Narrator: Every week, these three chefs
make 10,000 meals by hand.
Working 10-hour shifts,
the chefs use specialized cast-iron and steel pots
that can cook 800 servings at a time.
Today, the kitchen is making 1,200 mapo tofu lunch boxes.
And every meal comes with rice, crab egg soup,
chili japchae, pickled radishes, cucumber and chive salad,
stir-fried garlic scapes, and Chinese flower buns.
It's a tall order
but worth the effort, according to head chef Lee Ho-jun.
Narrator: We visited Mugga Dosirak to see
how this kitchen prepares its lunch boxes
in such big batches.
The process begins at 4:30 a.m.,
when Ho-jun and his team start prepping ingredients
for the day's menu.
Chefs begin by washing and cutting
40 kilograms of white onions
and 20 kilograms of green onions for the mapo tofu.
Narrator: Next, carrots are peeled,
cut,
and added into the same container as the white onions.
Once the vegetables are prepped,
it's time to start unpacking the tofu.
Narrator: The tofu is cut into cubes
and loaded into metal trays,
which are then wheeled into a large steamer.
Narrator: While the tofu is steaming,
chefs start cooking the other ingredients for the dish
in a large cast-iron wok.
They add red-pepper oil and stir-fry the green onions
and 10 kilograms of pork together
until the meat cooks through.
Chefs then add in the basket of white onions and carrots
as well as large ladles of doubanjiang,
a savory Chinese bean paste made from fermented broad beans,
chili peppers, and soybean.
They season the mixture and add ladles of starch water
to help adjust the consistency.
Finally, once the tofu is done, it's drained
and mixed into the wok using a metal shovel.
Narrator: And that's not the only thing
that's custom in the kitchen.
Chefs use a special machine that supplies and drains water
to wash about 120 kilograms of rice at a time.
Narrator: The next order of business
is making chili japchae.
Narrator: While the japchae cooks,
chefs start prepping the cucumber and wild chive salad.
40 kilograms of cucumbers are sliced before being pickled.
Narrator: Next, the kitchen prepares crab egg soup.
Narrator: For dessert, the chefs are reheating flour buns.
Narrator: Once fried, the buns will be drizzled
with condensed milk and topped with almonds.
When everything is cooked,
employees fill small individual containers
with rice and crab egg soup
and scoop portions of the other six dishes
into a divided tray.
Each of these lunch boxes costs 30,000 won,
or about $5.
After 10 hours of cooking and packaging,
the lunch boxes are then put
into insulated containers and delivered
to offices around the city that have subscriptions.