Star chef Paik Jongwon starts YouTube channel to share recipes

Celebrity chef and eatery franchise owner Paik Jongwon started his own YouTube channel, "Paik's Cuisine," Tuesday, which earned more than 200,000 subscribers within four hours of the first video going online. The number of subscribers rocketed to over 700,000 as of Wednesday morning.

In his first video, Paik explains his reasons for starting the channel.

"A few months ago, my mother-in-law asked for my recipe for braised short ribs. She said she searched for the Paik Jongwon recipe on the Internet, but it didn't taste like mine. I saw the recipe she found online, but it wasn't my recipe," Paik said in the introduction video to his channel.

"I am not saying other recipes are wrong, but there were some recipes with my name that I did not make. I think it is good that people are taking more interest in food, but it was also scary," he added.

Although Paik's easy recipes posted online helped people find joy in cooking and have fun with it, some took advantage of his popularity by posting other recipes that weren't his, but included his name in the title.

Paik said he will use the recipes that he has been introducing over the years. "There are so many people who have a great amount of knowledge of food, ingredients, cooking and history of food. I am just a person who likes food and expresses this in a fun way. My professional knowledge is not even close to them," he emphasized.

He also disclosed his opinion on the globalization of Korean food.

"I run franchise businesses abroad. Many people talk about the globalization of Korean food, but I think it should go step by step," he said. "People should know and taste the deep flavor of Korean food in order to enjoy high quality Korean food introduced outside Korea."

Previously Paik also hinted he might start a YouTube channel in talk show "The Joy of Conversation 2" on KBS2.

"I think it is a crisis for Korean food. It is just one of the options for eating outside. Now we need Korean food localized to the area," Paik said. "I am trying to share Korean recipes with other countries through YouTube."

His channel "Paik's Cuisine" includes videos ranging from "Paik's Restaurant Story" and "Paik Jongwon's Recipe" to "Making Stir-fried Pork for 100 People." The channel is formed with long and short clips which were well-adapted to the online platform and are easy to watch.

Paik became a star chef after he appeared on reality show program "My Little Television" on MBC, which led him to other cooking programs such as SBS' reality show "Paik Jongwon's Top 3 Chef King," "Paik Jongwon's Food Truck" and "Paik Jongwon's Alley Restaurant."