Culinary Class Wars

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. A second season has been confirmed in production with a planned release in 2025. Its format was a cookery contest with different challenges in each round and elimination of contestants until only one remained.

Culinary Class Wars
Promotional poster
Hangul	흑백요리사: 요리 계급 전쟁
Literal meaning	Black and White Chef: Culinary Class Wars
Revised Romanization	Heukbaegyorisa: yori gyegeup jeonjaeng
McCune–Reischauer	Hŭkpaekyorisa yori kyegŭp chŏnjaeng
Genre	Cooking Reality competition
Written by	Mo Eun-seol
Directed by	Kim Hak-min Kim Eun-ji
Judges	Paik Jong-won Anh Sung-jae
Music by	Park Gyo-yeon Seok Seung-hee
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language	Korean
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Producers	Lee Joo-yeon Ju Mi-rye Kim Yo-seb Yoo Si-won Lee So-rim Kim Sol
Cinematography	Hong Jung-pyo
Running time	60–76 minutes
Production company	Studio Slam
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	September 17, 2024 (2024-09-17) – present

Judges and contestants

The two judges were veteran restaurateur and celebrity chef, Paik Jong-won, and the only Michelin three-star chef in Korea, Anh Sung-jae. 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

Round 1: Black Spoon Elimination Challenge

In the first round, the 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.

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

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

○	Judge voted for the White Spoon's dish
●	Judge voted for the Black Spoon's dish

Black vs. White 1-on-1 Match results

Main Ingredient	White Spoon	Black Spoon	Judges' Vote
			Paik Jong-won	Ahn Sung-jae
Mugeunji	Edward Lee (Mugeunji pork neck salad)	Meat Master (Skate-bacon mugeunji samhap)	○	○
Siraegi	Jung Ji-sun (Deep-fried siraegi basi with black vinegar)	Goddess of Chinese Cuisine [1] (Siraegi sea bream stew)	●	○
Beef rump	Lee Young-suk (Miso gomtang)	Genius Restaurateur (Jeonriptugol)	○	○
Maesaengi	Cho Eun-ju (Maesaengi-flavored abalone)	Kitchen Boss (Barley risotto with scallops and maesaengi	○	○
Live octopus	Jang Ho-joon	Yakitori King	○	○
Pig's trotter	Ahn You-seong	Yeong Chicken	○	○
Ogyeopsal	Choi Ji-hyung (Grilled Maekjeok and Kaesong-style seasoned vegetables)	Triple Star (Ogyeopsal Tteokgalbi with Epoisses sauce)	●	○
Perilla oil	Choi Kang-rok	Seung-woo's Dad	●	○
Jang trio (Gochujang, Doenjang, Ganjang)	Choi Hyun-seok	One Two Three	○	●
Conger eel	Joseph Lidgerwood	Cooking Maniac	●	●
Semi-dried Rockfish	Kim Do-yun	Side Dish Chef	●	●
Skate	Fabrizio Ferrari	Napoli Matfia	○	●
Matured Pumpkin	Hwang Jin-seon	Comic Book Chef [2]	○	○
Oxtail	Lu Chinglai	Self-Made Chef	●	●
Beef tripe	Oh Se-deuk	Hidden Genius	●	○
Bone-in Pork sirloin	Seonkyoung Longest	God of Seasoning	●	○
Mackerel	Kim Seung-min	Auntie Omakase #1	●	●
Humpback shrimp	Nam Jeong-seok	Celebrities' Chef	○	○
Pyogo mushroom	Park Joon-woo	Chef Spark	●	●
Black Chicken	Bang Ki-su	Master of School Meals	●	●

^[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

Black vs. White Team Match results

Category	White Spoon			Black Spoon
	Contestant	Dish	Score	Contestant	Dish	Score
Meat	Cho Eun-ju	Hong shao rou with Vegetables	45	Triple Star	Chinese-style Meat-Wrap with Pepper Steak and Radish Salad	55
	Seonkyoung Longest			Master of School Meals
	Jung Ji-sun			Comic Book Chef
	Choi Kang-rok			Side Dish Chef
	Hwang Jin-seon			Auntie Omakase #1
				Self-Made Chef
Seafood	Choi Hyun-seok	Flounder Seaweed Soup	54	Chef Spark	Risotto with Chinese-style Grilled Octopus and Sea Bream	46
	Nam Jeong-seok			Napoli Matfia
	Ahn You-seong			Cooking Maniac
	Edward Lee			Goddess of Chinese Cuisine
	Lee Young-suk			Hidden Genius
	Jang Ho-joon

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

Consolation Round results

Order	Contestant	Dish	Result
1	Hwang Jin-seon	Pig Trotter Cabbage Wrap	Eliminated
2	Choi Kang-rok	Hot Pepper Saury	Eliminated
3	Cooking Maniac	Ramyeon Pad thai	3rd
4	Jung Ji-sun	Ramyeon You po mian	2nd
5	Goddess of Chinese Cuisine	Kung Pao chicken Chow mein	Eliminated
6	Seonkyoung Longest	American-style Chow mein	Eliminated
7	Napoli Matfia	Chestnut Tiramisu	1st
8	Cho Eun-ju	Chicken Breast with Pineapple Salsa	Eliminated
9	Hidden Genius	Tuna Mayo Toast with Grilled Cabbage & Crabmeat	Eliminated
10	Chef Spark	Convenience Store Carrozza	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.

