Coupang Play’s variety show ‘Bonjour Bakery’ is a healing baking program set in the first-ever ‘senior dessert cafe’ in a quiet rural village. It is a place where elders who know the taste of life and bakery staff who know the taste of happiness share sweet comfort and warmth.
While most business-themed variety shows see crowds flocking from all over the country with long queues, ‘Bonjour Bakery’ is completely different, even with a star-studded cast including Kim Hee-ae, Cha Seung-won, Kim Seon-ho, and Lee Ki-taek.
Writer Kim Ran-ju laughed, saying, “I told them there wouldn’t be another show like this. Who would have imagined that people wouldn’t show up even with these actors in a rural area? These residents visited our bakery while strictly maintaining their own lives. They have their own rural routines, and while we thought we might disrupt them, that wasn’t the case at all.”
Aside from Cha Seung-won, who has already shown his great sense of humor in shows like ‘Three Meals a Day,’ the casting was quite a challenge in terms of variety show entertainment.
Writer Kim Ran-ju explained, “I felt we needed people who could naturally blend into the village over time. I thought the balance would break if we tried too hard. Since rural residents lead steady lives, I wanted the bakery to feel like it had always been there rather than causing a huge stir. I put a lot of thought into the combination of cast members to fit specific roles.”
PD Park Geun-hyung added, “The customers are elders aged 65 and over. Seniors often find new things difficult to approach, so I thought if there were too flashy cast members or if they weren’t sincere, the elders wouldn’t be able to get close. Both Kim Hee-ae and Cha Seung-won approached this with such sincerity that some residents even wondered, ‘Where are the celebrities?'”
Writer Kim Ran-ju shared a funny episode: “There was a 90-year-old regular who came with his children. When told it was a bakery with a ‘talent’ (actor), he asked Kim Hee-ae, ‘I heard there is a talent here, who is it?’ When he found out she was the actor, he asked, ‘You’re a talent? Which scene are you famous for?’ He then worried, ‘How can a talent run a bakery here? Business won’t do well,’ before buying something and leaving. Many grandmothers and grandfathers ended up worrying about the business not doing well.”
When asked if the lack of crowds was due to restrictions on non-villagers, Writer Kim Ran-ju replied, “Not at all. We didn’t tell people not to spread the word, but it just didn’t spread. I think the residents really didn’t have the concept of a TV filming. Since the staff spent two or three months on construction, they probably just thought some young people were opening a bakery.” PD Park Geun-hyung added with a laugh, “Actually, we were fully prepared. We even scouted a place to make people line up if many came, but we never got to use it.”
Writer Kim Ran-ju noted, “There were times when many customers came, but it was never enough to form a line. Which was actually perfect. The 65-plus age limit played a part, as children kept bringing their parents.” PD Park Geun-hyung shared, “One elder came in and said, ‘I’m 65, but because of a family registry error, I’m officially 64.’ Even then, when told it wasn’t allowed, they actually brought a friend whose registry was correct to come along. They followed the rules that well!”
In typical business variety shows, daily sales are often a key part of the content. However, ‘Bonjour Bakery’ boldly omitted that part. Plus, they gave away a significant amount of service items to customers.
Writer Kim Ran-ju admitted, “It’s a deficit. I felt including the sales figures was meaningless, so we removed a lot of that.”
PD Park Geun-hyung explained, “Our focus was on creating a space where elders could comfortably have new experiences and chat like they would in a community room, and seeing what impressions they left with. How much we sold wasn’t important. Since elders share a cup of coffee at cafes anyway, we wanted it to be like that. It might be hard for actual business owners to hear, but that was our goal.”
When asked about the extent of the deficit, Writer Kim Ran-ju laughed and said, “It’s because the cast gave away so many freebies.” She added, “Kim Hee-ae said this is how a neighborhood bakery should be run. If we had operated for longer, it wouldn’t have been a minus. Everyone became a regular. In other programs, people visit once and that’s it, but here, the people who came kept coming back. It’s a bakery that runs on regulars. It was a minus at first, but if we had continued, I think it would have become a long-lasting bakery.”
