Do we like Paik Jong-won?
Our score: 6 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, but the good-person record is mixed and the good stuff in the sources is thin.
Paik never trained as a cook. He studied social welfare, bought a ssambap restaurant, then launched Theborn Korea in 1994. It now runs 149 brands, including the budget coffee chain Paik's Coffee. His pitch is cheap food for ordinary families, and that's why Koreans trusted him.
That trust took a hammering in early 2025. Customers and critics questioned the low pork content in his ham set and the tiny amount of citrus in his tangerine beer. A video meant to back local farmers featured a product that contained Brazilian chicken. On 14 March 2025 he posted an apology for the “unacceptable mistakes” in production and distribution.
Then came the people stuff. In April 2025 a former MBC producer alleged on YouTube that Paik pushed for his own preferred writers and crews on My Little Television and had cast members quietly removed. A Theborn Korea official said the claims were “completely untrue”. A producer who worked with him told Hankook Ilbo he saw no abuse of power. It is alleged, disputed and unresolved.
On the legal side, the biggest stain has mostly lifted for him personally. Prosecutors closed their probe into Paik and Theborn Korea on 29 December 2025 and cleared him over the origin labelling of ingredients, citing no evidence of deliberate intent. He told shareholders in March 2026 that nearly all the allegations ended with no wrongdoing found. The Korea Times reported that as his statement and gave no case-by-case detail.
On the harm check, we found nothing. No searches turned up anything he has said or done against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate. Nor did they turn up conspiracy talk or politics-for-profit. The record is thin on those topics because his public life is cooking shows and a food business. That is an absence of evidence, not a character reference.
The recent chapter is a comeback. After more than 170 complaints and reports, he suspended public activities in May 2025. By June 2026 he was back on YouTube with a five-minute cold noodle recipe and no mention of the saga. The company says cooking content will now be kept separate from company material.