Gabie Kook
Gabriela Kook (more widely known as Gabie Kook, born 1988 in Argentina) is an Argentinian-born Korean YouTuber with an international audience. Her YouTube channel covers an array of topics, but is mostly focused on food and cooking. In May of 2021, most of her videos were removed or set to private, following a video showing her flouting South Korea's COVID-19 quarantine regulations in October 2020 led to backlash (including threats of prosecution). A video apologising for the incident was uploaded on 20 April 2021. Personal life. Kook was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and lived in  Spain until she was 12-years-old. Following that, she studied in the United States and France. Although born outside of the country, her parents were South Korean; she has described herself as a "third culture kid". She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu, a culinary education facility in Paris. She became well-known in 2014, when she was a runner-up in MasterChef Korea. She is the wife of Joshua Carrott (known on YouTube as "Korean Englishman"). The couple married in 2016. In 2020, Kook was diagnosed with endometriosis. In 2020, Kook also said she experienced anti-East Asian racism  as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, 2021, she, Josh Carrott and Ollie Kendal opened a specialist "Korean Toast" restaurant in London. Controversy. In October 2020, Carrott and Kook came under scrutiny due to their violation of South Korea's COVID-19 quarantine regulations. Kook went to Korea from London in the United Kingdom for endometriosis treatment, and was required to quarantine for two weeks. However, a video was uploaded to social media of her and friends celebrating her birthday by welcoming friends at their door while they were supposed to be in isolation, and receiving birthday gifts. In  one shot, Kook is shown removing her face mask to blow out candles on a birthday cake and apply lipstick, albeit in a socially distanced manner. Kook has also faced controversy over her eligibility for national health insurance in South Korea; in her apology video, Kook confirmed that she was mistaken in believing she was paying for national health insurance in South Korea however she was trying to game the system as netizens have found out that she had known it was in fact the National Pension. She later underwent endometriosis treatment in the UK. Both Carrott and Kook posted  public apologies after the incident, though both apologies were criticised for being inadequate. The violation has since been investigated by Korean police who have found sufficient evidence to send the case to prosecution in December 2020. Kook was accused of violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act at the end of January; however, on April 14, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office suspended the indictment against her as the prosecution decided not to file an indictment and dropped the case against Kook.