Dae Jang-geum

Dae Jang-geum was a lady who made herself success not only in 1 field but in 2 fields. She born in Korea somewhere 16th century in Korea. She managed to be accepted as a trainee cook during her childhood in the palace. Due to her passion and love about food and her respect of food, she became the most admired cook in the palace. She has a belief that food should be a medium to make people who eat the food happy. Thus, when made a food preparation, she devoted her love to the food she prepared. While at the same time, food became a vehicle to acquire power and money by others in the palace. Because of this, this party made several attempts to accuse her being betray to the King. Finally, they succeed and Dae Jang-geum exiled to the Jeju Island.



When facing this situation, that’s from the top to the bottom in a life, ordinary people would give up himself, but Dae Jang-geum did not give up. When she found out that to become a lady doctor is the only hope to return to the palace, she learnt from the zero. With her perseverance, she finally return to the palace and this time she was a lady doctor, no longer a cook. With her vast knowledge in food and medicine, she managed to integrate both to cure royal family when they fall in sick. But, this was still stick to the lady members of royal family. This is due to the fact that the status of a lady doctor at that time is very low, not even than a cook in the palace. So, they are not allowed to give a treatment to the male royal members. This situation changed when the King fall in sick and all the male doctors failed to heal the King. Given no choice, finally, Dae Jang-geum allowed to give a treatment to the King. And the result, she did it.

Though the character, Dae Jang-geum might not be real in the history, but what we need to learn is the spirit of her passion, love and respect to the food. Even after falling from the top position in the life to the bottom does not stop her from pursuing her dream. Her perseverance, her talent to integrate both knowledge that seem totally different with each other into one, unlike the professionals today that only know his profession reflect her rareness in the world.