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Culinary Class Wars
South Korean reality television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Culinary Class Wars (Korean: 흑백요리사: 요리 계급 전쟁) 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 ₩300 million.[2] In September 2025, Netflix announced the second season would debut in December 2025.[3] The first three episodes of season two aired on December 16, 2025, with the last of the season scheduled to be released on January 13, 2026.[4]
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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.[5][6] They became full from tasting so much food during the contest but Paik still ate his packed lunch too.[7]
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.[8]
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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.[2]
The White Spoons of season 1 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.[6]
The White Spoons of season 2 were: Lee Jun, Cheon Sang-hyun, Venerable Sunjae, Son Jong-won, Kim Sung-woon, Kim Hee-eun, Kim Geon, Hu Deok-juk, Park Hyo-nam, Jennie Walldén, Shim Sung-chul, Jung Ho-young, Sam Kim, Raymon Kim, Song Hoon, Lee Geum-hee, Im Seong-geun and Choi Yu-gang. The Hidden White Spoons were Choi Kang-rok and Kim Do-yun.[9][10][11]
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Season 1
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Perspective
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.
One of the judges would taste the dish, and then decide if the contestant would move on to the next round, or if they were eliminated on the spot. Contestants could also be deferred or put on hold, if the judge tasting their dish was unsure if they should progress to the next round, and allowed for the other judge to weigh in with a second opinion.
For this round, 20 Black Spoon chefs were chosen to advance to the next round, to match the number of White Spoon chefs. As fewer than 20 contestants had received passes to continue to the next round at the end of the cooking time, 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.[2]
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.[2]
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
| ○ | Judge voted for the White Spoon's dish |
| ● | Judge voted for the Black Spoon's dish |
[1] Paik Jong-won chose Goddess of Chinese Cuisine to receive the super pass.
[2] 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 whom 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 whom 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
- Contestant advanced to the semifinal via judges' evaluations
- Contestant was 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.
- Jung Ji-sun – Her Mala Cream Shrimp Dim sum was the best-selling dish (with 39 orders), and she was the first contestant to observe the customers' reactions by checking the leftovers.
- Triple Star - He was commended for his strong leadership throughout the round.
- Napoli Matfia - He was commended for his ability to keep the restaurant running smoothly.
- Edward Lee - He was commended for his communication with customers and adapting his dishes throughout the round.
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.[14]
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.[14]
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.
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Season 2
Summarize
Perspective
Similar to Season 1, the show was aired as a series of cooking challenges. The show began with another 100 chefs, with them competing against each other and the clock.
Round 1: Black Spoon Elimination Challenge
The first challenge was similar to last season's opening challenge, with the Black Spoons cooking their signature dishes within 100 minutes to impress at least one of the judges to progress to the next phase, and the White Spoons receiving a bye to progress to the next round.
This time, only 18 White Spoon chefs were introduced at the start of the season. Before the challenge began, two additional chefs joined the cooking as "Hidden White Spoons" - Michelin-starred chef Kim Do-yun, and MasterChef Korea winner Choi Kang-rok. Both were White Spoons from Season 1, and had been eliminated in the previous season. They were given a chance to be reinstated as White Spoons, with the caveat that both judges needed to approve of their dish. If a "Hidden White Spoon" managed to reinstate themselves, the number of Black Spoon Chefs that would be allowed to advance would increase. Choi received approval from both judges for his braised eel and vegetables, while Kim only received one yes from judge Paik, eliminating him from the competition. Because Choi successfully reinstated himself, the number of Black Spoon Chefs allowed to progress to Round 2 was raised to 19.
The top 19 Black Spoon Chefs and their dishes are as follows, with the final five being chosen from deferred chefs.
