Photo: Paik Jong-won on Culinary Class Wars. Credit: Netflix.
On May 6, Paik Jong-won 백종원 issued a public apology for the declining quality of his restaurants and the falling value of shares in his company, and vowed to take a hiatus from television to focus on his business. Paik, an international celebrity with frequent appearances on popular cooking and reality TV shows like Culinary Class Wars 흑백요리사, has been under fire since his holding company TheBorn Korea 더본 코리아 went public in November 2024.
Paik is South Korea’s biggest celebrity restaurateur. Originally an architect, Paik turned to running a Korean barbecue restaurant after his interior design company became insolvent during the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis. Focusing on logistics and optimizing menu items, Paik launched multiple franchises in barbecue, coffee, Chinese food, etc., all centered around simplified offerings, affordable prices and a guaranteed baseline of quality. Paik’s business success has made him a mainstay of South Korean food television, and sparked a boom in the Korean dining scene.
But Paik’s fortunes began to turn after his company listed on KOSPI on November 6, 2024. Allegations surfaced that some of his franchises mislabeled imported ingredients as Korean, and Paik’s franchisees - with more than 3k stores nationwide - are starting to worry that Paik’s high-profile misses are hurting their sales. The share price for TheBorn Korea was KRW 26,100 per share on May 7, nearly a 60% loss from its peak.
