SPOILER ALERT! - Please refrain from reading this if you haven't watched the show and wish to avoid spoilers, thank you.
Finally, the dust has settled.
To put it simply, I would use the Chinese expression "虎头蛇尾" which means "a brilliant start but sloppy ending" to sum up this show. I wonder if this has become a signature trait of Netflix Korea's reality shows of late because the recent titles I watched all had this issue. While they mostly started very promisingly and were engaging for most of the run, the finales somehow turned out to be very underwhelming or came across as really half-hearted as if they wanted to wrap things up quickly. Not sure if it's the editing or the finales were that boring but it was sad to see things end in this manner. And this was disregarding whether the person I was rooting for won in the end.
Unfortunately, "Culinary Class Wars" was yet another example of this undesirable pattern.
I wasn't expecting much when I started watching the show. In fact, I waited for a number of episodes to be released before I began watching since I wasn't in a big hurry to check this out as soon as it was released. From the start, the show looked super impressive due to the scale and quality of the set, the interesting competition system of pitting well-known and established chefs (White Spoons) against those who may have skills but aren't as popular or well-known yet (Black Spoons) and the dizzying showcase of various creative and delicious-looking dishes created by the contestants. The twists and turns in each round were also good entertainment from the perspective of the viewers. I do think that there were some parts which probably were considered controversial (more on that later) but I saw that as a premeditated move by the production crew since it was essential to stir up reactions from viewers rather than for them to be indifferent to what went on in the show.
While I can't say that I know all of the White Spoons, some of them had appeared on TV shows while some were winners in past cooking contests I had watched before so there was a certain degree of familiarity to begin with. I was actually more surprised that some of these veterans would want to come on a show like this because there was the risk of being embarrassed if they were eliminated in the early stages and more so if defeated by the Black Spoons. However, some of the White Spoons who got eliminated early displayed great grace when accepting their defeats and were very encouraging towards the younger and less experienced Black Spoons. That was a great sight to behold because of the mutual respect shown for one another. On the other hand, I have to admit that I didn't know any of the Black Spoons. While it was quite easy to see that the final winner would have to be a Black Spoon for maximum dramatic effect - the underdog overcomes the more powerful senior, it was a bit dampening to see how it happened in the finale. As for the judges, while I am pretty familiar with Baek Jong-won because I had watched a number of his shows to date, I didn't know who Ahn Sung-jae was until this show.
The earlier rounds of the competition and the semi-finals turned out to be way more engaging to watch than the final which didn't even last for an episode on its own. I am sure that I wasn't alone in feeling that the semi-finals felt more like the final. Other Korean cooking competition shows which I saw in the past would have either multiple rounds to decide the victor or at least asked for a set meal with multiple dishes but this show asked for one dish only? And what's with the theme of the dish bearing your name? Isn't that somewhat similar in style to the dish that was of great meaning in the chef's life in the first round of the semi final? And could there have been an increase in difficulty by setting out specific conditions, restricting the type of main ingredients to be used or at least a theme to adhere to? The Endless Hell challenge was actually more difficult than this final, I must say.
While I was never a supporter of Edward Lee from the start, he slowly won me over with his classy performances, out-of-the-box creativity, respect for opponents - both peers and juniors, humility and willingness to learn from others. Even in the face of a taunt right in the face which felt totally unnecessary (downright distasteful even from the viewpoint of creating a talking point or drama for the final) and disrespectful by the eventual winner Napoli Matfia i.e. Kwon Seung-joon, Lee still maintained his grace by not retorting and smiling during that exchange. I don't know what was the significance in highlighting that Lee was most likely still suffering from jet lag due to the flight from US to Korea and that he had gone through the torturous Endless Hell semi-final the day before. If you are good, you can just mention that you will put in your best effort to win and you think you can win because of your skills. By insinuating that your rival wouldn't be able to perform as well due to the conditions against him, I don't know what he was trying to achieve by saying that. So if Lee had won despite the odds, wouldn't that have reflected badly on him who watched the Endless Hell round with ease and supposedly was in a better physical and mental condition?
