According to Song Yunhyeong, a member of the group iKON, he got his start with cooking during his trainee years when he grew sick of delivery food. Cooking became an ongoing hobby for him after that, and he’s hosted a YouTube channel called SONGCHELIN GUIDE since 2019, dedicated to his everyday life and his love of hobbies, where he uploads videos of himself cooking and presents recipes of his own design. We talked with the artist all about his hobbies—from his cooking segments as Chef Song, to raising his pet plant, Hal-abasil, to cycling, a new hobby that led him to appear on the variety show WeCycle.

The shortcut to getting into cooking? Do it for someone else

Song: I feel a sense of accomplishment when I cook for somebody else and they give me good feedback. I think that’s the main draw. There’s no better feeling than someone enjoying what I cooked for them. I recently made tacos on V LIVE. I never made them before so I just briefly looked over a recipe and made them my way. I even left one of the ingredients out. But BOBBY was so into them that he said, “You could sell these!” I felt great watching him eat every last one. It made me feel accomplished. A little while ago I wanted to do something for the fans. I thought about what sort of video would be good and even though it’s not face-to-face I still wanted to do something step by step where we could communicate together, so I decided to do a video called “Song-father.” I wasn’t the one actually cooking, but seeing people become happy from making the recipe I shared made me even more passionate about cooking. You shouldn’t cook only for yourself—you have to make it for somebody else.

The keys to cooking are simplicity and flavor

Song: I think when I’m shooting SONGCHELIN GUIDE or cooking, I look for things that fans can cook along with—dishes that are easy and simple but still taste good. Nobody wants to follow along if it’s hard. And they won’t feel confident enough to start. I think it’s possible to make high-quality, great-tasting food by just keeping it simple and using the ingredients around your home. I focus on simplicity and flavor. SONGCHELIN GUIDE’s supposed to show things that are easy to make at home, so if I say such and such ingredient won’t work, they have to go out and buy something. Most importantly, if they don’t have some ingredient at home already, it means they normally won’t use it again, so I usually tell them about substitutes since it’s a waste to throw ingredients away after only using them once. If they say they don’t have hot sauce, for example, they can chop up any hot pepper they have at home and add that instead. It’s nothing professional. It’s more like, If you don’t have this one spicy thing, put some other spicy thing in instead. (laughs) When it comes to inventing new dishes, I think I come up with recipes that I can make when I don’t have time to go out to eat out or it’s too far. Every time the other members and I go to Japan we eat ramen called abura soba, and neoburi soba is me recreating the taste from memory. And then the white kimchi pork wrap in “Song-father” came to me out of nowhere while I was sleeping. Something delicious plus something delicious would be delicious. (laughs) So I put in every ingredient Koreans like.

Grow it yourself, then cook

Song: It’s inevitable that I know what the other iKON members like and don’t like after spending around 10 years with them. So I try my best to avoid the ingredients they don’t like. If they say they don’t like coriander, I’ll probably cook with the basil I grow myself. I made basil pesto using the basil I grew and it tastes just like basil pesto should. (laughs) It was amazing how I could eat something that I grew myself. And I could see the whole process since I made everything I was eating. It’s trustworthy and there’s no way it’s going to taste bad since I made it using good ingredients only. I want to try growing Cheongyang chili peppers next, too, because Koreans put garlic, onion and chili pepper in everything. Onions are sold in twos and they sell minced garlic, but chili peppers only come by the bundle. Only one goes into each dish so it feels really wasteful. If I grow it myself I can put one in whenever I need it, so I think that could be fun.

Learning from YouTube videos

Song: One of the reasons that I watch Paik Jong-won’s YouTube channel is that he doesn’t use a lot of ingredients either. And his food always tastes great. I think I pick up a lot of basics from his channel. And there’s one YouTuber called Chef Kang who makes clear and simple videos. I learn basic recipes, like what ingredients go into which foods, whenever I watch them. I don’t use the recipes exactly as-is, of course. I’ll add one or two ingredients to make it more Chef Song style.

Advice for novice cooks

Song: I learned a lot by watching. I figured out how to chop up certain ingredients from watching YouTube. And my skills with a knife naturally improved after making videos. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t very skilled at cutting when I first started SONGCHELIN GUIDE, but I’m good at it now. (laughs) When it comes to food, the more you do it, the better you get. You end up developing a better sense for it, too. I recommend starting out with simple, everyday dishes everybody eats, like kimchi fried rice, omurice and kimchi jjigae. And although taste is important in cooking, I think being tidy comes first. I never stop while cooking—if I have a spare moment, I clean up. If I’m making some kind of soup and I’m waiting for it to boil, I clean up my area or something. I like it if my surroundings are reasonably clean when I’m all done cooking.

