[Sportschosun Kim Sohee] Seo Jang-hoon, known as a "700 million won building owner," shared his own principles.
On the episode of EBS's "Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Neighbor" airing at 9:55 p.m. today, the turbulent life story of Lee Kyung-ae, a 50-year veteran of medicinal cuisine research who has received the Presidential Award three times and is known as a master of medicinal cuisine, will be revealed. Lee, a leading figure in Korean cuisine, is also widely recognized as a "cooking mentor" to many famous restaurant owners. The broadcast will cover the philosophy behind her medicinal cuisine, the secret to her exceptional cooking that even Seo Jang-hoon admired, and the painful past hidden behind her dazzling success. As a child, Lee suffered severe poverty because of her father's gambling debts. She endured such hardship that she said, "I dug up ginger from a ginger field and even sold my hair to get food." Viewers will see the miraculous journey of the girl who later became known as the "rice-giving aunt," bringing warmth to countless people and rising to become one of South Korea's most respected masters of medicinal cuisine.
Lee's culinary career began at a small Chinese restaurant. With no startup capital, she opened the restaurant by borrowing money at high interest, and it became an instant hit, unable to keep up with the flood of orders. She had started the business without even knowing the menu properly, but word spread quickly thanks to her natural cooking skills, and customers kept coming back. Just as she thought she was slowly paying off her debts and finally catching a break, an unexpected setback struck. Because the business was doing so well, a rival company bought the entire building where her restaurant was located, and she was forced to vacate just six months after opening. Her husband then left for Saudi Arabia to earn money, and the couple had to live apart for four long years. With the money he sent back, Lee opened a coffee shop in a prime location. Once again, her outstanding cooking drew customers in, but three years later, the landlord told her to leave. After hearing her story, Seo Jang-hoon said, "I don't know why landlords are like that," expressing his sympathy. He then drew laughter by adding, "For the record, I have never forced a tenant out first, not even once."
Repeated failures pushed Lee into deep despair. After being driven out with nothing, she went through such a difficult period that she even had dark thoughts, but in that crisis, she found a new path. The herbal decoction she used to drink as a child to ease her hunger when there was nothing to eat became the starting point of her medicinal cuisine today. The small restaurant she opened with her husband kept expanding as crowds of customers poured in. Still, the fear of being forced out by a landlord again never disappeared. In the end, the couple decided to buy land by combining their savings with a bank loan. When they said they would build a restaurant on what was then nothing but rice paddies and fields, people around them voiced concern, saying, "They're crazy" and "How can you build such a large structure on farmland?" But against all expectations, the restaurant became a famous dining spot within just one year, recording daily sales of up to 20 million won and drawing such huge crowds that traffic in the area came to a standstill. Lee recalled, "I didn't even have time to go to the bank, so I put the money in a sack of rice and slept on it."
The dramatic life of Lee Kyung-ae, who turned poverty into success and despair into hope, can be seen on Wednesday, August 5, at 9:55 p.m. on EBS's "Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Neighbor."
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
