Run BTS Rewatch Episode 57: Meringue Central
방탄 셰프 1, BTS Chef 1
Season 3 baby! After what was a very long break in real life but only a matter of days here in the future, the boys are back and ready to be weirdly competitive on camera once again! The most important thing to note is that the intro song has changed from Blood, Sweat and Tears to Idol, and it really does change the tenor of the entire show from something chill to something manic, even though you could argue it’s always been both.
The boys are also clearly in the middle of Idol promotions during this first filming, as their hair has transformed from the black of the Tear era to a lot of brights and blondes. Their skin is glowing, our crops are thriving, so let’s dive in to the opening duology.
Setup:
Bangtan is starting off with an oldie but a goodie - cooking challenges! The idea came from Taehyung, who really wanted to make Italian food and had mentioned it in the past, so the Run BTS producers have made it come true. They will divide into 3 teams, do some challenges to see who gets to pick what ingredients and dishes, and then cook them to be judged by their chef advisors. Losers have to clean up, which is among the worst punishments they can devise.
The Moments of Pure Love:
They jump in from the last episode in the exact same order, which is very cute
All of them are wearing white starched shirts and black trousers like high-end waiters except for Namkook, who are wearing black shirts like bartenders
Jungkook asks if it’s season 3 and the hyungs are like who knows what time is, but it’s a new season for sure
They talk at length about how long it’s been and how excited they are to be back, while the editors note that these codependent guys see each other literally every day of their lives
Hoseok is so excited to report they went to the BBMAs and got a prize that he stands in the ultimate meme power position with his pelvis facing right to camera, legs spread wide, his hands spread over his sacrum pointing directly at his dick
Namjin find him very cute right now
Hoseok suggests they think of a new intro for the new season, and everyone gets very nervous
Jin suggests they do a Run BTS that’s just about them brainstorming changes to Run BTS, and then everything can stay the same
When the producers announce they’re cooking Italian food Taehyung does a little squat fingerpoint move to show his joy
Hoseok calls out Namjoon for having an expression that shows that he hates cooking
Namjoon ducks his head and says that he’s both bad at cooking and scared of it
Taehyung says that even if you’re bad, passion will carry you through
Jimin is very pleased to make glamorous food like steak and pasta, and shakes Taehyung’s hand in gratitude
Hoseok is inspired to also shake Taehyung’s hand
At this stage I need to note that Namjoon looks particularly gigantic today, just a real tower of a man with infinite leg
Taekook have a cute little fight while picking out their papers, and they both giggle
Yoongi announces that he learned about western food from hid older brother
Hoseok wants to be on Yoongi’s team; Yoongi has no reaction
Taehyung wants to be on Jin’s team; Jin is bemused
Jin asks if Hoseok wants to change papers, but Hoseok has a strong belief in destiny and refuses
They decide to open from left to right one at a time for maximum suspense
Namjoon is first, with team C, which he says is the prophecy for his team’s cooking grade
Yoongi, who had already looked at his paper immediately and secretly after getting it, has a resigned expression as he reveals that he is also C; everyone else rejoices
Jimin gets team A
Hoseok opens his slowly for himself, then tosses it to the ground because he got team C; Namjoon gives him a big hug, and Jungkook points out that he got Yoongi too
Jin lays out the possibilities, though he doesn’t get all of the scenarios, then reveals that he’s team B so not with Jimin
Taehyung starts moving everyone around because he also looked at his paper early - must be a Daegu thing - and shows that he’s with Jimin
Jungkook is with Jin, and Jin is very very very excited at his luck
Yoongi is very interested in what the Vmin team will be like, and he says it in the same way Jane Goodall said she was very interested in how gorillas behave in the wild
The sacred Naming of the Teams begins
Taehyung suggests Ref for team C, for Rapper Chefs, and they kindly go with it because he is sweet and earnest and they love him a lot
