Culinary Class Wars

''Culinary Class Wars'' () is a South Korean cooking competition in the dramatic style of '' Physical: 100.'' The first season was released on Netflix in 2024 and featured one hundred elite chefs divided into two classes: white spoons (veterans) and black spoons (newcomers), competing for the prize of million. A second season has been confirmed in production with a planned release in 2025.

Judges

The two judges were veteran restaurateur and celebrity chef, Paik Jong-won, and the only Michelin three-star chef in Korea, Anh Sung-jae. They became full from tasting so much food during the contest but Paik still ate his packed lunch too.

Care was taken to ensure impartial judging. In the first black versus white round, the judges were blind-folded so that they would not be influenced by the status of the contestants. All the food was discarded after judging so that the crew and contestants could not taste it and then challenge or influence the judges' decisions.

Contestants

The contestants were divided at the outset into 20 experienced chefs who were classed as White Spoons and competed under their real names, while the remaining 80 contestants were comparative newcomers who were classed as Black Spoons and competed under aliases.

The White Spoons were: Ahn You-seong, Bang Ki-su, Cho Eun-ju, Choi Hyun-seok, Choi Ji-hyung, Choi Kang-rok, Edward Lee, Fabrizio Ferrari, Hwang Jin-seon, Jang Ho-joon, Jung Ji-sun, Joseph Lidgerwood, Kim Do-yun, Kim Seung-min, Lee Young-suk, Lu Chinglai, Nam Jeong-seok, Oh Se-deuk, Park Joon-woo, and Seonkyoung Longest.

Format and results

Its format was a cookery contest with different challenges in each round and elimination of contestants until only one remained.

Round 1: Black Spoon Elimination Challenge

In the first round, the 80 Black Spoons were given 100 minutes to cook a personal signature dish. A judge tasted this and then decided to either pass or eliminate the contestant. If the judge was uncertain then the contestant was put on hold for a second opinion by the other judge. 20 Black Spoons were required to pass the first round so, when less than 20 contestants had passed, the judges chose from the deferred contestants to fill the remaining places. The 20 White Spoons were given a bye and automatically advanced to the second round.

The 20 survivors of this round and their signature dishes were as follows. The final four required a second opinion.

# Goddess of Chinese Cuisine – Dongpo snowflower dumplings (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Hidden Genius – Spaghetti aglio e olio (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Genius Restaurateur – Tongyeong-style bibimbap + dried pollock-skin sundae (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Side Dish Chef – mixed-grain rice, seaweed soup with Perilla seed powder, braised Japanese Spanish mackerel, 3 kinds of seasoned vegetables (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Yeong Chicken – assorted chicken dishes (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# God of Seasoning – Golden ratio Mapo tofu (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# One Two Three – Bonghwa duck with Korean blackberry (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Triple Star – Lobster with pepper sauce + Lobster Kinilaw (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Auntie Omakase #1 – Assorted home-cooked meals (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Self-Made Chef – Eight Treasure meatball (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Comic Book Chef – Dongpo pork from ''Oishinbo'' + Crab Spring Roll from ''Iron Wok Jan'' (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Meat Master – Galb uignon (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Celebrities' Chef – Vegetarian Sashimi + vegetarian Futomaki (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Seung-woo's Dad – ''Sous vide'' chicken breast + winter watermelon salad (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Yakitori King – Korean chicken yakitori with various cuts (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
# Kitchen Boss – Braised octopus + lemon cheese pasta (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Napoli Matfia – Naples fresh pasta with 3 kinds of potato purée (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Cooking Maniac – Cod milt with curry butter sauce, fried fish with asparagus, brocoli and saffron veloute sauce (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Chef Spark – seafood fresh pasta (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
# Master of School Meals – Boiled pork and Ssamjang, Gochujang-fried anchovies, Yukgaejang, kimchi, lettuce wraps (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)

Round 2: Black vs. White 1-on-1 Match

In the second round, the White Spoons and Black Spoons competed against each other in 1-on-1 matches. White Spoons were called to the stage and a Black Spoon could join if they would like to challenge them. If a White Spoon received two or more opponents, they could choose whom they would like to compete against. The pair then chose between 20 fridges which contained a random ingredient they must use in any dish of their own devising. Contestants were given 70 minutes to cook their dish, then the two creations were then subject to a blind tasting by the judges who were blindfolded and hand-fed by spoon. The judges voted anonymously and then removed their blindfold if the decision was unanimous. If there was a tie, the contestants were asked to leave so that the judges could deliberate on both dishes and make a final decision. The contestant of the winning dish would then advance while the other was eliminated. At the end of the round, both judges selected one contestant each among those who were eliminated to receive a "super pass" and return to the competition.

