How 3 Korean Chefs Make 10,000 Office Workers' Lunch Boxes Every Week | Big Batches | Insider Food
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- Опубліковано 25 кві 2023
- At Mugga Dosirak in South Korea, a team of three chefs and 15 staff members cook and package 10,000 lunch boxes every week by hand, and sell around 400,000 lunch boxes every year. We visited their kitchen to see how they prepare these meals in such big batches.
Editor's Note: At 9:12, this video incorrectly states that each lunchbox costs 30,000 won. They actually cost 7,000 won. Insider regrets this error.
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How 3 Korean Chefs Make 10,000 Office Workers' Lunch Boxes Every Week | Big Batches | Insider Food
$5 for a meal of that quality is no joke. I have never had tofu before, but I'd be willing to try that for $5. The head chef is a boss...all that hand mixing and chopping. To be able to turn out dishes this high quality, nobody can afford to slack off and from the looks of it they don't
30k won is about US $22, so I suspect that number may be in error :( but it is true the meals are very high quality.
Tofu just takes on the flavor of whatever the sauce is. It's actually great and Mapo Tofu is really good.
@@laerwen maybe it’s 30k per 5 day working week - that’d be about $5 per day, which would be incredibly good value.
I’d definitely subscribe if that service was available to me, even at twice that price.
@@jdkgcp tofu has it's own distinct flavor actually unless you get really bad one and don't prepare it well
@@jdkgcp As mentioned by someone above tofu has its own distinctive flavor. East asians can well recognise the characteristic 'bean protein' flavor of tofu since we are adapted and sensitive to the taste, for myself I really like the flavor of tofu
Everything made from scratch, freshly cooked, beautifully seasoned. For 5 bucks. Absolutely incredible
It's closer to 25 usd - the narrator said 30,000 krw and did the conversion terribly wrong
@@chronos13 Probably $5 per meal $25 for 5 for the whole week.
No they made an error in the description, it’s 7000 won which is 5 bucks
@@ibuyfriends4467 it's in the description
A tiny but extremely telling detail of how much thought and care go into preparing these meals is at 1:41 where the chefs wash the *intact* packages of tofu, as they will be slicing into the top packaging, causing the tofu water to mix with potential contaminants on the plastic lid and back into the contents, similar to how the top of cans get dusty. Even though this ingredient is likely stored in much more sanitary conditions as it requires refrigeration, they realized the potential for contamination and took steps to maximize cleanliness.
This is actually lax for Korean food hygiene. There are food factories where they look like they are working at NASA with the same sorts of procedures/outfits.
They rinsed the package before cutting
@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ repent and believe in Allah. Or Budha. Or Thor.
@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ Amen!! God bless you!!! ❤️
Philippians 4:19 KJV: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
@@blzt3206 This is the way
The variety of ingredients in this is mind boggling. It's more than I typically get in an entire day cooking my own food. Insane.
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day and that is free for all. this is like puppet in front of them.
@@amazingdude9042 You sound like a damn Texan. I'm talking about variety. I'm familiar with what you're talking about, and those meals don't have half the ingredients these do.
@@ephemispriest8069well Indians ARE the Texans of Asia and Chinese the MURICANS of Asia
@@amazingdude9042 so?
lets compare to how clean they make food instead lmao.
I get about half of this variety in a full days menu.
it's amazing that they even rinsed the tofu packets. incredible attention to cleanliness
I know right
I was just thinking same looking at that.
The thing about that is we koreans once experienced deadly diseases after the korean war, especially with bad hygiene in kitchens that supply big batches of food to schools, military, etc. That lead to the act of 'hunting down' dirty kitchens. You just don't get complaints from the customer here. You may be a nationally wanted murderer for supplying food poisoning to a school.
@@jvaria9797 i see, its a great practice, we salute them 👍🏻
French chefs that work in children schools wash the packages as well to lessen The risk of pathogens getting into the food.
It is mind boggling that they do not use machines to chop veggies at this scale. Hats off to the chefs to do the whole process by hand!!
They are on camera, of course they will show you that
That area of the world the machinery is cheaper because they basically make everything device
@@paulinejackson5861 they seem dexterous with a knife for it to be "just for the camera"
That's what I was thinking, and wondering why they don't use those metal gloves to avoid any accident
And that is why they are all unsanitary regardless
The fact that he's still using the finger technic when making rice even for big batches like that shows he's really good asian chef
Major props to the amazing chefs. The amount of prep alone is amazing.
For a high tech setup, the finger technique is still used when cooking rice. Mad respect!