Jin names their team Boxing because Jungkook has started boxing at this stage, then aggressively shadow boxes with Jungkook
Vmin are the 95z, because what else could they be
They bring in the famous chef, who is taller than Namjoon and wearing glasses, and this is a double-whammy to much of Bangtan
They make the chef come in the middle to say Run so they can yell BTS, and he does it but you can see in his eyes that he’s concerned about what he signed up for
The first game is for the steak meat, of which there are four possibilities, and when they show them one of the meats is chicken and one is pork, neither of which are steak
The challenge is making meringue by hand, which involves whipping egg whites and sugar super fast
The chef gives them some tips, namely
Keep the eggs cold
Pour the sugar in slowly in three stages
Make sure the meringue isn’t runny when you turn the bowl upside down
The production team says the team has to turn the bowl over their head to prove it’s not running, and everyone gets very freaked out about their styling if it fails
Vmin have a light domestic argument about if Taehyung trusts Jimin to turn the bowl over on his head
Jin is confident because Jungkook has never met a physical challenge he can’t conquer
Namjoon counters that they have Yoongi, and Jimin counters that he has himself
Yoongi and Jungkook stand up to get ready to whisk
Jimin is trying to get Taehyung to do RPS to see who goes, but Taehyung has the bowl in front of him and tells Jimin to be quiet; Jimin pouts
Jungkook does some boxing moves with the whisk to warm up his wrists; Jin joins in for solidarity
They start in and everyone has a different technique
Yoongi, face pained, slowly rotates the whisk to get maximum air into the eggs with each pass
Jimin leans all the way over his bowl for better leverage
Jungkook is bearing down on the whisk like he’s trying to break the sound barrier
Hoseok realizes that speed is important and encourages Yoongi to go faster
Jin shouts encouraging words at Jungkook, slightly like he is a racing horse
Jimin says his arms are tired so Taehyung takes over
Yoongi begins screaming in agony but keeps going
Jungkook is not tired
Jimin takes over from Taehyung after the sugar pour
Namjoon takes a very brief turn then passes it to Hoseok
Vmin switch it back and forth frequently as they tire
Yoongi grabs it back and begins whisking with his whole chest
Hoseok goes to check on Jinkook and yells happily that he thinks team Ref is winning
Jin takes over for Jungkook
Jimin makes sounds like a steam engine coming into the station as he keeps whisking
Jin asks Jungkook to hold the bowl for him
Yoongi decides that it’s time to test his, so he holds it over his head in a crouched turtle position - it doesn’t run, and they win!
Jungkook also holds his over his head, much less scared, and they also pass
Jimin decides it must be time for him and holds it over his head; it pours out almost instantly
The chef makes a horrified face and spins away from the carnage
Everyone else laughs heartily, as Jimin looks like a huge bird pooped on his head
After he cleans up, he returns to a round of applause for making the episode great for them
Team Ref picks an ingredient via Yoongi giving a long speech about meat preferences before choosing sirloin
Team Boxing picks an ingredient via Jin giving a long speech about how many chicken dishes there are in the world before choosing tenderloin
Namjoon is like, we all saw that coming but we appreciate your craft
Team 95z are taking a positive attitude and choosing pork to prove that you can do anything you set your mind to
The next game is to choose the type of pasta they get, and everyone gets salty about all of this pre-gaming before the actual cooking part
Taehyung announces that he wanted this episode, but not like this
The game is that they all get 454 grams of butter and they have to slice it so that they end up with 100g of butter per teammate on the scale
This starts a line of creative dominoes that leads to Jung Hoseok eating a pat of butter in a MV in 2022
The chef shows that this is possible by demonstrating it himself with 100g
They all ask him if he can get it exact, and when he tells them that he used to measure most ingredients by feel and get close they get very cranked up
Rapline in particular is like “omg tell me more that sounds so hot”
Jin is mostly examining his block of butter and trying to intimidate it into complying