Color key
* Contestant won their match and advanced to Round 3
* Contestant received a "super pass" from the judges
* Contestant lost their match and was eliminated

;Key

Paik Jong-won chose Goddess of Chinese Cuisine to receive the super pass.


Ahn Sung-jae chose Comic Book Chef to receive the super pass.

Round 3: Black vs. White Team Match

In the third round, the White Spoons and the Black Spoons divided themselves into two teams, one to cook a meat-based dish and another to cook a seafood-based dish. The White Spoon team in one category competed against the respective Black Spoon team. Each team had 200 minutes to prepare and serve their dish to a panel of 100 audience members, including the two judges. In each match the team with the most votes was declared the winner with all contestants in the team advancing to the next round.

Color key
* Winning Team, all members advance to Round 4
* Losing Team, all members sent to the Consolation Round
* Head Chef

Consolation Round

Exclusively for the teams that lost Round 3. Contestants had 40 minutes to prepare any dish of their devising using ingredients typically found in a convenience store. The judges tasted each dish in the order that it was finished. After all dishes were sampled, the judges selected three contestants regardless of their class to advance to Round 4.

Color key
* Contestant was selected to advance to Round 4
* Contestant was eliminated

Round 4: Black and White Mixed Team Match: Restaurant Mission

For the fourth round, the contestants divided themselves into three teams of five, regardless of class. The head chefs for each team were predetermined by a survey where contestants voted on three others who they believe are most likely to win the competition. The first place contestant (with eleven votes) was Black Spoon's Triple Star, followed by White Spoon's Choi Hyun-seok and White Spoon's Edward Lee. After all teams were decided, the restaurant mission was announced. Each team has 24 hours to create their own restaurant from the ground up, including its concept, menu items and pricing, and shopping and preparing the ingredients. After the 24 hours, all restaurants will open simultaneously to customers for 2 hours and 30 minutes. For the restaurant with the most sales, all of their members will advance to the Semifinal, while for the restaurant with the lowest sales, all of their members will be eliminated. Only eight contestants will survive based on restaurant sales and judges' evaluations.

At the six-hour mark, it was announced that each team must dismiss one member who they believe will be least helpful in the round. Contestants could also volunteer to dismiss themselves. The three dismissed contestants would form a fourth team that must design a new restaurant to compete against the opposing teams. The dismissed contestants were Black Spoon's Self-Made Chef (from Triple Star's team), White Spoon's Ahn You-seong (from Choi Hyun-seok's team), and Black Spoon's Comic Book Chef (from Edward Lee's team). At the end of the 24 hours, the customers were revealed to be twenty mukbang creators. Each customer was given one million won to order as many dishes as they want during the allotted business hours.

Color key
* First place team, all members advance to the semifinal
* Last place team, all members eliminated

Names in bold denote Head Chef.

Among the second and third-place teams, the judges picked four more contestants to advance to the semifinal.

Color key
* Contestant advanced to the semifinal via judges' evaluations
* Contestant was eliminated

Semifinal Round

For the semifinal round, the contestants competed in two themed missions: "Cook Your Life" and "Endless Cooking Hell". Only two contestants will advance to the final round.

Cook Your Life

The contestants were given 70 minutes to cook a dish representing their life. The judges would evaluate their dish and give a score out of 100 points, then both judges' scores were combined to determine the contestant's total score. The contestant with the most points would automatically advance to the final round.

Color key
* Top Score

As the winner of the "Cook Your Life" mission, Napoli Matfia automatically advanced to the final round without competing in the next semifinal mission.

Endless Cooking Hell

The remaining seven chefs competed in an endurance round to select the other finalist. The chefs had to keep creating dishes using the same key ingredient: tofu. Each dish had to be created in just 30 minutes using tofu taken from a large stack. The judges used three criteria: ensuring that tofu was a significant ingredient; the creativity of the dish; and its overall execution and presentation. Dishes were served to the judges in the order of completion and the worst submission each round was eliminated.

Edward Lee won this stage by creating a varied and novel selection of dishes such as Kentucky-Fried Tofu, which resembled the famous chicken dish and used chicken fat as a sauce to give it an appropriate and savoury taste.