There should have been a better way to show self confidence without putting people down in that manner. If this kind of behaviour was just an once-off thing, one can argue that the editing did a disservice to Kwon for the sake of creating an "antagonist" character to court controversy. If one wants to justify that he had his reasons for doing that, I can understand that he had this "underdog wants to beat the favourites" resolve from the start because of the "slight" he felt when the White Spoons were given privileges from the start as a reflection of their "superiority" over the Black Spoons. However, if his choice of words since the start was consistent in style all along, I am skeptical about the explanation that he didn't mean what he said.
This is merely my opinion though but people who are truly good at what they do actually do not go around trumpeting their skills and strengths because others can see that for themselves. In fact, when you go searching for reviews and comments online about the show after the final, it's easy to see who won the hearts of the viewers despite the outcome. While Kwon did apologise for his behaviour in the last two episodes by saying that he was trying to cover up his nervousness and lack of confidence against a formidable opponent, I still feel that there could have been better ways to achieve the intended effect of showing confidence without being rude and offensive.
There were some interesting topics which came up during the course of this show so I'll share my thoughts on them below:
Class classification and discrimination
The idea of putting the chefs in two categories could have courted controversy if people felt that it was blatant discrimination against the Black Spoons. However, I think that it's a honest reflection of how society is like in real life, whether you agree or like it. Much as we aspire to have a world where there's no discrimination or class differences, the reality is that there is still a hierarchy in all aspects of society, be it in social or work settings. Rather than pretend that this doesn't exist, it's better to show it as it is. Just as how a Michelin 3-star chef is looked upon as the ultimate goal for chefs and epitome of greatness in the fine dining world, you can't deny that those with a 3-star are seen as more superior when compared to a 2-star, 1-star or someone with no star. Whether we agree with this order of things or how people are appraised will be a separate issue to think about. Especially when it comes to food, we all have our own standards and criteria. What works for others may not work for you.
The White Spoons were classified as such because they earned their dues thanks to years of hard work, experience, skills, popularity and name/brand awareness. On the other hand, the show didn't say or imply that the Black Spoons were inferior - it was just that they may be experts in their respective specialisations but have yet to make a name for themselves or are comparatively less experienced than the White Spoons. As such, the advantages which the White Spoons enjoyed at first were reasonable to a certain extent although it might have rubbed some Black Spoons in the wrong way. Conversely, I think that the way the competition started did strengthen the competitive streak in the Black Spoons to prove that they were as good, if not better than the White Spoons.
In case you are unaware, the word "black" actually sounds similar to "dirt" in Korean. The
spoon class theory i.e. sujeo gyegeumnon (수저 계급론) is an idea that first surfaced in 2015 where "individuals in a country can be classified into different socioeconomic classes based on the assets and income level of their parents, and as a consequence, one's success in life depends entirely on being born into a wealthy family" (definition from Wikipedia). Based on this theory, the highest level would be diamond, while the lowest level is dirt. In this ranking, there is no black spoon though so it has been speculated that the colour "black" was chosen to contrast against white which is the typical colour worn by chefs and also meant to refer to dirt since they sound similar in Korean. Of course, it is obvious that the Black Spoons definitely aren't at the dirt level since they were selected to be part of the 80 to participate in the first round. That alone would be a reflection of their abilities.
Fairness - Actual vs. Perceived
I was concerned about the second round which was officially the first time when the top 20 Black Spoons faced the White Spoons - wouldn't the judges be affected and be mindful of offending these White Spoons especially those very senior ones? As such, it was a surprise to see that they were really blindfolded - effectively a blind test - since they could not see who was against who nor were they allowed to see how the contestants cooked. Seeing the judges' shock when they eliminated a few veterans in this manner unwittingly seemed to suggest that they really didn't know whose dishes they were tasting and the decisions were made truly based on taste only. Although I think that this was a pretty good control measure on the whole, there was a controversy about one contestant serving a dish which was from the judge Ahn Sung-jae's restaurant Mosu when he worked there in the past. If that was indeed true, it would have been a giveaway of his identity so there should have been a rule banning such dishes from being used in that round.
