How was Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars made? A look behind the scenes of the popular show

Cooking show’s directors reveal their worries that chefs would walk out during filming – and the famous guest they want for season two

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The directors of Culinary Class Wars take us behind the scenes of its production, and explain why they were worried some chefs would walk out during filming. Photo: Netflix

Published: 7:45am, 19 Oct 2024Updated: 8:16pm, 20 Oct 2024

By Korea Times

For three consecutive weeks between September 16 and October 6, Netflix’s cooking competition show Culinary Class Wars claimed the top spot in the non-English language series category, making it the longest-running Korean variety show in the rankings.

Netflix confirmed on October 15 that a second season is currently in production.

Getting to this point was not easy. Initially, there were concerns about whether the two judges – Paik Jong-won, a veteran in mainstream dining, and Anh Sung-jae, the chef of three-Michelin-star restaurant Mosu in Seoul – would work well together.

“They’ve lived completely different lives, and when they first met at a grilled intestine restaurant last winter, there was a strange tension in the air,” director Kim Eun-ji recalled during an interview in Seoul.

Judges Paik Jong-won (left) and Anh Sung-jae in a still from Culinary Class Wars. Photo: Netflix

Casting Anh, a relatively young chef with no prior experience on cooking shows, was a gamble. Kim Hak-min, another director, recounted meeting Anh at his restaurant: “He confidently said, ‘If I’m judging, who would dare question my judgment?’ I thought, ‘Is he too overconfident?’ But then I realised, ‘This is the person’. We cast him on the spot.”