Having hobbies makes you feel alive

Song: I think I look for new hobbies in order to find that push my life needs. A life without any hobbies is no fun. I feel bored when I’m alone in the members’ home or my family’s so I always try really hard to make sure I’m doing something or I go out. I try to see friends when I don’t have any work to do, so it only makes sense I pick up some hobbies. I usually look for something I need. For example, I like working out but I don’t like working my lower body. I was trying to figure out if there was a way to do lower body exercises in a healthier and more fun way, and what I found was cycling. I naturally make my way to hobbies in my areas of interest. The best parts of riding a bike are you can go further than you can on foot and you get to see beautiful scenery. Meanwhile, there’s a limit to how much you can walk, and when I’m in the car for work I’m either sleeping or on my phone so I don’t get a chance to see any scenery. When I was on WeCycle, the thing I said the most while riding my bike was, “It’s so nice.” It’s so enjoyable that I said it without thinking. I think it’s the right hobby for me. 

The joy of biking

Song: If I ride my bike a long way on a clear day, there isn’t a thought in my head and I feel rejuvenated. And even if I take the same route, the scenery’s different, the smells are different and the wind feels different on my skin, all depending on the weather. So rather than always riding on sunny days, I suggest giving a ride at night or when it’s raining a go, to change your setting somewhat. It’s the same route, but it doesn’t feel like the same route. What’s interesting is that, when you ride your bike, everywhere you go even smells different—some sections smell a lot like grass and some might smell like water. And I think it’s more fun to ride with someone than to ride alone, personally. Because, you know, no matter how far I go when I’m by myself, nobody knows about it until I post a picture. (laughs) But if you go with your friends or family, you can take part in the hard and the happy moments together, so you’ll have lots more to talk about, which I think is great. And not just riding bikes, but you can also have something good to eat somewhere nice after riding, which is also good, I think. So you really should push the people around you. (laugh) So you have to do it with other people to have fun, because otherwise your interest in hobbies might peter out if you do them alone.

The world of gear can turn you into a cycling enthusiast

Song: It’s like my mind changes when I ride fully equipped compared to when I go without. It gives me the desire to cycle with all my might. I was so embarrassed at first after buying spandex that I couldn’t even wear it, but I worked up my courage, put it on and went out for a ride. It turns out I liked how comfortable it was. Actually, I first started biking with regular clothes on, but even back then I was curious how much wind resistance there was. But then I wore bike wear and felt how well I could bike and thought, So that’s why people wear this! And if you bike, you see a lot of people wearing spandex. I just stopped feeling embarrassed after I got used to it and ended up looking for a cooler brand. (laughs) I started biking when it was hot out so I’ve only got summer clothes so far. Now I’m thinking about trying on some winter clothes. And you have to get clipless pedals. First, they make you cycle better. Normally when you go uphill you’re just pushing down with your feet, but when you’re clipped in place you’re also using your strength to pull, so it makes a big difference. When I went to Incheon with my friend I was faster even though my bike wasn’t nearly as good. It’s all about the gear. (laughs) I want to make sure to tell people who are just starting out not to buy all the gear. I want to recommend people ride Ddareungi at the Hangang River for a month or so and upgrade their things one at a time if they feel like they want to upgrade after that.

Learn to enjoy a challenge

Song: I did the Twogyeryeong challenge with James, where we went up Hangyeryeong Pass twice. It's uphill all the way to the peak and I couldn’t get a sense of how far we’d gone so I wanted to give up. And James is good at riding, so the difference in skill levels made it physically difficult. When we were first going up there, James said, “Look at the scenery. Isn’t it great?” But I was keeping my eyes on the ground. (laughs) But when we finally made it to the top, all that exhaustion turned to joy. The leaves were changing color at the time, so the view was absolutely fantastic. It was less strenuous the second time I did it. I already went up there one time, so I paced myself carefully and I could look at the scenery, too. I learned how to spread my stamina out over time, and best of all, I learned the pleasure of a good challenge. You know—I learned the pleasure you get in return for doing something extremely challenging. Next time I have to do something physically exhausting, I’ll probably be reminded of that time.