Julia Barretto and Lee Sang-heon star in ‘Secret Ingredient.
It’s rare to watch a Korean drama without learning more about Korean food, from haute cuisine to street food staples such as tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) and bungeoppang (fish-shaped red bean pastry). Characters enjoy their national dishes in so many storylines. Corinna Vistan, head of originals at Viu Philippines, noticed the way k-dramas promote food and it served as the inspiration for the multicultural food-based web drama Secret Ingredient.
Set in a Jakartan restaurant, the culinary drama stars Korean actor Lee Sang-heon, Filipino star Julia Barretto and Indonesian heartthrob Nicholas Saputra. Adding even more Korean flavor to this mix are writer Baek Dong-hoon, who wrote Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi Battle, and director Cho Young-gwang, who directed the k-drama Racket Boys.
The web drama tells the story of Maya, played by Barretto, an aspiring chef working under Chef Arif, played by Saputra. She gets some help in realizing her dreams from “Jack,” a kitchen trainee who is secretly a Korean chaebol. The recipes prepared in the drama link back to the characters’ past and/or provide a medium for bonding them. They also employ products sold by Unilever Nutrition, which partnered with Viu to make the drama. Vistan wanted to tell a story about a Filipino woman and her relationship with food, but the secret ingredient in this drama may be the blend of flavors from different Asian cultures.
“We wanted to make it a multicultural story,” said Vistan “This Viu original really wasn’t supposed to be made just for the Philippines. We really wanted it to feel and almost be like a k-drama, which is why we wanted to bring in a Korean writer, a Korean director and a Korean actor. But we also wanted to infuse Southeast Asian elements, which is why we have our wonderful Filipino actress, Filipino actors and crew. And then we brought in a really fantastic Indonesian actor as well, who is like the Brad Pitt of Indonesia. We were very lucky to have our three main leads. It was a beautiful blend, not just a cultural blend, but the chemistry that all three had on screen was really, really beautiful.”
It’s not that common for Filipino dramas to incorporate the subtle—and sometimes not-so-subtle—product placement employed by Korean dramas, especially with food, so this web series offered something different. For Barretto, the star of films such as Vince and Kath and James, Love You to the Stars and Back, Unexpectedly Yours and Un/Happy for You, it was an exciting opportunity to highlight Filipino dishes.
“That’s why I felt really excited doing the series,” said Barretto. “Because for the first time, I think we’re finally showcasing dishes from the Philippines that I think could really make it globally as well, that people would also enjoy. Yeah, we are very love-story-centric storytellers or action packed. So this was a first.”
Lee, who plays ‘Jack,’ helps Barretto’s character Maya make a recipe.
To play an aspiring chef, Barretto learned more about the culinary arts at the Magsaysay Center for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, where she trained under chef Mae Montalban. The three-day course offered expert tips on skills like deboning and plating. Her character makes it look effortless.
“It was really everything from scratch,” said Barretto. “It was sort of like a workout.”
Cast and crew were constantly surrounded by delicious dishes from various cultures and according to Barretto, Lee was the biggest foodie in the group.
“I think he pretty much finished all the food,” said Barretto. “Sometimes when Chef Mae would prepare a dish at the end of the scene, he would just devour it. So much of it was Filipino and Indonesian food. A lot of those were new dishes to him that he would try and he really loved them.”
While Maya is not afraid to compete with accomplished chefs, she is most competitive with herself.
“That’s why I really love to portray her,” said Barretto. “Because I know what it feels like to just have yourself as your biggest competitor, but I think it’s for the better. I think she also just had a lot of dreams she needed to achieve and was very practical in life. The same goes for me.”
Vistan, a former Marvel Studios executive, returned to the Philippines a few years ago and was surprised by the popularity of Korean dramas. That led her to produce the 2022 drama, K-Love, the story of five Filipino k-drama enthusiasts who let dramas inspire their decisions. The storyline of Secret Ingredient required a Korean actor and Lee, who appeared in the U.S. production of XO Kitty, seemed like a natural. He speaks English fluently, which was the language the cast mostly used to communicate. For Barretto, working with a multicultural cast was a new experience. She was used to having Filipino actors as colleagues.
“It challenges you to adapt,” said Barretto. “And to make certain adjustments and see where everybody could meet halfway and to compliment each other to create chemistry, whether romantic or in friendship. So it was a breath of fresh air, actually, because everything was new to me. But they’re also very, very fantastic in what they do, and it really made the work easy for everybody.”
According to Vistan, the popularity of k-dramas remains strong in the Philippines and throughout Asia. When the web drama premiered in Jakarta, she was surprised to find Indonesians seemed to be even bigger k-drama fans.
“We were reading the comments online,” said Vistan. “Filipinos and Indonesians would comment, ‘oh my gosh, this Korean actor is touching our money in the scene, he handled Indonesian money.’ And ‘oh, look at him, he’s eating a Filipino dish.’ It was such a thrill for them, for their culture to be seen by this prominent global Korean actor. They just felt a lot more like, oh, they’re acknowledging our culture, which is so nice.”
When working with Korean writer Baek Dong-hoon, Vistan found he would often underestimate the popularity of Korean words like soju or chaebol, not realizing how many viewers throughout Asia already knew these words from watching k-dramas. He wanted to substitute the word beer for soju.
“We Filipinos know what soju is,” said Vistan. “Of course. So I think it’s funny because even our Korean writer didn’t know the impact of how many Korean terms had seeped into Philippine culture. We said a lot of people, especially our Korean drama fans, they know words like chingu and soju. We really wanted elements of it to be like a k-drama, but also to add in the lingo, the little words that you would hear in a k-drama. At this point in time, so much of the world and especially Southeast Asia will be familiar with the lingo and the story points.”
Secret Ingredient received a Silver Dolphin trophy for Branded Content Videos and a Black Dolphin trophy for Best Cast/On-Camera Talent at the 2024 Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards. The series is also the National Winner of the Philippines for Best Branded Program and Best Original Production by a Streamer (Fiction) at the 2024 Asian Academy Creative Awards. Barretto was nominated at the 29th Asian Television Awards for Best Leading Female in a Digital Series. The web drama provided plenty of firsts for everyone involved. Vistan is not only proud of the show but happy to have learned so much more about Korean and Indonesian culture.
“I think for Viu, it was the first larger regional show,” said Vistan. “It was the first time we won at Cannes. It was the first time we were really able to put this cross-cultural story together. We had four different languages in the script. We had to do English, Korean, Tagalog and Bahasa in the script. It was the first time I personally worked with a Korean director and then a Korean director who’s a lot more fluent in Korean. So, we had a lot of beautiful challenges that helped us learn from the experience.”
For Barretto, the multicultural nature of the show suggests a world of delicious possibilities.
“It made me more inspired to see what else is out there,” she said. “The different stories we could still tell, and the different people that we could still work with.”
Viu Philippines is an online streaming service that provides Asian entertainment in the Philippines and other countries.
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