Yang Chi-seung, who closed his gym, takes on new venture in Gangnam

Former fitness trainer Yang Chi-seung has set his sights on the food and beverage industry.

Yang posted a video Sunday on his YouTube channel titled "I quit being a gym director and opened a sandwich shop," announcing that he had opened a sandwich shop in the underground shopping arcade near Gangnam Station in Seoul.

"Tasting, adjusting, making it again, tasting again — that was the process I repeated the most before opening," he said. "I captured everything as it was, from the preparations before opening day to the first day itself."

The video shows Yang personally painting the store's interior, developing the menu and promoting the shop.

He said product development took a particularly long time. "It was tough because I had to fix the shortcomings I noticed while tasting and also keep the price reasonable," he said.

Introducing the store's signature items — a tamago sandwich and a chicken breast sandwich — Yang said he used whole chicken breast to make sure customers get enough protein.

Yang said he had originally considered opening a tteokbokki restaurant but decided to launch the sandwich shop first because he needed more time to develop the fried snacks he wanted to pair with it. He added that once the fried items are ready, he plans to introduce a style of tteokbokki unlike anything currently on the market.

"I'm no longer a gym director — I'm a sandwich shop director," he said. "I'm putting everything I have into the food business."

Yang previously suffered a major setback when he was defrauded in a building lease scam, losing 1.5 billion won ($971,000) and being forced to close his gym. He later made headlines when it emerged he had taken a job as a managing director overseeing the community facilities of an apartment complex in Cheongdam-dong valued in the tens of billions of won.