[SPOTV News = Reporter Kim Hyun-rok] MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' is heading into the semi-finals — the real showdown among the Top 10 and the final hurdle before the championship.
MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' is Korea's first 'K-Bakery Survival,' a series designed to crown the world's top pastry chef and drive the K-bread craze that's become a cultural phenomenon. In Round 3, Yun Hwa-young wowed with 'BabaOCK,' a fine-dining reinterpretation of sikhye, while Oh Seung-geun reinvented the chocolate pie as a 'Black Rice Yuzu Chocolate Pie.' Both chefs shared their recipes and reactions directly on social media, sparking intense buzz.
Episode 7, airing at 9:50 p.m. on the 15th, will reveal the semi-final that decides the Top 7 who advance to the final. After Round 3 and the wild-card revival, the surviving Top 10 must prove their dominance across every mission and under any twist to secure a finals ticket. The semi-final centers on a 'Local Heritage' mission: contestants must create 'K-Local Bread' using specialty ingredients from 10 cities around the country.
Lee Hye-seong — who has pushed past limits each round to reach the semi-finals — chose dried persimmon (gotgam) paired with strawberries as her key point to prove herself. She went all-in with a bold creation called 'Chewy Gotgam Strawberry,' inspired by the Dubai Chewy Cookie. The unfamiliar pairing shocked the masters, and a sudden oven overheating added to the drama. As Lee exclaimed, "Wow, what do we do?" viewers will be on edge to see how she handles the emergency.
Meanwhile, Kim Jin-seo of 'Bukhansan Summit Bakery,' the youngest contestant in the Top 10, surprised everyone by admitting, "I've hit the highest weight of my life" while preparing for this mission. Kwon Seong-jun added, "She gained a full 5kg," which stunned the room. Viewers are curious which local ingredient Kim meant when she joked, "I ate so much it feels like there's oo in my blood."
In another twist, a contestant who drew the ingredient that masters Kim Na-rae and Kwon Seong-jun considered the most disadvantageous staged an unexpected comeback. The trendy ingredient kataifi made its debut on 'Cheonha Baking,' startling everyone. The challenger who paired that tricky component with kataifi earned showering praise — "Genius" — and instantly became the talk of the episode.
Yeo Myeong-rang, head of food businesses at Lotte Wellfood, joins as a special master for the 'Local Heritage' mission and will focus her evaluation on the scalability of K-local bread concepts. As a marketing and food expert who used big data to drive several viral product trends (names withheld), Yeo's sharp, practical critiques are highly anticipated.
Episode 7 of MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' airs on the 15th at 9:50 p.m.
