Chef Son Jong-won Made Macron Say 'Bravo' — Here's How

When chef Son Jong-won took his seat on JTBC’s Please Take Care of My Refrigerator on April 5, he wasn’t just there to watch colleagues battle over someone’s refrigerator contents. He arrived with a story that stopped the broadcast in its tracks: a few days earlier, he had stood in Sangchunjae — the intimate pavilion at the former Blue House complex — and cooked a six-course dinner for two presidents.

The occasion was the April 2 state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Korea on an official state visit ahead of a summit with President Lee Jae-myung on April 3. Of all the chefs in Korea, Son was the one chosen to oversee the meal. When he finished, Macron looked up from the table and said a single word: “Bravo.”

Korea’s Double Michelin Chef

Son Jong-won occupies a rare position in Korean gastronomy. He is the only chef in the country to have earned Michelin stars in both Korean and French cuisine — a distinction that has earned him the nickname ssangsyullaeng (쌍쏙랭, Double Michelin) in Korea’s culinary world. The achievement is a reflection of something unusual: a chef who genuinely moves between two culinary traditions without sacrificing depth in either.

His wider profile rose dramatically after his appearance on Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars Season 2 (흑백요리사2), the cooking competition that became one of the most watched Korean variety programs of 2025. The show pitched celebrated chefs against each other in a format that blended artistry with genuine high-stakes competition, and Son’s combination of classical French training and deep Korean culinary instincts made him a standout figure among an already talented group.

His dual expertise — rooted in the discipline of French haute cuisine but grounded in Korean ingredients and traditions — made him an almost natural choice for a dinner that needed to speak to both countries simultaneously. “He is someone who understands the language of both cultures,” one food journalist observed in the days after the dinner, “and that made all the difference at a table where both sides were listening.”

The Menu That Made Macron Say ‘Bravo’

The six-course tasting menu Son designed for the Lee-Macron dinner was built around a single idea: using food as a bridge between Korea and France. Each course carried a thematic title that reflected the spirit of the bilateral meeting, turning the meal into something that functioned almost like a narrative arc.

The dinner opened with a “Greeting of Welcome,” moved through “Connection Through Spring,” and progressed to courses named “Exchange of Gastronomy,” “Hospitality and Sincerity,” and “Subtle Smoke Essence.” The dinner concluded with a dessert course called “Jewel Box” — a dish Son described as holding Korea’s memories and light in a single presentation.

The centerpiece of the meal was samgye roulade, a dish that translates the essence of samgyetang — the beloved Korean ginseng chicken soup — into French culinary form. President Lee’s social media account shared photos from the dinner in the days that followed, offering the public a rare glimpse into the private setting at Sangchunjae. The atmosphere, based on the images, was warm and relaxed. Macron’s response, according to those present, was succinct: “Bravo.”

For Son, the reaction carried a weight that was hard to articulate simply. He shared something of that feeling on Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, describing the dinner not as the peak of his career but as a confirmation of a direction he had always believed in: that Korean cuisine, presented with precision and genuine intention, can hold its own in any room in the world.

A Connection Built on Television

The path from variety show to state banquet was not as unlikely as it might appear. Son Jong-won had appeared on Please Take Care of My Refrigerator during a Chuseok special episode in 2025 — and President Lee, who was a guest on that same broadcast, had been so taken with Son’s cooking that he gave him an impromptu double-heart gesture on live national television.

It was a small moment, the kind that gets clipped and shared widely and then largely forgotten. But it clearly left a real impression. When the presidential team was assembling the guest list for the Macron state dinner and looking for a chef who could represent Korea’s culinary identity at its most assured, Son Jong-won was the name that emerged.

When Son revealed this sequence of events on the April 5 episode, his colleague Kim Poong saw an opportunity. The chef, known for his humor as much as his cooking skills, leaned toward the camera and deadpanned with perfect timing: “If the President ever needs pizza, tell him to call me.” The studio fell apart laughing.

From Netflix to the Presidential Table

Son’s trajectory from competitive cooking show to state banquet chef is, in a broader sense, a story about what Korean culinary culture has become. A decade ago, the idea of a chef achieving nationwide fame through a streaming variety program — and then channeling that visibility into diplomatic significance — would have seemed far-fetched. Today, it feels almost logical.

Korean food has been on a sustained global ascent for years. Culinary Class Wars was watched in over 190 countries. The ripple effects of the Korean Wave have introduced global audiences to bibimbap, tteokbokki, and samgyetang with a speed and reach that no promotional campaign could have engineered. The samgye roulade that Son plated for Macron on April 2 was, in that context, a concentrated expression of a much longer and more complex cultural conversation.

When the host of Please Take Care of My Refrigerator joked that Son should try to recruit Macron as a future guest on the show, Son played along without missing a beat. “I’ll ask him next time,” he said. “I’ll mention the show.”

Whether a French head of state will ever sit across a refrigerator from a Korean chef on prime-time television remains to be seen. But the fact that Son Jong-won could make that joke — and have it feel completely plausible — says something meaningful about where Korean cuisine stands right now, and where it is clearly still headed.