Using the hand for scaled up accuracy!
What "high tech setup"? Did I miss something?
@@RustedCroaker maybe he meant high efficiency
@@RustedCroaker maybe they meant high volume and more industrial/commercial level set up. From the basic $10 budget rice cooker to the 21X50-serve-chamber industrial cooker, its still using the finger/hand technique.
@@RustedCroaker yeah go back and rewatch the whole video and let us know if you figure it out.
For $5, that’s an amazing deal! And so much healthier than any fast food that would be 4 times the price.😮
If you buy this at school, it would be like cold pizza for $15
30k won is 22 USD
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme I think the won amount is incorrect. Korean food is generally cheap
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day and that is free for all. this is like puppet in front of them.
@Amazing Dude so ?
I would gladly pay $20 to $25 to just try one of those boxes the quality and the craftsmanship and the effort that went into making those meals is amazing and I would be honored to taste that
This is how it started to get messed up for everyone 😂
well youre in luck. 30,000 won is in fact 23 USD. I dont know what the narrator was smoking when she said its 5USD. Dosirak of this spread is definitely gonna be expensive.
@@2iiAaron yeah I was also surprised by when the lady said that it costed 5 USD; had to go google the exchange rate and fact check that because there was no way 30,000 Won is close to 5 USD.
@@warp1174 i think she meant to say 13,000 won, which is usual for a dosirak in Korea, but in which case its still gonna be around 9USD.
@@2iiAaron there is a note in the description saying that 30,000 was an error in narration, and the price is actually 7000 won.
I really appreciate seeing videos like these as it shows all the hard work that goes into making these delicious lunch boxes! They pour all of their energy on a container that once it is consumed, it gives back the energy needed to press on and do what needs to be done. Thank you very much!
I respect these cooks. 4:30am is no joke
$5!!!!!!!!!!!!! The bargain of the century, looks fantastic
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day. this is like puppet in front of them.
actually 30,000 Yen is equal to 22.5 dollar, i am not sure why the editor says 5
@@amazingdude9042 not trying to be rude, but Indian always make it about them when its clearly showing others. Like sort of main characters. We get it. Asian countries cook more than European and Americans. Stop being desprate
@@AJ-rc5lr this is korea, not japan
@@MimiMangetsu sorry, i was meant to type Won, but instead i typed Yen, but it's still correct, 30,000 Won is 22,5 dollar
I can’t believe that it’s done by hand. This is truly a labour of love.
more like slave labour korea is known for terrible labour conditions
I cannot thank you enough for producing/publishing this video. I love this
I just love this culture… how nourishing and thoughtful for companies to provide meals like this. I really wish I could eat like this every day. ❤
I love watching this big batch series, always intriguing how they manage it all and deliver quality meals
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day. this is like puppet in front of them.
@@amazingdude9042 but not really clean. India has to improve a lot on hygiene level
@@husky4890 go and see Akshay Patra kitchens, you will know what a sophisticated large kitchen looks like.
@@husky4890 you obviously get your information from reels and content online. @Amazing Dude is talking about large scale temple, gurudwara kitchens which encourage hygeine as the food is a blessing of God
@@amazingdude9042 Is it your lifes mission to disagree with everyone who thinks this is big?
For people talking about the price: the video description corrected the error and said it is around 7,000 Won which is around 5US$, but for those saying it is cheap for the quality: you can't compare it like that. You have to compare like for like.
The average wage for an office administrator is $14 USD an hour so 5$ is just over 20% of one hour's worth of working. According to Numbeo, a meal at an inexpensive restaurant in a major like New York, is $25 USD, which is over 4x that of a same comparison in Seoul, a capital city. Everything in South Korea is comparatively cheaper when compared to a country like the USA with higher costs of living and wages. By this standard, food is even cheaper in India, Thailand, Indonesia etc but if you move there and get a local job, your wages will also be lower.
I just hate it when people talk about how cheap something is without considering the local context.
i mean, though you are not wrong in terms of not considering local context, a lot of people will still just compare it to what they have had in their life. So getting this for $5 is a bloody good deal. Is it accurate the Won to USD ratio in terms of pricing? Nah, I'd expect this to be more expensive in the likes of America due to ingredient sourcing which will bump the prices up a bit
Comparing New York's price is an even more of overshoot, though. In most big cities across the world the a meal at an inexpensive restaurant is more like around $15. South Korea is a relatively developed nation with a fairly strong currency. $5 in Korean currency is mostly similar in value with $5 in France, Italy, Japan etc.
