K-Bakery Showdown: Who Will Claim Victory in MBN’s ‘천하제빵’ Final Round?

[iNews24 Reporter Seo Byung-gi]

MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' TOP7 — Hwang Ji-o, Lee Kyung-mu, Kim Jin-seo, Kim Si-yeop, Seong Min-su, Yoon Hwa-young, and Joo Young-seok — have kicked off Final Round 1, a high-stakes showdown to name the ultimate K-bakery champion, and they’re delivering a visual shock that’s hard to forget.

MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' is Korea’s first K-Bakery survival series, searching for the world’s top pastry chef and fueling the K-bakery craze that turned bread into a cultural phenomenon. Clips of the TOP7’s semifinal creations — Kim Jin-seo’s Imsil Burrata Bread, Hwang Ji-o’s Icheon Moon Jar Bread, and Lee Kyung-mu’s Jeongseon Apple & Gold Mine Choux — have totaled more than 1.1 million views, proving the buzz shows no signs of dying down.

Episode 9, airing Sunday, March 29 at 9:50 p.m., pairs the TOP7 with Korea’s elite chefs — Hwang Jin-sun, Ahn Yoo-sung, Kim Yoo-ah, Lee Seung-jun, Lee Won-il, Oh Se-deuk, and Jo Seo-hyung — for Final Round 1 and promises the most lavish visual spectacle the show has ever staged. From weighty Chinese courses to commanding Japanese cuisine, from high-voltage fire shows to jaw-dropping deconstruction performances, these next-level acts fuse with baking to create explosive synergy. Viewers will be glued to see which chef-and-baker duo delivers the unforgettable collaboration that had the masters cheering and gasping.

As the TOP7 step into this do-or-die phase, they’re presenting a glittering parade of ingredients and making it clear there’s no room to back down. One contestant grabbed attention with an ultra-luxury single-meal bread so extravagant that Master Kwon Seong-jun quipped, “You must’ve spent at least 3,000,000 KRW on ingredients alone” (about $2,250). The finalists further proved the finals are on another level, unleashing wildly creative dishes — from marinated crab and clay-pot presentations to flower crab on basalt, Peking duck paired with king crab, and even lobster — that push culinary imagination to the limit.

Meanwhile, Yoon Hwa-young and Oh Se-deuk — peers with roughly fifty years of fine-dining experience between them — began the round as heavy favorites, but a sudden teamwork breakdown with 15 minutes to go ratcheted up the tension. Yoon, typically poised and graceful, was visibly shaken, leaving everyone wondering what went wrong.

In the end, after tasting one contestant’s single-meal bread, the masters showered it with praise, calling it perfectly suited to the challenge and saying the story behind the dish was deeply moving, igniting the set. Viewers are left guessing which contestant captured the masters’ hearts with that emotional storytelling.

MBN's 'Cheonha Baking' Episode 9 airs Sunday, March 29 at 9:50 p.m.