Three Meals a Day

Three Meals a Day
Also known as	Three Meals Samsi Meals
Genre	Variety show cooking show reality show
Written by	Lee Woo-jung Kim Dae-joo
Directed by	Na Young-seok Park Hee-yeon Shin Hyo-jung
Starring	Lee Seo-jin Ok Taecyeon Kim Kwang-kyu (season 2)
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	11 (season 1) 18 (season 2)
Production
Production location(s)	Jeongseon, Gangwon Province
Running time	70 minutes Fridays at 21:50 KST (season 1) Fridays at 21:45 KST (season 2)
Release
Original network	tvN
Original release	October 17, 2014 (2014-10-17) – September 11, 2015 (2015-09-11)
External links
Website

Three Meals a Day (Hangul: 삼시세끼; RR: Samsi Sekki) is a South Korean reality cooking show. The first season aired on tvN from October 7 to December 26, 2014 on Friday nights at 21:50 for 11 episodes. The second season aired from May 15 to September 11, 2015 on Friday at 21:45 for 18 episodes.

It features Lee Seo-jin and Ok Taecyeon as they live in a little rural village in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province three days a week and use whatever food they find there to create three meals a day, while various celebrities from Seoul make guest appearances for dinner.

Cast

• Lee Seo-jin
• Ok Taecyeon
• Kim Kwang-kyu (season 2)

Production

Producer-director (or "PD") Na Young-seok previously directed the popular variety shows 2 Days & 1 Night, Grandpas Over Flowers, Sisters Over Flowers and Youth Over Flowers.

When actor Lee Seo-jin was on Grandpas Over Flowers, the crew gave him the nickname "Cooking King" due to his poor cooking skills. Their jokes about Lee starring in a fake cooking show titled Cooking King Seo-jinnie (a parody of King of Baking, Kim Takgu) eventually became the genesis for this show. Cast as his co-star was singer-actor Ok Taecyeon; the two had played brothers in the Korean drama series Wonderful Days.

The press conference for the show was held on October 15, 2014 at the 63 City Convention Center in Yeouido, and was streamed live on tvN's YouTube channel.

Kim Kwang-kyu, who had previously been a guest in the first season, became a regular cast member for the second season. In addition to cooking three meals a day from scratch, Lee, Ok and Kim were given the additional task of growing and harvesting crops from spring to early fall (grocery shopping was strictly prohibited).

Reception

Three Meals a Day drew a great response from Korean viewers and became a trending topic numerous times on Naver, a Korean search portal. It received viewership ratings of 6%, which is high for Korean cable television for which a 1% rating is considered a success.

Originally 8 episodes were planned for the first season, but the show was extended by two episodes. A "director's cut" epilogue also aired, for a total of 11 episodes.

List of episodes

Season 1

Episode #	Broadcast Date	Guest	Notes
1	October 17, 2014	Youn Yuh-jung, Choi Hwa-jeong	The beginning of the episode shows where the idea of this program originated and how Lee Seo-jin and Ok Taecyeon were cast. Before the show started, they were given seeds to grow and were told to bring them to the first filming day. They are also introduced to Mingki, the puppy that they have to take care of. The PD gives them the show's rules, that are: besides rice, all other ingredients used must come from the farm; every meal would be made according to the production team's menu; preparation for winter will be undertaken during their free time; for the sake of integration into farming life, cell phones will be taken away. The day after, Taecyeon tries to make sorghum rice for breakfast, but is unsuccessful because he missed one of the steps while making it. The guests are Seo-jin and Taecyeon's co-stars from Wonderful Days Youn Yuh-jung and Choi Hwa-jung. For the guests, Taecyeon and Seo-jin cook meat that they got from the production team. To pay their debt, they must harvest 2 kilograms of sorghum per kg of meat.
2	October 24, 2014		Jackson, a two-year-old goat, is introduced. Taecyeon milks Jackson and makes Ricotta cheese from it. Seo-jin makes caffe americano using a stone grinder. He says that he can still taste the pepper in the coffee. A few days later, Seo-jin and Taecyeon are given five hens, named Sofia, Olivia, Matilda, Elizabeth, and Grace. They try to make egg rolls from an egg that one of the hens laid. They also build a hen house for the hens. In the second segment of this episode, the guests are Seo-jin's co-stars from Grandpas Over Flowers: Shin Goo and Baek Il-seob. Seo-jin and Taecyeon have to take care of them and cooked for them. They cook meat for them, so the harvesting sorghum debt is increasing. The show also lays out the hierarchy, where at the top is the two guests, followed by Na PD, slave Seo-jin, Mingki, and maknae slave Taecyeon at the bottom.
		Shin Goo, Baek Il-seob
3	October 31, 2014		Seo-jin prepares oxtail soup for breakfast. A few days later, Taecyeon arrives at the house first and finds that Jackson has returned; Jackson becomes a permanent pet along with Mingki and the hens. Taecyeon upgrades the stove by adding two levels of bricks, hoping he would feel more comfortable. They make bibimbap for lunch using three eggs that were laid by the hens. They go to the market to buy jars for making kimchi. After they're done with the kimchi, they make roasted laver and store some of them in the container. Guest star Kim Kwang-kyu arrives early in the morning; Seo-jin and Taecyeon are still sleeping and weren't able to welcome him properly. Kwang-kyu and Taecyeon harvest sorghum to pay Seo-jin and Taecyeon's meat debt, while Seo-jin washes dishes. Kwang-kyu harvests seven lanes of sorghum and Taecyeon only harvests three lanes.
		Kim Kwang-kyu
4	November 7, 2014
		Kim Ji-ho
5	November 14, 2014	Ryu Seung-soo
6	November 21, 2014	Go Ara
7	November 28, 2014	Son Ho-jun, Choi Ji-woo	Taecyeon only makes a short appearance in this episode. He couldn't join the shoot because of 2PM's world tour.
8	December 5, 2014		Taecyeon was absent because of 2PM's world tour.
		Lee Soon-jae, Kim Yeong-cheol
9	December 12, 2014	Lee Seung-gi, Kim Kwang-kyu
10	December 19, 2014
		Youn Yuh-jung, Choi Hwa-jeong
11	December 26, 2014	—	This episode is a director's cut and the last episode of the first season. There are no guests.

