Review of Culinary Class Wars / 흑백요리사: 요리 계급 전쟁

In the summer of 2024, I returned from living in Busan, South Korea, on a government scholarship. I was there only for two months, but because I was on an intensive program that wanted us to learn Korean and assimilate as much as possible, I feel like I got a good taste (pun intended) of living there and having deep discussions at 1 AM with my Korean roommate.

When I returned to the United States and was waiting for my Indian visa to come through, as I was supposed to spend a year there, I was watching a lot of Korean content to remind me of the place I had just left behind. While I was glad to return to the States and the comforts I was used to, I did miss Korean food and hearing the language all the time.

That was how I ended up watching Culinary Class Wars when it first came out. I had never heard of the show beforehand, but it was recommended on my Netflix the day it came out. I could see how it blew up to be so popular, especially with the underdog storyline that’s the core of the show.

Every week I patiently waited for each new episode to drop, which is how I’m writing this review the day of the final episode releases. I woke up this morning at 8 AM, prepared a breakfast, and sat down in front of the television to see what was to happen next.

Here’s my review!

Small restaurant owners are pitted against world class chefs in a Korean cooking reality show.

I love food. I almost went into a PhD program in history to study gastronomical history, and even almost worked at Whetstone with Stephen Satterfield (I did not get the job, but I still fangirl over my interview with him). That said, I watch a lot of Chef’s Table, as it is literally my comfort show, and I don’t watch a ton of reality television.

It was the premise that lured me into this one, then I got attached to all of these chefs. I had no idea who any of the White Spoons were before this, but now I follow a good chunk of them on my personal Instagram to see what they’re up to next. Edward Lee was definitely a standout throughout the show, as not only is he an extremely talented chef, but he comes across as a good person.

I won’t try to spoil the ending of the show on this review for my dear readers who haven’t gotten that far yet, but I honestly thought the show became super predictable once you were a few episodes in. There aren’t a ton of challenges, as they drag out the content of one challenge sometimes over the course of episodes, but there was a particular formula involving who got eliminated and who didn’t that emerged.

Would I have personally picked the winner of this show? No, probably not.A lot of these chefs are extremely talented, if not all of them, to their core. Some specialized in everyday mundane dishes, not fine dining, and it was heartwarming to see them get that platform making simple Korean food.

It was in the life story episode I realized I wished we got to learn more about them as people. Auntie Omakase is one of the ones whose life story we really got to know, as she was open with the judges and the audience, and that got me really thinking about who these people were beyond their dishes—that’s the magic sometimes of knowing a restaurant’s origin story, and why I like Chef’s Table a little too much.

The two judges were also very interesting to me. I had no complaints about them beyond Chef Ahn completing missing the point of Edward Lee’s life story creation at one point in the show, but I could also see how he came ot the decision he did when giving Lee that score. They were quite balanced with each other at the end of the day, too.

I do have several complaints about the show, though. It was in a restaurant mission a few episodes in that it became clearer there were some aspects of the show that felt really unfair, and I could see how criticism could arise from that. I feel like I also straddled understanding the Korean and the American perspectives on certain situations, as well as how different audiences might react.

For example, some people on the show were willing to play dirty and take advantage of others in order to win. That’s reality television at its finest and makes entertainment, but I wish there were more straight up cooking at times. Even the face off to decide who would be the second finalist felt like how it should have been instead of the final round.

There’s also the fact they were clearly overworked. I understand in the US you can’t do some of this legally, but Korean labor laws are a bit looser I think. The older chefs were clearly struggling, especially with the 24 hours straight restaurant challenge, and that felt a bit cruel at times.

Overall Thoughts

I’m glad I watched this show in the end. It was pretty entertaining, although a bit disappointing in other ways when it comes to the structure and how some people acted. I also didn’t appreciate Matfia choosing Edward Lee because he wasn’t good at Korean (and ultimately having more of an influence), or Choi hoarding all of the ingredients so the other team had none.

At the end of the day, this is reality television though, and it was quite successful in what it set out to do. Netflix now has the option to watch shows in English dub, so if subtitles aren’t your thing, give it a chance with the dub.

Next time though try subtitles—I think for this show you miss very specific nuances if you use subtitles, such as Edward Lee struggling in Korean and getting emotional.

I enjoyed the show, that’s what I’m trying to say in a nutshell. It also proves that cooking in a fine dining place can be prestigious, but there are incredible cooks and chefs in the restaurants surrounding us all the time. They need acknowledgement too!

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