- Brewmaster Yun – "Brewmaster's Set Meal" with home-distilled soju (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Dweji-Gomtang in New York – Signature dweji-gomtang (pork dish with soup and rice) (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Seoul Mother – Seoul-style set meal with neobiani beef, beef brisket and radish soup, and cold vegetable salad (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Loner In a Hole In a Wall – "Modern Korean Juansang" with beef and truffle tteokgalbi skewers and mackerel bibimbap (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Little Tiger – "A Humble Drink and Mountain Vegetables" - vegetable juansang with mugwort and tofu mix, seasoned daylily, and coastal hog fennel and blue crab salad (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- French Papa – Bouillabaisse (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Culinary Monster – Spring vegetable porridge with truffles (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Witch With a Wok – Chinese-Korean "Happy Family" Stir-fry (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Barbecue Lab Director – Signature barbecued beef rib (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Iron Arms – Soba noodles with chicken broth tsuyu (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Annyeong Bonjour – Poached lobster with kimchi bisque (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Perfect Match – Lobster salad with "lobster shell" tuile (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Boss In the Kitchen – Shrimp porridge with spring greens (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Banchan Wizard – Banchan set meal with grilled dried pollock with glutinous rice (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Rebellious Genius – Rabbit and prosciutto roulade with rabbit liver sauce (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Three Star Killer – Squid ink risotto with fried calamari (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Knife Omakase – "Four-Course Knife Omakase" set with Chinese yam somyeon, cucumber and plum daikon maki roll, and grilled blackthroat sea perch (Judged by Anh Sung Jae)
- Fan Master – Unagi-don (grilled eel with rice) (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
- Trendsetter – Rolled lasagna (Judged by Paik Jong Won)
Round 2: Black vs. White Spoon Duels
Just like last season, the Black and White Spoon chefs cooked head to head in one-on-one duels, to determine who would progress to the next round. White Spoons would be called forward, and any of the Black Spoons could voluntarily challenge the White Spoon to a cook-off. If more than one Black Spoon wanted to challenge a White Spoon, the latter was allowed to choose their opponent.
This season, the theme of the challenge was "regional specialties". Each of the mystery ingredients came from a particular region of South Korea, and the pairs would have to use that ingredient as the main component of their dishes. The dishes would then be judged head to head in a blind taste test. Judges Paik and Anh would then vote on the winning dish, with the winner advancing to the next round. If the dishes were tied, the judges would then deliberate further on which dish had the edge, before choosing a winner.
At the end of the round, the judges allocated a "super pass" to two eliminated chefs (one for each judge), for them to 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
| ○ | Judge voted for the White Spoon's dish |
| ● | Judge voted for the Black Spoon's dish |
[1] Paik Jong-won chose Venerable Sunjae to receive the super pass.
[2] Ahn Sung-jae chose Jung Ho-young to receive the super pass.
[3] The judges voted on this round twice, with both times resulting in a split vote. Each of the judges voted for a different chef in both rounds.
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Episodes
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Reception
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Critical reviews
The show was rated as suitable for ages 12 and above by the British Board of Film Censors.[15]
The show was the most popular foreign-language series on Netflix in its first week of broadcast, getting about four million views.[16][17]
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.[18]
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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21]
Impact
According to Good Data Corporation,[a] 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.[23] While its overall rank decreased to fourth in the second week of November, it remained the top-ranked non-drama program.[24] The show's cast members also featured prominently in Good Data's non-drama performer buzzworthiness rankings.[b]
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.[20]
Culinary Class Wars was recognized as Korea's Favorite Program by Gallup Korea in September and October 2024.[c][27] 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.[27]
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.[28]
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.[29]
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Accolades
Awards and nominations
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Notes
- Good Data Corporation (굿데이터코퍼레이션은) is an online public opinion analysis service. It analyzes online information and public opinion by field. Provides TV topical broadcasting program, online topic ranking, and quality evaluation of performers and marketing effect analysis. TV topicality survey target dramas that were being aired or scheduled to be broadcast. Unlike the audience rating, which measures only the viewing time for the broadcast time, TV topicality is to diagnose the evaluation by examining, indexing, and analyzing the netizens' reactions that appeared in online news, blogs, communities, Twitter, and videos for one week after each program was broadcast.[22]
- From the 3rd to 4th week of September 2024, Paik Jong-won ranked 1st, Choi Hyun-seok 2nd, Ahn Sung-jae 3rd, and Choi Kang-rok 5th (4th week only). By the 1st week of October, Ahn Sung-jae rose to 1st, Paik Jong-won was 2nd, and Choi Hyun-seok 3rd. In the 2nd week of October, Ahn Sung-jae ranked 1st overall (drama and non-drama), followed by Paik Jong-won 2nd, Edward Lee 3rd, Kwon Sung-jun 4th, and Choi Hyun-seok 5th. Rankings in subsequent weeks included Ahn Sung-jae 2nd, Paik Jong-won 3rd, Kwon Sung-jun 4th, and Edward Lee 7th (3rd week of October), and Ahn Sung-jae 2nd and Paik Jong-won 5th (4th week of October).[25] In the 5th week of October, Kang Seung-won was 3rd, Choi Hyun-seok 9th, and Ahn Sung-jae 10th.[26]
- Survey conducted by Gallup Korea from September 24 to 26, 2024, of 1,001 people aged 18 or older nationwide about their favorite TV show these days (up to 2 responses were allowed)
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References
External links
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