Paik Jong-won
South Korean businessman, chef and television host
Biography
Baek Jong-won (also spelled Paik Jong-won) is a South Korean businessman best known for his role on television cooking programmes. Born in 1966 in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, he built his public profile as a presenter of food shows and as the head of a large restaurant group.
His interest in food dates from childhood. He has recalled that his father was a demanding eater, and as a student he began testing recipes to improve the hamburgers his father brought home after business trips. He later hosted series such as Baek Jong-won's Top 3 Chef King, Baek Jong-won's Food Truck and Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant, and in 2024 he was one of the two main judges of the Netflix cooking competition Culinary Class Wars. Since 2004 he has also published many books, mostly on home cooking and restaurant management.
As CEO of Theborn Korea he oversees dozens of restaurant franchises with more than a thousand branches across the country. His recent career has been shaped by commercial and product-labelling controversies, and by an announced withdrawal from broadcasting that was later called into question, so his future role remains open.
Key contributions
- Cooking television series such as Baek Jong-won's Top 3 Chef King, which helped bring home cooking and chef competitions to South Korean audiences.
- Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant, a format centred on small neighbourhood restaurants and their daily life.
- Books on home cooking and restaurant management, published between 2004 and 2017.
- The Theborn Korea group, with franchises such as Saemaul Sikdang, Baek's Coffee and Baek's Bibim, which made him a large-scale restaurant entrepreneur.