Pfff, you think people think about context
@@anotheryoutubeaccount5259 If they don't, they should. There are just too many people making comments like "how can someone not afford XYZ when it only costs $50" and forget the context of the video is set in the 1960's, or those travel videos that say "buffet lunch for just $3" and the catch is it's $3 USD when people in the local place survives on something like $10 a day.
Of course this doesn't apply to this video, this video is great, but I am referring to people in the comments who forget they have to fly there first, or the difference in population and wages and currency.
@@user-rm9oi2jd8r I am not comparing New York, a large city in the USA to Seoul, a large city in Korea. Since people are saying how cheap $5 USD is for a meal, I am comparing 5 US Dollars in New York, a large city in the home of said currency, and the costs of other things in the same city, vs the equivalent South Korean currency, the Won, in Seoul, a large city in their own home country vs costs of other things in Seoul.
It’s so beautiful to see this is all done by hand. It surely makes the food taste better.
*I can't get over how CLEAN their kitchen is , like WOW!! It's so immaculate! Also, seeing the office workers eat together in the break room was very heartwarming to me because the ladies we're eating so like, diligently! I just absolutely love Korean life styles, EVERYTHING!*
Well, people work WAY too much there. So it's highly likely that team will be eating dinner together too. :(
That 1 second lag in between big and batches during the intro really made me smile. Fantastic attention to detail!
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day and that is free for all. this is like puppet in front of them.
@@amazingdude9042 those Big Batches videos are also excellent, it's nice to see inside the different types of big kitchens on this channel :)
@@amazingdude9042 ingredient prep, number of ingredients, attention to cleanliness, precision and all the different cooking techniques. you're comparing apples to oranges.
give me a dozen helpers, a giant pot, some rice, flour, ghee, vegetables, garam masala and chutney and i can say i cooked for 200k 🙄
it's not a competition.
@@dnichl go and see Akshay Patra kitchens, you will know what a sophisticated large kitchen looks like.
Great video! You can tell that those chefs take a lot of pride in what they do and it shows.
I love how clean and proper everything looks, that brings me even more joy than the food
All that work and the kitchen is PRISTINE! Thank you hard working people 🙏🏽
Rofl so true - meanwhile most make more mess at home cooking for only 1-4 😆
The chefs and the rest of the kitchen crew do an amazing job. Watching the whole process while each step was explained wants me to try my hands on the cucumber and chive salad🤤
Look how clean they keep their kitchen. Amazing
I LOVE it when food is prepared cleanly!!! LOVE IT!!!
Those meals looks absolutely delicious!
Love how it’s all made from scratch. Real quality right there!
I love how some of their processes seem super inefficient. Like chopping everything by hand, wok frying individual batches but I bet the quality is at restaurant level or better, awesome dedication to bringing people better lunches. I would pay a lot more than 5$ for this
4:20 Love how even in this huge kitchen, the chef's put their hands in the water when cooking rice haha
Its much easier, Doesn't matter how much rice you cook if you put your palm in the middle as long as your fingers are all covered, it's the perfect amount of water.
@@AllenHanPR yes! it's how I do it as well, just fun to see the tried and true method being used to make 1000000 times more rice than i do ^^
Its so satisfying to watch people do their work
great video, one of my favorites so far
This process is just mesmerizing to watch. Hats off to these workers. We hope they continue to work hard.
I would love to try their food some time. It looks so delicious.
Such a wonderful process! I would totally subscribe!
Wow!
I might never get to eat their lunch boxes but I'd like to thank the Chef's and team that make them everyday!
I’m not sure what Claudia said about the price in the end but I heard 30000 won. That’s not 5 USD, that’s almost 23 USD (1 USD = 1330ish won). Even if it’s 13000, that’s nearly 10 USD.
its 7000won currently
she said it wrong
too many mistakes made in this video to take it too seriously, and you heard correctly
exactly what i heard as well lol
@@thischubbyboislife7871 Schleich di du Lauch
7000won is correct. That is the “good” price in Korea.
Thanks to these people, people can choose between cooking and eating out.
I can’t think about eating out here in US much.
The price becomes even more amazing when you realize that there's no tipping culture in South Korea, so no extra costs added to that except delivery fee. And in Korea, delivery fees can go as low as dollar fifty if travel distance isn't too far. You can further reduce the fee by ordering multiple boxes at the same time and divide the fee. So, technically, you can have the lunch box delivered to your place at less than 6 dollars, everything included.
seeing as how it's based on subscription prob delivery cost is included
The "tips" are already included in the price.