The chef goes in without hesitation, and they all look at the size and start guessing that it will be much too high, like 130 or 180
The chef is annoyed with himself when it’s 96, and Hoseok’s face of shock is a sight to behold
Jungkook’s expression is more like a kid who just saw a really cool magic trick and wants to see it again
Jimin is chagrined that he was so wrong that it would be high
Team 95z goes first; Jimin is confident and Taehyung’s face is fml
Jimin goes in decisively, at Hoseok’s urging, and says that he got 103
It’s actually 74, which isn’t that bad, but he’s very annoyed with himself
Taehyung comes in for the second cut, trying to get the extra for Jimin, but he ends up overshooting to 224 total
Team Boxing goes second, and Taehyung belatedly realizes that they have an advantage because they saw what size Vmin did
Jin decides he’s going to just try to get the whole 200 on his cut
Jimin is like wait a second why did we try to do 100 each when it was 200 as a team
Jin goes for a big hunk and gets 180, which is pretty good
This leaves Jungkook aiming for 20, trying for a very thin slice, and Jin tells him after he’s done that it looks like 35
The chef tells them if they want they can cut some off of the piece they got, they just can’t cut more
Jimin says that shouldn’t be allowed because they weren’t allowed, and the chef clarifies about the cutting what you already cut, and Jimin whines quite pathetically at him
Jungkook ends up with 28, giving them 208 total, and everyone is very impressed
Jungkook is a little upset with himself that he didn’t get closer
Team Ref is last, and they have to get 300 in 3 cuts
Namjoon starts doing the math, which is that if it’s 450g then 1/3 is 150g which means they need 2/3 of the block
Namjoon proposes they start with 1/3, to hopefully get 150, and then they’ll know they just need half of the remaining block to get to 300
Yoongi starts thinking back to Jungkook’s cut, and what that weight was
Hoseok sits in his chair as Namgi discuss this, smiling, and is like “I’m happy to let them do the thinking and me do the not thinking”
Yoongi slices in with confidence but his dainty body makes it hard for him to get the knife through, which they all find cutely pathetic
He gets 142, which is almost exactly what they’re going for, and he’s very proud
Namjoon talks to himself as he calculates what he needs to cut, Yoongi supervising
Hoseok tells us that this level of mathematics is like watching Einstein at work, which is fucking hilarious, especially considering that if Yoongi had just cut a little more they could have put the other side of the block on the scale and been at 300
Namjoon chooses his cut and Hoseok snaps back into it and is like be careful with that knife!!!
Yoongi takes over the slicing
Jimin, very confidently, says it’s too much
Namjoon’s cut is 232, a little light, taking them to a total of 274
Jimin, smug at how over weight this is, realizes that this team is aiming for 300, not 200 as he thought, so they’re actually doing well
Namjoon tells Hoseok to cut the butter exactly as Jungkook did it (28) for victory
Hoseok second guesses himself a lot but takes the plunge
Jimin, eating raw spaghetti, is very impressed with the final tally of 294
Hoseok is sooooooo glad he didn’t fuck it up
Jin, also eating raw spaghetti, commiserates with Jungkook about their loss by making high pitched sounds
Taehyung decides to try to get it to exactly 300 by adding 6g himself
They realize that 95z are last again, and they seem genuinely a little sorry for them, except for Yoongi who taunts them a little
Jimin says that ingredients don’t matter, taste and decoration do, and 95z have that in spades
The four pastas are presented for choice, fettucine, rigatoni, orecchiette, and spaghetti
There are also four types of sauce to pick from, and while they’re shown as jarred sauces (with the brands poorly disguised), they have to be made from scratch: alfredo, bolognese, arrabbiata, and pesto
Taehyung realizes that if the other two teams pick the long pasta they’re stuck with a short one, and he leans against the wall to feel angst and regret
The rapline confer about their choices, and while they take the fettucine right away they’re less sure about the sauce
They consider pesto - this is confirmed when the chef says it’s the easiest sauce to make, and Yoongi says he’s very good at oil pasta
Jin tells Jungkook that cream pasta goes well with meat, so they should cook that
