An Hyo-seop trades New York for a cooking survival show in 'Final Table'

Actor An Hyo-seop is returning to the small screen — this time as a chef.

An is set to appear in "Final Table," a new JTBC Saturday-Sunday drama series premiering Oct. 24, playing Kang Han, an overseas-trained Korean chef with exceptional culinary talent and a refined aesthetic sensibility.

The series centers on Korean chefs from around the world who converge for "The Table: K-Chef 2026," a competition to crown the best Korean cook, weaving together dazzling food and compelling personal stories. Kang Han is introduced as a restless free spirit who, rather than settling down, moves to a different restaurant in a different country every year — a wanderer driven by an incurable case of wanderlust.

Having already signed a contract with a well-known New York restaurant, Kang Han briefly returns to Korea to enjoy a quieter life. One day, a visit to Familia — a restaurant tied to cherished memories of his father — leads him, for reasons yet to be revealed, to become its head chef and enter the cooking survival competition.

Photos released Tuesday show Kang Han cooking outdoors and tracing his path to becoming head chef at Familia. Scenes of him scouring a traditional market for ingredients, holding a hunting rifle for reasons unknown, and standing in focused concentration before the competition have drawn attention.

Meanwhile, "Final Table" marks An Hyo-seop's first foray into a chef role, following a career that has taken him across Sageuk dramas, romance series and animation for global audiences. In a recent interview, An described the project through a food metaphor, calling it "a work that feels like a warm home-cooked meal — freshly steamed rice and the kind of spread only a mother makes."