Kitchen Clash: Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars Ignites

What are Culinary Class Wars?

From professional restaurant chefs to passionate home cooks, 100 contestants with a love for cooking have come together to compete in Culinary Class Wars. Each of them brings their own flavor to the show, with specific skills and backgrounds backing them up, but they all share one ultimate goal: to prove they have what it takes to be the best chef in South Korea. With high stakes and an amount of a whopping 300 million KRW, the pressure is on these chefs to deliver the best. 

Culinary Class Wars Showdown: How the Competition is Structured? 

From professional restaurant chefs to passionate home cooks, 100 contestants with a love for cooking have come together to compete in Culinary Class Wars. Each of them brings their own flavor to the show, with specific skills and backgrounds backing them up, but they all share one ultimate goal: to prove they have what it takes to be the best chef in South Korea. With high stakes and an amount of a whopping 300 million KRW, the pressure is on these chefs to deliver the best. 

Class Division

Culinary Class Wars is all about a showdown between two groups which is a theme often seen in K-dramas. However, instead of focusing on rich versus poor, this competition features two classes of cooks: the elite White Spoons, who are famous, award-winning chefs, and the Black Spoons, who are everyday cooks without any recognition. 

From the start of the show, the 80 Black Spoons are looked down upon by the 20 White Spoons, who stand tall on a podium to show their status. In a fast-paced challenge, 60 Black Spoons are quickly eliminated, leaving the 20 Black Spoons to compete against the 20 White Spoons. 

This setup makes the show very exciting because the White Spoons carry their grace and reputations on the line. The competition only gets tougher during the random ingredient stage, where both groups face off. The judges evaluate the dishes based on taste only, so they won’t know which dish is made by whom. This means that fancy cooking techniques and beautiful dishes don’t matter since it’s all about the chefs’ actual skills and ability to create tasty food. 

Real Celebrity Chefs

One of the White Spoons in Culinary Class Wars is Edward Lee. He’s a talented American-Korean chef who made headlines when he cooked for a state dinner at the White House in 2023 during South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the US. 

Lee is well-known for his cooking skills and has also won the prestigious James Beard Award for his amazing cookbooks. He has also competed in well-known cooking shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef America. 

Despite his experience and achievements, Lee felt nervous cooking against a Black Spoon chef due to the ingredient he was given: mukeunji, a fermented kimchi that’s common in Korean homes. However, since Lee lived in the US the majority of the time, he never got to try this kimchi. This shows that even a seasoned chef like Lee can feel the pressure when faced with unfamiliar ingredients.

Culinary Delights in Culinary Class Wars

The culinary delights in the show have highlighted that South Korean cuisine is more than just barbecues and instant noodles. 

It features chefs from fancy restaurants, Chinese eateries, and even a chef who specializes in North Korean dishes that are not seen very commonly in South Korea. This inclusion highlights the diversity of the region’s culinary offerings and encourages cultural connections. Then there’s a cook from the primary school cafeteria who represents the heart of everyday cooking beautifully.

By featuring a mix of chefs, Culinary Class Wars gives us a real taste of South Korean cuisine, showing off its diversity and flavor while shaking off the usual stereotypes we often hear. It’s great to see everything from high-end dishes to everyday comfort food all in one place!

Predicted Winner and the Viewer’s Feedback

The reactions to Culinary Class Wars have mostly been positive. Viewers really like the show’s unique format, the talented chefs competing, and the interesting stories that unfold throughout the episodes. Many people admire the skills and passion of the contestants, as well as the judges’ expertise and fairness in evaluating the dishes. The show’s focus on cooking abilities and cultural diversity is also appreciated, as it helps viewers learn about different cooking styles and traditions.

For now, the competition is too tough to pick one winner, but there has been one narrow winner in the Culinary Class Wars, and he is Chef Choi Hyun-seok. He achieved a close victory when he competed against one Black Spoon chef. For their battle, both chefs were tasked with using the same three Korean ingredients, including doenjang (soybean paste), Gochujang (chili paste), and lastly, Ganjang (soy sauce). Hyun Seok represented a sous-vide radish in a soy sauce along with a grilled steak with a soybean paste crust. It was topped with a gochujang espuma, too. Meanwhile, the other chef, One Two Three, prepared a Jeju Black Pork Loin. These dishes were tasted by Baek Jong Won and Ahn Sung-Jae, who loved Hyun Seok’s dishes, which resulted in his victory. 

However, some viewers have pointed out that the show can be a bit too dramatic at times, with too much emphasis on personal conflicts between contestants. Despite these mixed reviews, Culinary Class Wars remains a popular and well-loved cooking competition in South Korea.