Jinny’s Kitchen – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

Episode 1 of Jinny’s Kitchen opens with the cast meeting the makers. Actors Park Seo-joon and Choi Woo-shik are the first to appear as they chat with the makers about the upcoming variety show – Jinny’s Kitchen (aka Seo-jin’s Kitchen). They are soon joined by actress Jung Yu-mi who teases Woo-shik for being a ‘busy man’ while actor Lee Seo-jin follows.

The crew discusses the upcoming restaurant which will be located in Bacalar, Mexico. They also chat about a newcomer joining them who has been in the news off-lately for many reasons. They discuss their new positions with Seo-jin being the new President while Yu-mi and Seo-joon get promoted to Director and Head Chef respectively.

Woo-shik is trolled for joining the group later than the rest. Seo-jin decides to keep him as an intern at the restaurant along with the newcomer – singer and actor Kim Tae-hyung (aka BTS’ V) who was busy performing a concert in Busan at the time. The group discuss the kind of food they will be serving at the restaurant and boil down to serving Korean street food snacks like ramyeon, gimbap, tteokbokki, and more.

 A flashforward from the upcoming episode shows the team enjoying Tae-hyung’s company and the charm he brings in as a new employee with the team. At the same time, all other employees are duly following their responsibilities as well. Back to the present day, the group jokes that Woo-shik will be an intern below Tae-hyung because the actor was going to join the rest of the group two days later than Tae-hyung.

Seo-joon makes are video call to Tae-hyung who greets Seo-jin for the first time in an awkward but funny chat. A few days later, Tae-hyung formally meets the rest of the crew for dinner along with Seo-jin, Yu-mi, Woo-shik and Seo-joon. Woo-shik is trying to charm his way through President Seo-jin’s comment about keeping him an intern just like the newbie – Tae-hyung.

The episode then moves to Seo-joon taking a cooking lesson where he learns how to make corndogs while Yu-mi also takes a lesson where she learns how to roll a perfect gimbap. Interns Woo-shik and Tae-hyung also learn to fry fritters and slice vegetables – both of which will be part of their duties.

The group, except Woo-shik, fly to Mexico where Tae-hyung is in charge of driving them to their stay in Bacalar. Seo-jin is worried about the lack of people in this remote place and thinks that having a business in a remote region will be a bust. As he drives, Tae-hyung takes a wrong turn and accidentally drives the crew to their restaurant – the one which was yet to be set up.

Eventually, they get to their cabin and take in the view from their accommodation. The group rests and eventually gets to work. Together the four are making all the dishes they will be selling at the restaurant starting from Seo-joon’s corndogs and Yu-mi’s gimbap along with Tae-hyung’s fritters and bulgogi. Yu-mi messes up with the gimbap a couple of times before finally getting it right.

Seo-joon serves the tteokbokki and gets down to fry the corndogs to perfection impressing everyone in the room including the President – Seo-jin. The next morning, the four drive to the local market to check out the fresh veggies and meat that they will end up purchasing on a daily basis.

The group eventually goes to check out the restaurant that will open the following day. They take in the interiors as well as the kitchen area that is styled like a regular Korean restaurant. Seo-jin tells the group their individual reporting time while the employees start prepping ingredients for the following day and practice what working in the restaurant would be like.

By the end of the day, Tae-hyung is frowning out of his hunger so the group calls it a night and agrees to come in the following day to get a headstart on the opening. At their cottage, the group decides the pricing for each of the dishes and calls it a night seeing how tired everyone is.

On the day of the opening, everyone from the group dresses in a white shirt with beige shorts. They drive up to the restaurant and start prepping for the day ahead. However, despite their efforts, the prep takes time and Seo-jin decides to delay the opening by an hour. The group is excited to open Jinny’s Kitchen but it suddenly starts raining causing the streets to be empty and void of people.

The four are worried there won’t be any guests on their first day and wait it out in the seating area for hours before the first customers start showing up. Finally, a man and his daughter show up at the restaurant and place their order for a bowl of ramyeon and a plate of cheese tteokbokki. The man calls up people telling them the location of the restaurant he is eating at. In the kitchen, Tae-hyung is assisting Chef Seo-joon while Yu-mi works on the plate of tteokbokki.

The first order makes it to the table and Seo-jin assists the guests in cutting up the tteok in the tteokbokki. The guests praise the food and the boys, Tae-hyung and Seo-joon are watching their only two guests devour the food from the kitchen. Soon two more people join the other guests and place an order of a Gimbap and another bowl of ramyeon.

Another guest shows up eventually making their customer count up to 5 people. Seo-joon starts on the corn dogs while Yu-mi perfectly rolls her first bulgogi gimbap for the customers. The five guests have a good time chowing down their food while Seo-joon notices the President’s approving smile.

Once the guests leave, the group clears the table and waits for more customers. Hours pass and there are no new guests which have Seo-jin worried about the state of their business. After hours and hours of waiting Tae-hyung asks if they would be closing soon considering there were no more guests when a couple moves to the restaurant and looks up the menu as the episode comes to an end.

The Episode Review

This show is so light-hearted and fun and I really missed Woo-shik and his antics on the first day of the business. With the actor joining the group in the upcoming episode, I am hopeful that there will be much more chaos.

I like Seo-jin as a businessman but kudos to the subtitling team of the show for having the best adjectives for the actor’s facial features. My favourite being – dumbfounded dimples.

Seo-joon is really good at cooking and it shows. The actor has really worked his way up to be a chef. Yu-mi’s expressions are so fun and she is a breath of fresh air to an all-men team. I really love how she doesn’t shy away from messing things up once in a while.

Meanwhile, Tae-hyung is really a baby bear and the young man does not hide it. After hanging out with his Wooga friends in In The Soop: Friendcation, it will be fun to see the BTS member bond with his actor friends yet again in the episodes to come.