With the rising popularity of Kpop and K Drama in recent years, it would only be a matter of time that there would be a program about another very popular topic - food. The problem is that Korean cuisine isn't as popular as many other Asian cuisines, any successful Korean cooking program would have to offer more than just cooking. The Culinary Class War from Netflix seems to have achieved this.
Source : Netflix
If you've watched the Squid Game, you'll know what a 100 people big production looks like. Imagine now it's not 100 people playing games, but 100 chefs cooking!! The Culinary Class War is a battle between 100 of Korea's best chefs. 20 of them are the White Spoons, established famous celebrity chefs. They face 80 Black Spoons, professional chefs from all walks of life in Korea. The Black refers to the underdogs who have nothing to lose when pitched against the White Spoons.
The whole setup is very Squid Game like, especially in the first round where the 80 Black Chefs have to cook for one of the 20 places to get through to the next round. It was quite some scene to see 40 workstations set up, each complete with ample prep and cooking area.
The production scale, all in the studio, continues throughout the show right up till the very final round. We saw 20 massive double door fridges in the studio, a fully stocked convenience store, 3 pop up restaurants, a fish stall complete with many fish tanks and fresh seafood, and a meat stall with so many different cuts of meat that you can feed hundreds of people. And in the penultimate round, a gigantic crate of tofu was lowered from the ceiling into the studio.
This trailer will give you a bit of idea on the setup.
The judges on the show are Paik Jong-won a well known Korean chef and restauranteur and TV personality, and Anh Sung-jae, chef at Korea's only 3 star Michelin restaurant. Paik and Anh are quite different judges and I think this has to do with their very different backgrounds. Paik is more traditional Korean, and prefers homely tasty food, but is also very receptive to surprises. Personally I think he seems easier to please and is less picky. Anh was born in Korea but grew up in America, and served in the US Army for two years before starting his culinary career. He focuses on the background of the meal, often asking contestants what's the process behind the creation of the dish, and the best way to eat it. He's more stringent of the two when scoring. Their background means often often they score differently, and this shows how subjective things can be.
Source : Netflix
There were a couple of rounds that involved other people, on a large scale as well. Like 100 tasters, all wearing masks (very Squid Game again), and 20 food KOL/influencers. This added a bit more balance to the judging process.
The 20 White Spoons are some of the top Korean chefs from different cuisines, and with many accolades under their belt already. They're probably not very wel known outside of Korea, but when they were introduced, the Black Spoons recognized them and many were in awe of the chance to compete with these outstanding chefs.
Many of the 80 Black Spoons already run their own restaurants or eating establishments, and some are very successful already. They also included a popular YouTuber and a school dinner lady. Most people will think the Black Spoons doesn't stand a chance against the White Spoons, after all they've all proved themselves to get to the top of the game. However, that didn't seem to deter the Black Spoons, as some of them battled their way alongside the White Spoons to get to the final round for the 300 million KRW prize. That's around USD230,000, a significant amount of money, even for the famous White Spoons.
Source : Netflix
The Culinary Class War first aired on Netflix on 17 September this year, and the final was on 8 October. There were 12 episodes. I enjoy watching MasterChef each year, but after so many years, I find the format a little stale. The Culinary Class War was like a breath of fresh air. I liked how they added a lot of twists in each round making things exciting and unpredictable.
Normally on cooking shows, the contestants cook their favourite dishes, or create dishes from certain ingredients, or cook under pressure for many diners. We had that here as well, as it is fundamentally a cooking show after all. When you have 80 chefs and you need to eliminate 60, you can't do a lot other than ask them to cook their best dish.
Once the 20 Black Spoons got through to the next round, things started to get more interesting, and that's when the White Spoons started the competition as well. I won't talk in detail about the format or the winners as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, let's just say some of White Spoons didn't make it to the final 8, and some Black Spoons got through. Underdogs do have a chance of winning over famous celebrity chefs.
The show rank No. 1 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 TV (Non-English) list for three consecutive weeks, Source and ranked top 10 in 28 countries. Within Korea it's become so popular that even before the final was aired, numerous YouTubers and bloggers reviewed the show, the final contestants and their restaurants. It's not surprising that when the list of restaurants came out, they all saw a surge of bookings.
Korean cuisine isn't as widely known as other Asian cuisines like Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Vietnamese. Many may know kimchi but that's about it when asked about Korean food. I think the Culinary Class War has definitely helped to create more awareness about Korean food. And when you have chefs like judge Anh Sung-jae pushing boundaries to create Korean dishes fusioned with his American upbringing, as well as Edward Lee, one of the White Spoon contestants who is another Korean celebrity chef in America, I think it won't be long before Korean cuisine becomes more popular around the world.
Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil things and tell you who it is. I'd recommend you to watch the show yourself to find out, because it is a good show. The only thing I will say is that I'm not 100% convinced the winner should have been the winner. I mean he/she is a good chef, as are all the finalist, but I think the winner was 'made' the winner for promotion, commercial and rating reasons as well as his/her culinary skills.
All video and photo credits are to Netflix apart from the last one
