Netflix Korea’s Culinary Class Wars is planning its season two cast and is looking for top chefs from around the world. On Tuesday, the show’s creative team shared that British chef Gordon Ramsay is one of the potential stars they’re considering.
Co-producer Kim Hak-min said they expect casting to be easier this time and will listen to viewer feedback to make the show even more popular. He shared this during a press interview at a café in central Seoul’s Jongno District.
“Culinary Class Wars” is Netflix Korea’s first cooking survival show. It brought together 100 chefs to compete for a grand prize of 300 million won ($223,000). The show premiered on September 17, with the finale airing on October 8. It stayed at No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English top 10 list for three weeks in a row.
Advertisement Producers said casting celebrity chef Choi Hyun-Seok was the hardest part of season one. He agreed at first but changed his mind several times. Veteran Chinese cuisine chef Jung Ji-sun also hesitated because of her busy schedule. However, Korean American chef Edward Lee and Chinese cuisine chef Lu Ching Lai quickly said yes.
Famous or not, every contestant had to go through the same application and interview process to make it into the final 100.
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Two contestants stood out during that process. One was “Comic Book” Cho Kwang-hyo, who didn’t have any formal chef training but joined the show just to hear what the judges thought of his food. Another was “Iron Bag Chef” Lim Tae-hoon, who gave such a heartfelt, honest interview at the last minute that the producers decided to include him in the final group.
In the end, “Napoli Mafia” Kwon Sung-jun won the competition, but many of the chefs who took part also gained fame and recognition.
We’re really happy that so many contestants from the show are getting love and attention,
said producer Kim Hak-min
Kim also shared that chef Choi Hyun-seok told him he was glad he didn’t win. Choi felt that getting as far as he did was enough to show who he was and share his cooking philosophies.
For contestants, it’s not just about winning anymore. It’s about expressing themselves and their cooking to the fullest,
Kim added
The show’s creators focused on letting the chefs be themselves.
More important than editing are the ingredients, It’s about the people, their stories, and their journeys. We just capture that with the camera. We wanted to respect each chef and didn’t try to exaggerate anything.
said Kim Hak-min
The show’s concept, which put veteran chefs against lesser-known underdogs, was a bit risky for the team.
We didn’t tell the participants about the status divide until filming started on the first day, We knew it could be a sensitive situation, but the chefs handled it well. There was a lot of respect for the veterans, and that really showed in the show.
co-producer Kim Eun-ji said
There was a big debate about whether to give nicknames to the lesser-known “Black Spoon” chefs. Some staff members worried that hiding their real names might be disrespectful.
A lot of younger team members didn’t like the idea of using nicknames, but with 80 Black Spoon chefs, we needed viewers to quickly understand who they were and their stories. Nicknames helped with that, and we spent hours picking the right ones.
The nicknames also fit with the team’s goal to try something new.
We had over 700 pages of research on cooking shows, but our goal was to avoid doing anything that had been done before,
said Kim Hak-min.
The main focus was to ensure the participants had fun. Writer Mo Eun-sol explained,
For the show to be exciting, the competitors and judges needed to enjoy themselves.
This led to unique challenges, like the blind-tasting round, where judges rated food based only on taste and smell. Though Judge Paik Jong-won had doubts, he later agreed it made judging fairer.
Another highlight was the “cooking hell” round, where chefs used only tofu. Judge Anh Sung-jae thought it would be too difficult, which convinced the team to use it. Kim Hak-min said,
When Mr. Anh said it would be more difficult, that made us choose tofu.
The team spent three months planning these missions, and when they presented them to Paik, he said, “This looks fun. Good job.”
After the show, they were happy to see a growing interest in fine dining.
Young people are saving to eat at Mosu Seoul, and more want to try fine dining, It shows we highlighted the chefs’ hard work and dedication.
said Mo
Source: koreajoongangdaily