Season 2

Episode #	Broadcast Date	Guest	Notes
1	May 15, 2015	—	There is no guest. First episode Kwangkyu becomes regular cast of the show
2	May 22, 2015	Park Shin-hye
3	May 29, 2015
4	June 5, 2015	Ji Sung
5	June 12, 2015
6	June 19, 2015	BoA, Yoo Hae-jin
7	June 26, 2015
8	July 3, 2015	Kim Ha-neul
9	July 10, 2015
10	July 17, 2015	Choi Ji-woo
11	July 24, 2015
12	July 31, 2015	Son Ho-jun
13	August 7, 2015	Hong Seok-cheon
14	August 14, 2015	Lee Sun-kyun
15	August 21, 2015
16	August 28, 2015	Park Shin-hye
17	September 4, 2015
18	September 11, 2015	—

Ratings

Highest ratings for the show are in red, lowest ratings are in blue.

Season 1

Episode #	Original Airdate	AGB Ratings
		Nationwide (The average nationwide ratings shown below include TV commercials)		Seoul National Capital Area
		Average	Peak	Average	Peak
1	October 17, 2014	4.29%	5.6%
2	October 24, 2014	5.73%	6.9%	7.0%	8.2%
3	October 31, 2014	6.7%	8.0%	7.9%	9.3%
4	November 7, 2014	6.96%	8.3%
5	November 14, 2014	6.98%	8.3%	8.6%	10.6%
6	November 21, 2014	7.23%	8.8%	9.2%	11.2%
7	November 28, 2014	7.8%	9.7%	9.1%	11.2%
8	December 5, 2014	8.18%	9.7%
9	December 12, 2014	8.75%	10.5%
10	December 19, 2014	8.95%	10.5%
11	December 26, 2014	5.75%	7.0%

Season 2

Episode #	Original Airdate	AGB Ratings
		Average	Peak
1	May 15, 2015	8.2%	11.4%
2	May 22, 2015	7.5%	11.3%
3	May 29, 2015	8.7%	12.1%
4	June 5, 2015	9.1%	12.4%
5	June 12, 2015	9.1%	13.4%
6	June 19, 2015	8.8%	11.5%
7	June 26, 2015	11.0%	13.4%
8	July 3, 2015	12.0%	14.0%
9	July 10, 2015	11.3%	13.1%
10	July 17, 2015	12.4%	15.9%
11	July 24, 2015	11.4%	14.1%
12	July 31, 2015	10.8%	13.1%
13	August 7, 2015	11.5%	14.0%
14	August 14, 2015	10.7%	13.4%
15	August 21, 2015	11.4%	12.9%
16	August 28, 2015	11.4%	13.1%
17	September 4, 2015	10.6%	12.6%
18	September 11, 2015	7.4%	10.4%

Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village

A spin-off titled Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village starred Cha Seung-won, Yoo Hae-jin and Son Ho-jun (Son replaced Jang Keun-suk). It aired from January 23 to March 20, 2015, and became similarly popular with Korean audiences.

The second season aired from October 9 to December 11, 2015 on Friday at 21:45.

Location : Heuksando, Sinan County, Jeollanam-do

Season 1

Episode #	Broadcast Date	Guest	AGB Ratings
			Average	Peak
1	January 23, 2015	—	9.8%	11.9%
2	January 30, 2015	Son Ho-jun	10.4%	14.2%
3	February 6, 2015		11.3%	14.1%
4	February 13, 2015	—	12.8%	14.7%
5	February 20, 2015	Jung Woo	14.2%	16.3%
6	February 27, 2015		13.5%	15.9%
7	March 6, 2015	Choo Sung-hoon	13.9%	16.8%
8	March 13, 2015		13.4%	15.2%
9	March 20, 2015	—	9.2%	10.9%

Season 2

Episode #	Broadcast Date	Guest	AGB Ratings
			Average	Peak
1	October 9, 2015	Park Hyung-sik	13.9%	16.8%
2	October 16, 2015		13.3%	15.0%
3	October 23, 2015		12.4%	15.1%
4	October 30, 2015	—	13.6%	15.4%
5	November 6, 2015	Lee Jin-wook	12.3%	13.7%
6	November 13, 2015		12.5%	14.5%
7	November 20, 2015	—	12.8%	13.8%
8	November 27, 2015	Yoon Kye-sang	12.9%	15.0%
9	December 4, 2015		12.6%	14.6%
10	December 11, 2015	—	9.6%	13.2%

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2015	9th Cable TV Broadcasting Awards	Best Production in Creative Content	Na Young-seok	Won
	51st Baeksang Arts Awards	Grand Prize (Television)	Na Young-seok	Won
		Best Entertainment Program	Three Meals a Day	Nominated

External links

• Official website (Korean)

• AGB Nielsen Media Research Ratings Page (Korean)