Lee Sun-bin, Kang Tae-oh, Lee Hak-joo, Kim Ga-eun, Yoo Seung-mok, and Nam Hyun-woo went on a special entertainment outing a week before their first broadcast.

The production team of tvN‘s new Saturday-Sunday drama ‘Potato Research Institute’ (directed by Kang Il-soo and Shim Jae-hyun, written by Kim Ho-soo) presented the special entertainment show ‘Potato Three Meals’ on the 22nd and 23rd. Lee Sun-bin, Kang Tae-oh, Lee Hak-joo, Kim Ga-eun, Yoo Seung-mok, and Nam Hyun-woo, who fell in love with potatoes while filming the potato drama, showed off everything from innovative potato dish recipes to perfect teamwork, raising expectations for the first broadcast of ‘Potato Research Institute’.

‘Potato Three Meals’, which was released on this day, began with Lee Sun-bin and Kang Tae-oh digging potatoes after arriving at the peaceful Jeju Island. The chemistry between Lee Sun-bin and Kang Tae-oh, who won a basket of potatoes to the ‘Work Song’ that made the potato field mothers explode with excitement, brought out pleasant laughter.

Lee Sun-bin, Kang Tae-oh, Lee Hak-joo, Kim Ga-eun, Yoo Seung-mok, and Nam Hyun-woo, who reunited with the ‘Potato Family’ in Jeju Island, had to make three meals with only potatoes. For the first meal of potatoes, Yoo Seung-mok, who learned the secret recipe from his wife for Kang Tae-oh, his teammates, and Lee Hak-joo took the lead. Yoo Seung-mok, who brought green onions and Cheongyang peppers that he grew himself, even mobilized a phone call from his wife to revive the crisis-stricken gochujang stew. Kang Tae-oh’s menu was potato rice. However, Kang Tae-oh was somehow clumsy at washing rice and cutting potatoes. Thanks to Lee Sun-bin‘s special cheer that firmly maintained discipline, he completed perfect potato rice with even the scorched rice. Despite the dissuasion of the potato-lovers, Lee Hak-joo, who successfully finished zucchini and potato shredded pancakes, also created a delicious potato meal.

Kang Tae-oh, who succeeded in making ‘potato rice’, ambitiously set out to make potato and sea bream tangsuyuk with two potatoes. The Potato Family suddenly went sea fishing with the unexpected ‘sea bream’ ingredient that even the production team had not thought of. Led by Kang Tae-oh, Lee Hak-joo, who lost the game, Yoo Seung-mok, the only experienced fisherman, and the youngest Nam Hyeon-woo boarded the fishing boat. Unlike when they went out to sea with dreams of a great catch, they only caught one rockfish. The potato and sea bream tangsuyuk started off with difficulty with the captain’s sea bream gift, but their clumsiness from the first meal disappeared completely as they prepared the sea bream perfectly, eliciting admiration from Lee Sun-bin. ‘The ultimate potato dish’ Kim Ga-eun‘s potato jajangmyeon captivated the taste buds of the potato family.


The honest stories that went along with the colorful potato dishes were also interesting. The potato family revealed why they chose ‘Potato Research Institute’. Lee Sun-bin said she appeared because ‘it is a work where she can show off life acting and healing romantic comedy’. Kang Tae-oh raised expectations for the first episode of ‘Potato Research Institute’ by saying that the script was so fun that he read it all quickly. Meanwhile, Yoo Seung-mok revealed a fateful anecdote that made him decide to appear in ‘Potato Research Institute’. He said that he planted old, dried-out seed potatoes without expecting much, but miraculously, they bloomed. He told a warm story, saying that he decided to appear because he happened to receive the offer for ‘Potato Research Institute’. Kim Ga-eun lightened the mood with her witty answer, “I did it because Lee Sun-bin appeared as my friend!”

The next day, the Potato Family left for the sunrise at dawn to pray for the success of ‘Potato Research Institute’. The moment when the sun peeking out from between the clouds looked like a potato, called ‘Gamchinja’ (those crazy about potatoes), allowed us to catch a glimpse of their special affection for the drama. The scene where the Potato Family cheered for Yoo Seung-mok’s lead, “Let‘s make Potato Research Institute a success!”, made us look forward to the first episode of ‘Potato Research Institute’ even more.

As the teamwork grew stronger, the third meal of potatoes was potato dumplings made by Nam Hyun-woo. Nam Hyun-woo’s secret to completing the potato dumplings with a different smell was Yoo Seung-mok‘s green onions and Cheongyang peppers. Lee Sun-bin and Kang Tae-oh, who say that sujebi is the food of their lives, added to the fun with a special potato sujebi mukbang.


Preparing for dinner was dynamic in itself. The Potato Family, who finished digging potatoes, showed off their teamwork in the potato game to obtain other ingredients. They succeeded in the potato quiz, potato flowers are in bloom, and setting up three water bottles in a row with perfect teamwork and flawless strategy, obtaining back ribs, abalone, and octopus.

The last dish showed the synergy of the Potato Family even more. Kim Ga-eun made potato seafood oven pizza with her chemistry with Lee Hak-joo, making people laugh, and Kang Tae-oh completed potato back rib stew with support from Nam Hyun-woo. They didn’t forget a message for viewers ahead of the first broadcast of ‘Potato Research Institute’.

Lee Sun-bin left a warm message, saying, “I hope this will be your life‘s work that will warm your heart and body after the cold winter.” Kang Tae-oh said, “The writer just said that he wanted to create a really fun piece. I hope the viewers will just have fun and enjoy it comfortably.” Lee Hak-joo said, “People who act in a fun way gathered together and filmed it. I hope you’ll watch it and have fun.”

tvN, which didn‘t even put effort into pieces featuring top stars, is suddenly putting effort into ‘Potato Research Institute’ by giving it two days of entertainment programming. Could this be a learning effect from a piece that didn’t have any notable presence despite its huge production cost of 50 billion won? It seems like the channel is mobilizing every promotional means it can. Will ‘Potato Research Institute’ be able to produce good results in line with this tvN strategy?

‘Potato Research Institute’ will be first broadcast on March 1st at 9:20 PM.

Hong Se-young, Donga.com Reporter projecthong@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.