Netflix\u2019s<\/a> cooking competition series \u201cCulinary Class Wars,\u201d where Lee recently appeared in the second season.<\/p>\nThe unscripted series pits acclaimed \u201cwhite spoon\u201d chefs \u2014 including Michelin-starred restaurateurs \u2014 against underdog \u201cblack spoon\u201d challengers. The second season of \u201cCulinary Class Wars\u201d debuted at No. 1 on Netflix\u2019s Global Top 10 (Non-English TV) list in December, and has remained on the chart for five consecutive weeks. Netflix has officially confirmed a third season.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of thousands of booking requests<\/h2>\n
Tei Yong, CEO of CATCHTABLE, South Korea\u2019s leading restaurant reservation platform, said the show\u2019s influence far exceeded entertainment value.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never imagined a single TV show could generate this level of interest in gastronomy,\u201d Yong told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
In November 2024, after Season 1 aired, Seoul’s Metropolitan Government hosted a pop-up event featuring fine dining chefs from the Netflix series. When CATCHTABLE opened 150 reservations, nearly 450,000 people attempted to book \u2014 roughly 3,000 people competing for each spot.<\/p>\n
Yong said the interest in gastronomy has \u201csustained” after the first season. The average booking and waitlist registrations per participating restaurant jumped approximately 303% in the five weeks following Season 2\u2019s premiere compared with the five weeks prior, he said.<\/p>\n
Personal transformations<\/h2>\n
Chef Kim Sung-woon, of Table for Four in Seoul, said that reservations have tripled after the show.<\/p>\n
His staff receives roughly 100 phone calls daily \u2014 so many they can barely answer while working.<\/p>\n
But Kim said his life has changed in other ways, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cCustomers ask for photos constantly now \u2014 I feel like a celebrity,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI\u2019ve received more letters than at any time since my military service. Young fans, even children, write to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Taean, a seaside town south of Seoul, Kim grew up farming and once dreamed of becoming a baseball umpire before stumbling into the restaurant industry. Despite decades in the culinary world, he said he was speechless when he arrived at the Netflix set and saw legendary chefs he\u2019d idolized.<\/p>\n
Lee has seen similar changes. Walking down the street, people now ask for photos. Requests for international collaboration have increased significantly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the show, foreigners made up the majority of our reservations,\u201d Lee said. \u201cNow South Korean customers book so quickly that foreign visitors often can\u2019t get tables.\u201d<\/p>\n
Modern Korean Cuisine<\/h2>\n
The show has proven particularly significant for chefs serving Korean cuisine with fine dining techniques \u2014 a category gaining international attention. For Lee, simply adding Korean ingredients doesn\u2019t make a dish culturally Korean.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you just put kimchi in a dish and say it\u2019s inspired by Korean food, does that make it Korean?\u201d he said. \u201cKorean food culture isn\u2019t about specific recipes \u2014 it\u2019s the accumulated lifestyle habits people have created.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the familiar Korean barbecue and bibimbap that have come to define Korean cuisine globally, chefs like Lee are reclaiming a more nuanced cultural identity. He draws on French, American, and other techniques learned in New York kitchens. \u201cBut because I\u2019m expressing them as a South Korean person living in Seoul, Korean elements naturally come through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rather than translating concepts into Western terms, Lee keeps them in Korean \u2014 beginning with his signature dish, Hanwoo and Banchans \u2014 top-quality beef with an array of seasonal Korean condiments and vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cSide dishes in English suggest something optional. But in Korean culture, without banchan, a meal feels incomplete. The number of banchan signals whether it\u2019s an ordinary day or a special occasion \u2014 emotions shared by those who live this culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broader context<\/h2>\n
The show\u2019s success builds on years of groundwork \u2014 the South Korean government has actively promoted Korean cuisine globally since the late 2000s.<\/p>\n
Jihyung Andrew Kim, a professor in culinary arts and food management at Hanyang Women\u2019s University, said entertainment content proved particularly effective in reaching younger audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government made genuine efforts for a long time,\u201d Kim said. \u201cBut Netflix and cultural content \u2014 like BTS gaining international recognition \u2014 accelerated globalization of Korean food.\u201d<\/p>\n
The academic observed that fine dining interest has grown particularly among diners in their 20s and 30s, driven by social media culture where dining experiences become shareable content.<\/p>\n
Persistent challenges<\/h2>\n
Despite the enthusiasm, challenges remain.<\/p>\n
Chef Kim pointed to service staff shortages following COVID-19 as a critical industry obstacle. \u201cFor fine dining to truly develop, we need service teams to grow alongside chefs,\u201d Kim told the AP.<\/p>\n
Lee said Korean fine dining chefs now face intense competition in a thriving market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the market hadn\u2019t broadened through Netflix and the show like this, it would have been a much more difficult environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 When South Korean chef Jun Lee opened his restaurant SOIGN\u00c9 in Seoul 13 years ago, explaining what fine dining meant was part of the job. Customers would ask for \u00e0 la carte items at his \u201cmodern Seoul cuisine\u201d restaurant, which only serves a tasting menu, or question why a meal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2280464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2280463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Netflixs-Culinary-Class-Wars-has-transformed-South-Koreas-fine-dining.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2280463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2280465,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2280463\/revisions\/2280465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2280463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2280463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2280463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}