Thank you for showing us how it's done!!😊❤
This interesting video serves a similar function as travel toward tolerance, understanding, and cultural appreciation. I'm pleased to have stumbled upon this channel. Thanks for the time and effort that go into creating value-added content.
So effective and efficient. Looks delicious too.
I absolutely love this series especially with Claudia’s voiceover
I am always amazed with the Korean style of cooking. So much varieties of veggies in one meal!
The level of cleanliness is absolutely unreal.
I would try their food at any time.
I love even when cooking an ungodly amount of rice in an industrial rice cooker, he's using the finger tip technique our Asian moms taught us 😅
1:54 That one tofu: "adios"
Or should I say "annyeong"
Incredible grafting there and the end product looks absolutely fabulous.
I genuinely appreciate your channels
They still use the finger method to cook their rice. I trust these guys with my whole belly.
Super impressive operations. All fresh ingredients.
Only thing that makes me cry is the plastic waste of those containers. Wish they would add another element of having a system where containers would be washed and reused, especially for offices that have long standing orders.
if it makes you feel better the recycling in SK is much more robust than in the US. Most likely those containers are all recycled after use.
They recycle almost everything in Korea. They even pay a fee for leftovers food.
Recycling is great, but reuse is even better!
@@ohsharon94 Recycling still wastes energy. Reuse wastes almost no energy.
@@thany3 Ppl gonna still talk about water usage and waterwaste. They gonna find negativity in anything
Really good quality food and ingredients too. Amazing.
Amazing to watch this video, I love it. My great respect for all people working really hard there, absolutely incredible. Thank you for sharing 😁😍❤️👍👍👍💪💪💪
What dedication to their craft! I loved seeing all the hand chopping, mixing, frying - instead of machines. Fresh ingredients. No cartons of liquid eggs there or frozen (except the buns, but that's ok).
~Beautiful food that I'd be happy to pay double the paltry $5! - I refused to even try ma po tofu when I was a kid, now I love it.
AMEN!
Huge applause for the crew, I bet the food is delicious & well made with care 🙏
Respect!
Everything looked really good! I think it’s nice that the office workers that subscribe all eat together too.
The best thing is when you make something out of love and people like it and they become healthy because of it ❤ it's so cute makes me happy
Amazing how much pride these guys have in what they do.
I'm surprised no one mentions it. 3 people for 1400 meals in a single day? They ain't getting paid enough for that no doubt. The only people willing to take that job are doing it for the same reason companies tell you to take their job making art "do it for the exposure, do it for your passion" because there's no way they are getting paid enough to make 1400 meals in a day that number is genuinely insane.
Whenever I see anything related to my home country, I'm always intrigued to watch it. Respect to my Korean brothers who fuel the dedicated workers behind SK's industries.
This is incredible!!!
looks incredibly delicious and at such scale … mind blowing
Even with the amount of the rice they make, the time old measurement of rice to water with the knuckles remains true. Fantastic...
many ppl talking about price and some are douting about its not $5. well i googled it easy and got price of it. the month sub of price is 7000원(7000korea won) its about $5. btw 7000원 is quite cheap as lunch meal. most lunch meal in korea is about 10000원($7.5). but in convineant store(like seven eleven, CU, GS25) also have about 4000원-5000원($3) price which is lot of worker eat for cheap lunch.
TLDR; Yep its indeed $5, lot of meal in here are about and over $7.5 and cheap food are $3. so i think its just decent choice yet so mouth watering
The issue is that the person doing the audio said 30 000₩ not 10 000₩ or less, that's where the comments come from...
Did you watch the video? She said 30k won. That's why people are questioning it
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme They made a mistake in the video and each box actually costs 7000₩
Delicious and mind blowing too... Doing it manual by hand, they must be fully trained with no jokes experience... Good job cheff..
Love this process of theirs
those are some happy happy office workers! :)
I remember growing up in Hong Kong. Every school will have 3rd party companies that has a kitchen staff like this to make different lunch dishes everyday for the kids at every school. You get a menu the month prior with 4-5 different choices per day to choose from for the next month. I believe it only cost my parents around $400-$500 HKD per month, which is around $23 HKD per day or $3 USD per day. I think the Hong Kong government also has programs to help kids with financial needs as well. This was honestly the star of the day for me. It was what kept me excited to go to school every day. Kept us well fed, well nourished and engaged. Then I came to the states and I had a single slice of pizza for lunch everyday...
Looks wonderful, I would definitel order the food aswell.
That looks good! What a great service
Truly amazing work and people producing delicious food...😋
It’s impressive. Looks like they took what they learned from being cooks in the Army into their business. Very smart!
