''Three Meals a Day'' () is a South Korean

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imagination, imaginary. Different Culture, cultures and Academic discipline, academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions abo ...

cooking show A cooking show, cookery show, or cooking program (also spelled cooking programme in British English) is a television genre that presents food preparation, often in a restaurant kitchen or on a Television studio, studio set, or at the host's p ...

broadcast on tvN. The cast live in a small rural or fishing village for three days a week and are tasked to use whatever food they find there to cook three meals a day. They also experience village life while interacting with the locals and entertain various celebrity guests for dinner. Nine seasons aired from October 2014 to July 2020 on Friday nights at various time slots. Each season featured different locations and casts, according to various themes. There are four themes in total: ''Jeongseon Village'' and ''Fishing Village'', which recur across multiple seasons; ''Gochang Village''; and an all-female cast edition ''Mountain Village''. Two web spin-offs featuring various cast members of '' New Journey to the West'' were also produced and released on producer Na Young-seok's

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. ''Three Meals in Iceland'' was released from September 20 to November 29, 2019, while ''Three Meals a Day for Four'', featuring Sechs Kies, was released from May 15 to July 24, 2020. In October 2021, a third spin-off was released for television broadcast, featuring the cast of hit drama series '' Hospital Playlist''.

Production

The idea for ''Three Meals a Day'' came about from a joke on '' Grandpas Over Flowers'', which producer-director Na Young-seok and actor

Lee Seo-jin Lee Seo-jin (born January 30, 1971) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for the reality shows '' Three Meals a Day'' and '' Grandpa Over Flowers''. As an actor, he came to prominence with his leading roles in television series '' Damo'' ( ...

had worked together on previously. Due to his poor cooking skills while filming ''Grandpas Over Flowers'', the production crew jokingly nicknamed Lee the "Cooking King." This became a running gag about Lee starring in a fake

titled ''Cooking King Seo-jinnie'', a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of the popular drama series '' Bread, Love and Dreams'', which eventually materialised into ''Three Meals a Day''. Lee was cast for the first season of the series, also the first of the ''Jeongseon Village'' editions, alongside former '' Wonderful Days'' co-star Ok Taecyeon. In the second ''Jeongseon Village'' edition, former guest Kim Kwang-kyu joined the two as a regular cast member. On top of the regular cooking premise, the trio were given the additional task of growing and harvesting crops from spring to early fall, with grocery shopping strictly prohibited. The first four seasons of ''Three Meals a Day'' in 2014 and 2015 alternated between the ''Jeongseon Village'' and ''Fishing Village'' editions, showcasing different seasons in different locations.

Cha Seung-won Cha Seung-won (; born June 7, 1970) is a South Korean actor, who began his career as an in-demand model (person), fashion model in the 1990s. Cha achieved stardom through the hit comedy films ''Kick the Moon'' (2001), ''Jail Breakers'' (2002), ' ...

, Yoo Hae-jin and Son Ho-jun formed a separate cast for the first two ''Fishing Village'' editions. In 2016, this cast filmed in a new location for the standalone ''Gochang Village'' edition, alongside new member Nam Joo-hyuk. Later in October 2016, it was announced that

would return for a new season, a year after his last appearance in ''Jeongseon Village 2''. New cast members

Eric Mun Eric Mun (born Mun Jung-hyuk on February 16, 1979) is a South Korean rapper, songwriter and actor. He is a member and leader of the South Korean boy band Shinhwa. He is also well known for several dramas such as ''Phoenix (2004 TV series), Phoe ...

and Yoon Kyun-sang joined him for ''Fishing Village 3'', filmed on a new island location. The same cast returned in 2017 to the same location, but were tasked with island farming instead of fishing, hence the ''Seaside Ranch'' subtitle for the fourth ''Fishing Village'' edition. On July 1, 2019, it was confirmed that actresses Yum Jung-ah, Yoon Se-ah and

Park So-dam Park So-dam (; born September 8, 1991) is a South Korean actress. She gained recognition through her appearances in the film ''The Priests (film), The Priests'' (2015) and Korean drama, television series ''Cinderella with Four Knights'' (2016), ...

had joined the first all-female cast for the ''Mountain Village'' edition, which began airing in August. In 2020, the original ''Fishing Village'' cast returned for the theme's fifth edition. Unlike previous editions, this season was filmed on an uninhabited island due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the need for

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

Overview

Cast

List of episodes, guests and ratings

In the tables below, represent the lowest ratings of the season and represent the highest ratings of the season.

''Jeongseon Village''

''Jeongseon Village 1''

In the first episode, the production crew introduces the below rules for the cast's village experience: * All ingredients used, except rice, must come from their farm * Every meal has to follow a pre-determined menu * Preparation for winter should be undertaken during their free time * Cell phones will be taken away to aid integration into farming life

''Jeongseon Village 2''

''Fishing Village''

''Fishing Village 1''

''Fishing Village 2''

''Fishing Village 3''

''Seaside Ranch'' (''Fishing Village 4'')

''Fishing Village 5''

''Gochang Village''

After two ''Fishing Village'' editions,

, Yoo Hae-jin and Son Ho-jun are reunited in their first inland location in Gochang-gun, joined by Nam Joo-hyuk. In order to buy groceries, they have to provide farm labour for which they are paid hourly wages. Through the series, they experience various farming activities: planting rice, rearing ducks, and picking black raspberries, watermelons, sweet potatoes, grapes,

muskmelons ''Cucumis melo'', also known as melon, is a species of ''Cucumis'' that has been developed into many cultivated varieties. The fruit is a pepo. The flesh is either sweet or bland, with or without an aroma, and the rind can be smooth (such as ho ...

and pears.

''Mountain Village''

Spin-offs

The first two spin-offs of ''Three Meals a Day'' were "hybrid" programs produced for both online release and television broadcast. Short highlight videos between 5 and 15 minutes were broadcast on tvN, with the full episodes released on
Channel 15ya
(), a YouTube channel run by producer Na Young-seok and his team. Both spin-offs were born from '' New Journey to the West'', another series produced by producer Na, and feature some of its cast. In October 2021, a third spin-off was released for television broadcast featuring the main cast of drama series '' Hospital Playlist'': Jo Jung-suk, Yoo Yeon-seok, Jung Kyung-ho, Kim Dae-myung and Jeon Mi-do.'''' The series is titled ''Wise Mountain Village Life'' (), borrowing on the drama's title, but is commonly known in English as ''Three Meals a Day: Doctors''.

Reception

''Three Meals a Day'' drew a great response from Korean viewers and became a trending topic numerous times on

Naver Naver (; stylized as NAVER) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment. History Naver was the first Korean web provide ...

, a Korean search portal. It received viewership ratings of 6%, which is high for Korean cable television for which a 1% rating is considered a success. Originally 8 episodes were planned for the first season, but the show was extended by two episodes. A " director's cut" epilogue also aired, for a total of 11 episodes. The table below charts viewership numbers according to Nielsen Korea; data for 2017 and earlier is not provided. Individual episode ratings can be viewed by season in the episode lists above.