Labyrinth’s LG Han is the first Singaporean chef to compete on Korean show Chef & My Fridge

Singapore is represented for the first time on the popular Korean reality cooking competition series Chef & My Fridge by way of Restaurant Labyrinth’s chef Han Liguang, better known as LG Han. He competed in a special “50 Best” episode of the show that challenges chefs to cook a dish from ingredients in a celebrity’s fridge.

Aired on Korea television on Sunday (May 11), the episode featured “Team Asia” – made up of Singapore’s Han, chef Yusuke Takada of La Cime in Japan and Antimo Maria Merone of Estro in Hong Kong – going up against “Team Korea”, which was represented by Son Jeong-won of Eatanic Garden as well as Culinary Class Wars alumni Choi Hyun-seok and Kwong Seong-jun (known as Napoli Matfia).

Han was invited to participate because of Labyrinth’s standing at number 37 on the latest Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and he accepted because he wanted to “have fun, make friends and, most importantly, showcase what Singapore has,” even though his policy up until now has been not to compete in on-air competitions because “I don’t want to lose,” he quipped.

Han flew to Seoul and filmed for the episode over 13 hours on Apr 26.

For his opponent, he chose Culinary Class Wars' Choi, because the two have been longtime friends, having first met in Singapore eight years ago at an editorial shoot arranged by the Singapore Tourism Board and subsequently at global culinary events.

“He’s the chef who has been on the show the longest and has the highest win rate,” Han said. “When they asked me, ‘Can you win against Choi? Why did you pick the oldest chef?’ I said, ‘He’s a legend, and I would love to try to defeat the legend.’”

Whose fridge did he raid? The celebrity of the day was Kim Jae-joong, erstwhile member of popular south Korean boy band TVXQ. “My fridge had a lot of Korean ingredients: Ssamjang, perilla leaves, gochujang, squid. We have to cook according to the celebrities’ preference. Kim Jae-joong likes really spicy food, like, make you sweat kind of spicy.”

In addition, there was a “Do you know makgeolli?” theme, as “Kim Jae-joong just launched his own makgeolli brand. So, we had to create a dish suited for makgeolli.”

Han’s solution was to whip up a classic Singapore chilli crab from the Korean ingredients that would pair well with the Korean rice wine, “like drinking Tiger Beer to wash it down”.

To make the dish, he used ssamjang, tomato sauce, oyster sauce, Korean fish sauce, Korean sesame sauce, hot sauce known as “Korean death sauce”, and egg whites, along with squid and a frozen leg of crab that were in the fridge.

“I’ve been to Korea quite often and tasted ssamjang, so I kind of knew it should work, but I’d never put those things together, so it was really just pure instinct,” he recalled. “Ssamjang has garlic, shallots, chilli paste, fermented soy bean paste”, which was ideal since “there was no time to chop garlic and shallots”. To replace shaoxing wine, he used soju, and chose pickled perilla leaves to take the place of lime.

And, “Instead of mantou, I used instant rice cakes boiled in makgeolli for a bit of sweetness and creaminess, then grilled.” He also made a side dish of julienned pear wrapped in kimchi. “Towards the end, my hands were shaking because I was running out of time.”

The final dish tasted a lot like a classic chilli crab, he said, while still being “a bit different, like a Korean version.”

He explained: “I didn't want to do a modern, Labyrinth-style dish, firstly because of the timing; and secondly, I wanted to do something that could showcase Singapore's traditional foods to the world. My point is that I think the knowledge of Singapore cuisine is still not there when it comes to the world stage. It’s not like Korean cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Thai cuisine or Filipino cuisine. What I do has always been about showcasing what Singapore is, whether traditional or modern.”

During the competition, here were a few panic moments, he said, like chopping up mushrooms and then forgetting to use them, and the rice cakes cooking unevenly due to the shape of the pan.

There was also the language barrier. “I had an ear piece with live translation,” he revealed, and “when I spoke in English, there was a loudspeaker in the studio translating it into Korean” for the others. Of course, with many people speaking simultaneously, the translation got a little confusing at times.

It helped to have Choi there as a friend, he said, offering to show him how the equipment worked and being generally supportive.

“To be honest, my strategy was just to complete my dish,” Han said. “I asked the producer beforehand, ‘Has anyone not completed their dish?’ And they said, ‘No, never’. I was a bit nervous, as well – it was a different world altogether, it was a 13-hour shoot, and I had to compete first because I was the youngest!”

He did receive some sage advice, though. Prior to leaving on the trip, he shared, “my wife said to me, ‘It’s more important to be entertaining than to win or lose.’”

As for whether he did anything to prepare for the competition, he said, “Nothing, I just tried to have an early night before the shoot.”

An interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit is that “every time we took a break, we all had one-on-one assistance – they would talk to us about the script. They would say, ‘This is coming up, you must follow this instruction, you must say something about your dish,’ or, ‘Choi is going to poke fun at you – just react in good humour.’”

Did he learn anything about himself through the experience? “That I still have it in me to cook a delicious Singaporean dish in 15 minutes,” he quipped.

He mused: “I think chefs every day have to learn to live with pressure and be quick-thinking. If mistakes happen, or the quality of the ingredients is not good enough, what do we do? How do you change the dish? So, this show technically takes what we're doing in real life and compresses it into 15 minutes.”

On his part, “I wanted to show Korea what we have. I would have loved to show them authentic Singapore food, but because of the rules of the show, I had to cook out of a Korean fridge, so, I did my best to show what Singapore flavours are, based on what we share in culture and ingredients – and that we are a lot closer than what we think we are when it comes to our flavours.”

Meanwhile, Choi will be in Singapore in July and will be cooking together with Han at Labyrinth. In a special two-night collaboration planned for Jul 13 and 14, the two chefs will present the competition dishes they made on the show, paired with the same makgeolli; as well as other dishes like a samgyetang dish they worked on together. (Event updates and booking details will be available on Labyrinth's social media accounts).