I never realized I wasn't subbed to the channel. I just always get your vids in my recommended
Those big batches looks so so delicious
Assuming they would have a varied menu from day to day, Would really love to have had this available where we lived even at twice the price.
30 000 krw is definitely not 5 usd 😂 Props to these amazing workers for prociding such fresh, healthy and delicious food!
they corrected their error. its actually 7'000 won
before Tsujioka family taxes its five dollars. do your research pls.. google does not know everything..
You’re right. It’s not. But generally speaking, prepared food in SoKo is far less expensive than it is in the US.
Everything looks so clean
I like this
Man everything looks do clean 😍
Mapo Tofu is a very well rounded dish. Spicy, super savory with bits of pork, and the tofu absorbs all the flavor. Heavenly!
I’m not sure I understand adding pork to a tofu dish because the whole point of tofu is that you aren’t eating meat. Either way though its quite an amazing dish.
@@ImSimplyChilling Tofu is a supplementary protein and is a good base for absorbing flavor quickly unlike meat. Outside of america noone is that picky about their food.
@@ImSimplyChilling “the whole point of eating tofu is that you aren’t eating meat” Interesting take but that’s actually a Western concept. Tofu is a very versatile ingredient in Asia and we have a lot of cuisines/dishes where we mix tofu with different kinds of meat. The dish featured is Mapo Tofu which is of Chinese origin and if you know China, you’d know that they love meat especially pork.
@@ImSimplyChilling A meat-eater enjoys the best of both worlds, not very hard to understand eh
@@ImSimplyChillingTofu is not a meat substitute. Weird idea.
😂 this gave me flashbacks from when i was doing my service in the rok army. They're using the exact same equipment used by the korean army.
What equipments do they use which is same as they use in the army?
@hazelmint6671
The oversized woks, the rice cookware, the rice cooking ovens, the shovel looking non-shovels...
It felt exactly like walking into the kitchen of the HQ mess hall
Wow these men are amazing god bless them for their hard work and the meals are so cheap ❤
Thats Amazing!!
I am in awe that even with larger rice quantities the hand measuring technique works for cooking rice 😂👍
WOW everything looks delicious 😋 and it only cost $5 😘 Incredible chefs that take the time to hand chop the veggies 🥰
Wow, high quality👍 look very fresh
I'm amazed it's just the three of them. So much work and dedication.
I hope that food insider will feature more regional eats. Featuring some traditional foods, unique foods, national foods, and exotic foods or cultural foods.
he he. you call this big ? in India there are kitchens which makes meals for upwards of 100k people a day and that is free for all. this is like puppet in front of them.
As an Indian, don't want to claim the abv guy.... Hard work should be appreciated coz it's better than typing mean youtube comments
unbelievable amount of food they prepare every day AND unbelievable how many varieties of foods the workers gets too, wow! Extremely commendable!
I appreciate the cleanliness 👍🏆
That looks like an awesome operation to be apart of! 👏😎👊
That is a great meal for only $5. Impressive team there.
That looks better than most restaurants we have here 😭😭
What do you mean by here xD 😅
PAKISTAN OR AFGANISTAN
Here is where? A third world somewhere?
@@drewh3224 most 3rd world countries have better food than 1st world
@@Alex-956 WTF U WANNA SAY? 🤔
I honestly love to see the process of these mass produced meals.
A nice added touch was the use of the blow torch at around 2:30 to add that smokey sorta flavour to the pork that you usually get from traditional wok stir frying
working in the same type of kitchen, this is possible only because it's ordered in advance, and in large amounts.. but for me it's impressive how clean is everything, no matter how hard i try to keep it clean, when the time is pushing me i always drop something here and there on the tables while i fill the boxes
The sanitation protection and food safety they have is top notch as well. 👌🏼🙌🏼
WOW! how impressive!
I love it how even with big batches, the dip your finger/hand to measure the water level method still gets used
I searched the Mugga Dosirak 무까 도시락, and found out they provide several types of Dosirak with different prices. And that one is about 5$ if subscribed. 30,000₩ (=23$) thing should be more fancier than the one in the video.
They made a mistake in the video and each box actually costs 7000₩
I think KRW 30,000 is for 5 day subscription, by one meal is KRW 7,000
All looks very good
And very healthy too
@@hteacave your comment and ops comment are spot on :)
@@hteacave your comment and ops comment are spot on :)
I'm always deeply impressed by large scale cooking. These gentlemen do excellent work. I'm deeply impressed. I hope they get a decent lunch break.
Wow the hygenic is amazimg😮😮😮