I thought that the fairness of the competition got a bit iffy towards the end because the goalposts seemed to have shifted here and there and the judging criteria was not fully made known to the contestants. In the early rounds, Baek Jong-won made it very clear that his focus was on taste while Ahn Sung-jae was concerned with the overall execution, intended message of the dish and whether the intention of the chef matched the final product. As such, while viewers couldn't taste the dishes for themselves, their comments and decisions still seemed pretty logical and believable.
However, there seemed to be some back-and-fro in the later stages when the focus was either not specified or consistent - was taste, creativity, the wow factor or adherence to the theme the most important thing for a particular round? For the Endless Hell semi-final, I felt that it was logical to think that the dish must incorporate tofu as the main ingredient so adherence to this requirement would have been a must. In that sense, Choi Hyun-seok's elimination would be understandable because tofu played a supporting role in his dish. Towards the end though, Triple Star lost because he didn't have as much variety as Edward Lee even though the judges did comment that he had the best tasting dishes. So...is taste ultimately more important than creativity or the other way round? And since contestants did not know the hierarchy of criteria which the two judges had decided between themselves, would it have been fairer if the contestants went into this round with full knowledge on what they should do? Having some ground rules and being transparent and consistent in the judging criteria would make the competition less controversial.
Likewise, for the round where the team match took place and the White Spoons' seafood team hogged the ingredients, if there was a rule stating beforehand that you could only take what you need or that you had to decide on the menu first before grabbing the ingredients, that could have prevented the situation which happened. While people may not agree fully with Choi Hyun-seok's strategy at first from a "moral" standpoint, you can't deny that he managed to for being able to find a way to seize an advantage over the other team while not breaking any pre-specified rules.
As for the round where the teams had to operate restaurants to serve the mukbang influencers, Choi's strategy may have been unrealistic in real life and a very risky gamble for that particular round but I think he was spot-on in identifying the best strategy to take advantage of the unusual circumstances. While it would have been fairer to consider net profit after taking out the cost of the ingredients, I think that it would not have made much of a difference in the final ranking considering the huge difference in total revenue between the first and second-placed teams. Perhaps if the influencers were given a smaller budget to begin with, it might have made the round go in a more unpredictable manner because they would have to make more critical and carefully considered decisions when ordering.
With regard to the twist that ended up disadvantaging the fourth team, it could have been great drama for the show if they had survived the round despite the odds. However, I found it to be a great pity that the three chefs did not capitalise on the intelligence they got while they were in their original teams, chose to stick to their signature dishes and did not jack up the prices a bit more. And since they were already one person less than the other teams, it was more difficult for them to adjust accordingly to the evolving situation and keep up the pace when serving. Given that they also did not have the benefit of time on their side, it was natural for them to do what they did but I wonder about the what ifs - if they had done some fanciful dishes, had one more member to level the playing field or the twist to the round was announced earlier, things might have turned out very differently.
Intention vs. outcome
Last but not least, as many of the contestants mentioned in their interviews, they were on this show to promote Korean cuisine to the world even though some had reservations and initially rejected the offers. If this show was indeed pitched to these contestants in this manner, shouldn't there have been a rule requiring the use of Korean local produce, signature ingredients or at least one course in a set meal to be Korean food especially in the finale? Since Edward Lee did showcase Korean ingredients in his dish for the final, should this have given him an advantage over Napoli Matfia's dish which hardly had anything Korean in it? Then again, the show's title didn't give any indication that this show was about Korean food or intended to showcase Korean cuisine unlike another cooking contest which was titled "Korean Food War" so it's hard to fault this show for not achieving what was supposedly promised or intended. Perhaps the positioning of this show should be clearer if there are going to be sequels in future.
