[The Its Know] Secret to YG cafeteria’s tasty meal: Mom’s home-cooked recipe
[스포츠동아 = 이정연 기자] ■ Digging into YG’s cafeteria
Recently, the entertainment agency YG Entertainment has been drawing much attention with its own cafeteria in the head office. The level of its fame surpasses that of any well-known restaurants in South Korea. Apart from the agency’s artists like PSY, BIGBANG, and 2NE1, the delectable food in the building’s cafeteria has become highly popular among foreign stars like Justin Bieber, Will Smith and Quincy Jones. An episode on MBC’s variety show program ‘Infinite Challenge’ ignited the interest for YG cafeteria when the members did a raffle with their most-cherished items. G-DRAGON, who appeared as a guest, offered YG cafeteria coupons (which were not technically real—the coupons were only made for the program), and all members including Yoo Jae Suk and Jung Jun Ha became unusually enthusiastic. So we are here to delve into the secrets YG holds behind their now famous cafeteria.
# Where? Seoul Mapo-gu Hapjeong-dong, 397-5 YG Entertainment Lower ground level 1
# When? Noon – 1:30 p.m., 7:00 p.m. – . The cafeteria can be accessed twice a day. Needless to say, all food is free of charge. In the afterhours of cafeteria operation, cup noodles are available for staffers. There is even a separate section for dessert, including various beverages like coffee, and fruits and snacks.
# Who? YG Entertainment’s cafeteria is open to its artists, employees, and guests visiting for YG-related business. The cafeteria used to be open to public, but after becoming so popular there were too many outsiders wanting to taste the food. The workload for food preparation became overwhelming as kitchen staff members had to cook for all the YG-related personnel and outsiders, and it reached a point where YG became the ‘victim’ of the system, though unintentionally.
# What? Menu changes all the time. The kitchen staffers include all 5 major nutrients with much attention for the artists and the employees. The secret to winning artists’ heart, who are known for being finicky eaters, was the feel of mother’s home-cooked meals. The frequently appearing menu would be stir-fried chicken ribs, bibimbap, bulgogi, stir-fried spicy pork and different vegetable side dishes.
# Why? When YG Entertainment’s founder Yang Hyun Suk first built the head office in 2010, he recruited a chef from a highly popular restaurant near Hongik University, in an area known amongst South Koreans as ‘Hongdae’. Including the chef, there are 4 kitchen staffers with 3 other ‘aunties’ (that’s what the artists and the employees call them) in charge of providing the food. No wonder it is tasty and nutritious at the same time. It simply can’t get any better.
2013. 10. 24.
