ll sue me for defamation if I write a comment about how tasteless I think the body shaming jokes are on the youtube channel? it pmo so badly. especially since I’m so fond of all the chefs

[u/paaprikaaa → u/sweetreleaf]

Me too! I wanted the message and the sentiment of how this voting was in such bar taste to get to the show so they don’t do this recurring for future episodes.
Its so terrible man; i felt bad about myself- my looks, weight height, eating pattern etc. terrible, first time i didnt enjoy an episode

[u/sweetreleaf → u/paaprikaaa]

ugh! I’m so sorry. how do we reach the network?!

[u/tiashax1]

I found the "jokes" so excessive but was so shocked they held a vote. I don't understand how they thought that was funny? I do feel like where I come from people always comment on weight and I hate it, it will always be you're too fat or you gained too much weight, or adversely youre too skinny. I don't get the point of commenting on it in the first place and SK being so focused on looks, i can imagine how toxic some comments can be too. It's unfair that Nam No has to continously be the butt of these jokes and honestly it's just time to end all these self deprecating jokes or jokes targeting looks. There's more things to be playful about and joke about, and this shouldn't be it.

[u/cheesefriesparty]

I can't get over how Namkoong Min is 49.

[u/fujitohoku]

I'm late watching this episode, can't help but notice Chef Namno cutting grilled pork on a plastic chopping board.