Singer-actor Park Jihoon’s new drama is exploding in popularity from its very first broadcast.
According to Nielsen Korea, episode 1 of the TVING original Becoming a Legend recorded a 5.8% nationwide rating among paid TV households and 6.2% in the Seoul metropolitan area, immediately drawing massive attention.
The series is a military cooking-show fantasy that follows Private Kang Sung-jae (played by Park Jihoon) as he transforms into an army cook. Interest was especially high because it’s based on the hit Naver webtoon The Legend of the Kitchen Soldier.
In the premiere, top trainee Kang Sung-jae received his unit assignment and began army life as the cook at Gangnim Outpost. Contrary to First Sergeant Park Jae-young’s (played by Yoon Kyung-ho) expectations, Kang was labeled an "S-class private," hinting at a rocky road from the very start.
Company Commander Hwang Seok-ho (played by Lee Sang-i) made Kang a cook because his mother runs a food truck. Guided by a mysterious voice, Kang successfully completed a "storage clean-up quest," kicking off a special journey within the military.
After the broadcast, viewers were split, saying, "They changed the original too much" and "I watched without noticing time fly," showing sharply divided reactions.
'The Legend of the Kitchen Soldier' is Park Jihoon’s next project after joining the 10-million-actor club with the film The King's Warden. The series airs simultaneously on TVING and tvN every Monday and Tuesday at 8:50 p.m. KST.