EBS's "Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Next Door" sheds light on the life and success story of culinary researcher Lee Kyung-ae, who has studied yakseon (medicinal food) cuisine for 50 years.

Lee Kyung-ae was designated as a yakseon cuisine master by the Korea Cultural Art Masters Association in 2018 and is a leading authority in the field, having won the Presidential Award three times. Over the past half-century, she has trained some 1,000 disciples and is widely known as the teacher of famous restaurant executives. Lee revealed, "I taught kimchi to prominent Korean cuisine masters, including the chairwoman of a major gimbap chain and the chairwoman of a well-known restaurant group." Upon hearing this, Seo Jang-hoon remarked, "Simply put, she is the teacher of teachers."

In this broadcast, seasonal ingredients personally cultivated by Lee — blueberries, green plums, chili peppers, and squash — along with her cooking research lab and herbal medicine storage room, where her secret know-how is embedded, will be revealed. Yakseon cuisine is a cooking method that pursues health by using natural ingredients and medicinal herbs instead of chemical seasonings, and it is the field Lee has devoted her entire life to.

Lee prepared a nourishing yakseon meal to help Seo Jang-hoon and Jang Ye-won beat the summer heat. She presented dishes including bean sprout pork bulgogi and braised codfish, and Seo Jang-hoon gave a thumbs-up after tasting the pork bulgogi, praising the braised codfish as "a flavor worthy of an award." Jang Ye-won also exclaimed, "I want to stop filming and just eat." In particular, after tasting Lee's white kimchi, Seo Jang-hoon stood up, drank even the broth, and grasped her hands, saying, "This is no empty flattery — you are truly a wonderful cook." Lee became emotional, saying, "I'm so moved I could cry. Today, I feel full even without eating."

Lee Kyung-ae's childhood was a battle with extreme poverty. Due to her father's gambling debts, she grew up in hunger, sometimes digging up ginger to ease her hunger. Her family even cut their hair to sell in exchange for grain. She gathered discarded pencil stubs and scraps of paper from wealthy children to study, only to be told she would be expelled from school because she could not pay the student association fee. From around the sixth grade, she began working while living in the home of a wealthy aunt, but she was unable to attend middle school and had to throw herself into making a living at a young age.

Lee recalled, "Only someone who has been truly hungry can understand that kind of hunger. I vowed that if I ever succeeded, I would make sure no one would cry from hunger like I did." True to that vow, she has spent 50 years being called the "lady who hands out food," filling the bodies and souls of countless people.

Her culinary philosophy and life story can be seen on EBS's "Seo Jang-hoon's Millionaire Next Door."