Jin also tells Jungkook that his back is to the camera, so Jungkook dutifully turns around
There’s dissent in the room about if people like cream sauce, which might be fair in Korea, but the chef says that a cream sauce would be good with the tenderloin since it’s a lean cut
Taehyung is flummoxed about what to pick, as he’s never seen either of these types of pasta before, and the chef says that he doesn’t like short pasta which brings Taehyung to a new tier of sadness
Jimin makes the executive decision to go with orecchiette, which are shaped like a small ear
When it comes to the sauce, Taehyung wants the bolognese but Jimin stumps for the arrabbiata, since a meat sauce would be awkward with small pasta pieces
Jimin wins, because Taehyung is too sad to care
They move into the kitchen which is an actual restaurant kitchen instead of a TV stage kitchen, and Jihope are very impressed
Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, and Hoseok begin doing the sprinkle-salt-from-up-high gesture, and the chef is amused by them
Jimin announces to the chef that this is going to suck, because Vmin always let everyone else do the cooking and they just season the dishes
Hoseok encourages his bro that he’s going to just fine
Jungkook points at Jimin and says that no one can ever win against people who are having fun
Namseok are very impressed with the small one’s wisdom
Jin asks how it works if everyone is having fun, and Namjoon says then everyone wins, which Jungkook echoes happily
The chef begins explaining some of their ingredients to rapline
He starts with the fact that pesto is made mostly of basil, which in Korean accent is pronounced like Brazil without the r
Hoseok, very excited, repeats with all the enthusiasm of Pitbull making his next track
Taehyung, perking up at the opportunity to learn, slides in to make sure he knows the word
The chef adds this sauce should be quick, since they just have to throw everything into the blender; this is foreshadowing of the funniest kind
Namjoon gets very excited about this type of 21st century technological assistance
Next up is the Jinkook briefing
Jungkook points at the heavy cream and identifies it proudly before asking how much to use
Jin confirms that he needs to simmer it down to cook it, and really impresses Namjoon with the fact that he knows something like that
The chef tells them they need to add butter to thicken it, and apparently that’s all they need to know
Vmin step up with heavy hearts, so much so that Hoseok has to encourage them again
Their sauce has the most ingredients and is spicy, which has Jimin sort of intrigued and sort of worried
They also get to use the blender after sauteing all the vegetables, and Hoseok realizes how complicated this one is and leads a round of applause for Vmin, the chefs
Jimin asks for 2 hours to complete their cooking, and Yoongi agrees as long as he gets to leave when he’s done
The production team announces the time (1:05) and before they can say the end time of 2:05 Jimin tries to tack on a little extra by suggesting they end at 2:10; this does not work
Hoseok dings the service bell to start them off
Jimin immediately turns to the chef and makes sure he will have him as a consistent encyclopedia of knowledge, starting with “are there more tomatoes” and going from there as we’re out!
The Finish Line:
This was a crazy setup to a cooking episode but honestly I’m kind of into it! Pre-games before the big cooking fest is a good idea, even if it ended up with Taehyung’s head drooping lower and lower as his Italian dreams became nightmares.
Also coming from the US, especially the middle part of it, where pasta with cream sauce is basically a religion, it was really interesting to see how Koreans approach Italian food as a concept and a challenge. Seeing them stare at rigatoni, unaware of what it was, was wild, but also very understandable. I can’t cook Korean food to save my life, and it’s always fun to flip perspective and think about normal really means.
Next time we will see how the cooking goes, though honestly we all know it will go fine. Despite the fact that their perfectionist natures make them pessimists, we all know that these guys can do pretty much anything when given the space to succeed, so I have no doubt they will all be fine. We will also get to experience one of my favorite Namseok journeys of all time as they face off against their most challenging foe yet: pesto. See you there!