Initial team assignments

Team Triple Star	Team Choi Hyun-seok	Team Edward Lee
Triple Star	Choi Hyun-seok	Edward Lee
Self-Made Chef	Ahn You-seong	Lee Young-suk
Side Dish Chef	Jang Ho-joon	Master of School Meals
Nam Jeong-seok	Cooking Maniac	Napoli Matfia
Jung Ji-sun	Auntie Omakase #1	Comic Book Chef

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.

Black and White Mixed Team Match: Restaurant Mission results

Restaurant		Contestant	Result
Name	Menu		Rank	Sales
The Gazillionaire's Exorbitant Diner (억수르 기사식당)	Truffle Gold Katsu (₩36,000) Lobster Mala Cream Jjamppong (₩42,000) Caviar Roe Bibimbap Heaven (₩58,000)	Choi Hyun-seok	1st	₩4,774,000
		Jang Ho-joon
		Cooking Maniac
		Auntie Omakase #1
Triple Chinese Restaurant (트리플 반점)	Mala Cream Shrimp Dim sum (₩24,000) Flame-grilled Bulgogi Bao (₩22,000) Gochujang Butter Gnocchi with Roast Chicken (₩30,000)	Triple Star	2nd	₩2,220,000
		Side Dish Chef
		Nam Jeong-seok
		Jung Ji-sun
Mister Jang (Jang 아저씨 식당)	Mister Jang's Ssamjang Pasta (₩13,900) Gochujang Butter Steak (₩34,000) Assorted Jeon with Caviar (₩26,000)	Edward Lee	3rd	₩1,498,100
		Lee Young-suk
		Napoli Matfia
		Master of School Meals
The Restaurant that TV Crews line up for (방송국도 줄 서는 식당)	The Blue House Master Chef's Tendon (₩22,000) Dongpo pork from Sung Si-kyung's Grab a Bite (₩24,000) Cooking Master Boy's Mapo tofu (₩20,000)	Ahn You-seong	4th	₩1,348,000
		Self-Made Chef
		Comic Book 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

Judges' evaluations

Order	Contestant	Judge's Comment for Selection
1	Jung Ji-sun	Mala Cream Shrimp Dim sum was the best-selling dish (with 39 orders). Jung Ji-sun was also the first contestant to observe the customers' reactions by checking the leftovers.
2	Triple Star	Triple Star was commended for his strong leadership throughout the round.
3	Napoli Matfia	Napoli Matfia was commended for his ability to keep the restaurant running smoothly.
4	Edward Lee	Edward Lee was commended for his communication with customers and adapting his dishes throughout the round.
-	Side Dish Chef	Eliminated
	Nam Jeong-seok
	Master of School Meals
	Lee Young-suk

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

Cook Your Life results

Order	Contestant	Dish	Judges' Score		Result
			Paik Jong-won	Ahn Sung-jae	Total Score	Rank
1	Jung Ji-sun	Songshu Guiyu	87	82	169	8
2	Edward Lee	Tuna and Caviar Bibimbap	97	82	179	3
3	Jang Ho-joon	Kuro Tamanegi	91	87	178	5
4	Auntie Omakase #1	Handmade Kal-guksu, Cabbage Jeon, Millet Rice, Geotjeori	90	85	175	7
5	Cooking Maniac	Ugly Onion soup	88	89	177	6
6	Napoli Matfia	Grandmother's Gegukji Pasta	92	90	182	1
7	Triple Star	Clam chowder soup with Toothfish and Caviar	92	87	179	3
8	Choi Hyun-seok	Pasta Vongole	93	88	181	2

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

Infinite 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

Infinite Cooking Hell results

Contestant	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Judge's Comment for Elimination
Edward Lee	Tofu, Pine Nut and Soy Milk Soup	Tofu and Scallops	Jasmine Tea-smoked Tofu with Duck Breast and Egg Yolk Sauce	Tofu Pasta alla Ruota with Gochujang Sauce	Kentucky-Fried Tofu	Tofu Crème Brûlée	Winner - Edward Lee had the most innovative uses for tofu and his dishes encompassed a larger variety than the other contestants
Triple Star	Sesame Seed and Tofu Dressing Salad	Tofu Menbosha	Rockfish and Tofu Jjigae	Western-styled Mapo Tofu	Gamtae Tofu Noodles	Mexican-Inspired Tofu	Too similar to the dish he prepared in Round 4
Cooking Maniac	Tuna-wrapped Tot and Tofu Salad	Tofu sheet-wrapped Spring Rolls	Ugly Caesar Salad	Tofu Tteok-galbi Sandwich	Agedashi Tofu		Not as creative or as well executed as the others' dishes
Jang Ho-joon	Ganmodoki	Edamame and Tofu Gratin	Pistachio Tofu Salad	Tofu and Brisket Rice Bowl			Not as creative or as well executed as the others' dishes
Auntie Omakase #1	Tofu, Pyogo Mushroom and Spring Onion Dumplings	Tofu Jjigae	Tofu and Crown Daisy Salad				Not innovative enough
Jung Ji-sun	Fried Tofu with Salted Egg Yolk Sauce	Tofu Dim Sum					Not overly flavourful
Choi Hyun-seok	Lamb "Milanese" with Saffron Risotto and Mapo Tofu sauce						Usage of tofu was arbitrary and did not contribute to the overall dish

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.

Reception

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.