Color key
* Contestant survived the round
* Contestant was eliminated in this round

Final Round

The final round's theme was a "name on the line" dish. The two chefs had to prepare any dish of their desire within the span of 80 minutes. Similarly to the second round's 1-on-1 match, the judges had to vote independently from one another, albeit with the caveat that instead of a deliberation period, the chefs would have to create another dish should the judges not unanimously agree on the best dish. Prior contestants were invited to return and spectate the final round.

At the start of the round, Napoli Matfia's real name was revealed to be Kwon Seong-joon.

The two dishes were:

Edward Lee: Tteokbokki semifreddo with a gochugang caramel served with a chamoe-makgeolli "old fashioned."

Inspiration: Edward joined the competition to get in touch with his Korean heritage and noticed how chefs were typically generous with their portions, especially with tteokbokki. He realised that this came from a place of love and he made a dish to commemorate the leftover tteokbokki.

Kwon Seong-joon: Piedmontese-style pistachio-crusted lamb rack with barollo wine sauce, mushrooms and beet and lamb heart ravioli.

Inspiration: Kwon interpreted his "name" as referring to his life, and as of such wanted to create a dish that represented his entire being. The wine was selected due to it both being a vintage from the year he was born, as well as his favourite grape varietal.

Kwon Seong-joon was declared the winner and won the ₩300 million prize.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reviews

The show was rated as suitable for ages 12 and above by the British Board of Film Censors.

The show was the most popular foreign-language series on Netflix in its first week of broadcast, getting about four million views.

Lee Yoon-seo reviewed the show for ''The Korea Herald''. She reported that the show was popular and that the reasons for this included the high level of expertise and creativity displayed by the contestants and their respect for each other's skills. The two judges and their differences of opinion were also thought to make good viewing. She reported that the participants' restaurants had boomed since their exposure on the show. For example, over 20,000 people tried to reserve a table at the Neo restaurant of Choi Gang-rok and its new month of online bookings sold out in one minute.

Viewership

''Culinary Class Wars'' achieved international recognition, debuting as the first Korean unscripted series to reach No. 1 on Netflix's Global Top 10 TV (Non-English) list for three weeks. Netflix data indicates the show garnered 3.8 million views (calculated by dividing total hours watched by the series' running time) between September 16 and September 22, 2024, and appeared in the Top 10 lists in 18 countries. Viewership increased the following week, with data released on October 2, 2024, showing 4.9 million views between September 23 and 29, a rise of 1.1 million from the previous week.

Impact

According to Good Data Corporation,' ''Culinary Class Wars'' consistently ranked first in integrated TV-OTT non-drama topicality for seven weeks, beginning in the third week of September 2024 and extending through the fourth week of October. It briefly fell to second place in the fifth week before regaining the top position in the first week of November. While its overall rank decreased to fourth in the second week of November, it remained the top-ranked non-drama program. The show's cast members also featured prominently in Good Data's non-drama performer buzzworthiness rankings.

Good Data researcher Eo Yu-seon noted that the show's initial topicality score of 50,000 points was significant, reaching levels comparable to ''Transfer Love 2'' (2022) and representing the highest score for original content released in 2024. In the fourth week of September 2024, it maintained its top spot with a 66.1% increase in topicality, recording 81,000 points, the highest weekly score since 2022 and the highest among Netflix original dramas and non-dramas since '' The Glory Part 2''.

''Culinary Class Wars'' was recognized as Korea's Favorite Program by Gallup Korea in September and October 2024. Its preference rating increased from 5.2% in September to 7.8% in October, making it the first web variety show to rank first in a survey of preferred programs, and the second among Netflix's own productions to achieve this ranking. Several OTT programs, such as ''The Glory'' (Netflix, 1st rank in March 2023) and ''Moving'' (Disney+, 1st rank in September 2023), had previously entered the top 10, with ''Whirlwind'' (Netflix, 1st rank in July 2024) being the only other to achieve this in 2024.

On October 15, 2024, Netflix announced the renewal of ''Culinary Class Wars'' for a second season, scheduled for release in 2025. According to Mo, casting for Season 2 is expected to be less challenging than for Season 1 due to the established concept. Mo aims to invite chefs of comparable caliber to those from Season 1.

In December 2024, the show received the FunDex Award 2024 from Good Data in the OTT Original Show Category. In May 2025, it won the Grand Prize in the Broadcast category at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards, marking the first time an entertainment program has received this honor in the history of the Baeksang Arts Awards.

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

*

Production website
at Studio Slam

{{Netflix original current series

Grand Prize Paeksang Arts Award (television) winners
2024 South Korean television series debuts
Korean-language television shows
Netflix original programming
South Korean cooking television series
South Korean reality television series