According to two sisters with the last name 'Oh', the chef have not paid them back for the 700 million KRW (appox. 600,000 USD) he loaned to obtain his restaurant 'Zelen'. He was supposed to pay back the 350 million KRW in contract fees and 350 million KRW in balances in parts. After the Oh sisters filed a lawsuit against the chef, the court temporarily seized his payment from JTBC for appearing on the show.

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The controversy, however, did not start there. The Oh sisters claimed that the chef's claim that he worked for 3 years as the chef at Hotel Chosun was a lie. According to her, she used to run a restaurant 'D' inside the hotel. While he was indeed hired by Hotel Chosun, he was not a chef there, but a hall server. According to the sisters, they also hired the chef in 2007 when they opened 'ZELEN', but not as a chef but a hall server instead. In 2009, she started telling people Mikhal was the proper chef instead of the actual chef, since Mikhal started to appear on TV and was good looking. She did admit that it was true that he did have a chef licence, and that he was a hard worker at Hotel Chosun. 

However, Mikhal provided the documents proving that he had, in fact, worked at Hotel Chosun as the chef. He had worked as a chef inside the hotel's Italian restaurant Vecchia & Nuovo.

His label said, "It's so flustering that there is controversy, and he's also shocked at the situation. We do understand that the temporary seize of his pay from JTBC has also been reported because of a lawsuit with the plaintiff. We will release a statement in the future about this."

The PD for 'Please Take Care of My Refrigerator' has announced that there will be no problems for Mikhal to keep appearing on the show. Not only that, most netizens are on Mikhal's side, especially after he has released official documents showing proof. Even before the documents, many pointed out that many new chefs start out as both the hall server and the cook, not to mention that it seemed unlikely she could know the full details when she was not working at the supposed restaurant herself.

Who's side are you on?