‘Culinary Class Wars’ fuels global K-content craze

Chef Edward Lee competes in Netflix’s cooking contest show “Culinary Class Wars.” Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" and "Gyeongseong Creature" are making significant waves, showcasing that Korean-made content is resonating with international audiences not only in drama but also in the reality show category.

The streaming giant said Wednesday that "Culinary Class Wars" garnered 4 million views from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, reaching the top 10 in 18 countries, including No. 1 in four regions such as Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

With this popularity, the cooking competition show has become the first Netflix Korea reality show to reach global No. 1 on the Top 10 Non-English TV Shows chart for three consecutive weeks.

"Culinary Class Wars" pits 80 hidden culinary masters against 20 celebrity chefs. The show classifies the 80 chefs as the "black spoon" class and the 20 chefs as the "white spoon" class, seemingly influenced by the ancient categorization of opposing sides as black and white in East Asian cultures.

The program's popularity has generated numerous online memes, with the chefs' diverse backgrounds creating compelling characters.

The 12-episode show aired its final two episodes on Tuesday, revealing the winner after a series of outrageous challenges and thrilling conclusions.

The semi-final particularly captivated viewers with a challenge that required chefs to create innovative tofu-based dishes within a 30-minute time limit.

Bloomberg reported that the show's appeal extends beyond Korea to international viewers and has injected new life into Korea's restaurant industry, which had been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The show's popularity has created online buzz, memes and colorful characters of the chefs from the culinary battles and reinvigorated Korean food businesses, many that had been struggling since the pandemic," Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Actor Park Seo-jun is Jang Ho-jae, a private investigator, in the second season of Netflix’s series “Gyeongseong Creature.” Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix's drama "Gyeongseong Creature," returning for a second season, is also receiving enthusiastic responses overseas.

Set in 1945 Gyeongseong (colonial-era Seoul), the first season follows the unlikely alliance between Tae-sang, a prosperous pawnbroker and Chae-ok (Han So-hee), who works with her father to track down missing people. Together, they uncover mysterious events linked to a secret project involving human experiments on Koreans aimed at creating a monster as a human weapon.

In the second season, the story shifts to present-day Seoul, where strange murders plague the city. Chae-ok, a survivor of Gyeongseong's horrors, crosses paths with Jang Ho-jae (Park Seo-jun), and together, they unravel the unfinished connections and fates that bind them.

The second season has entered the top 10 in 30 countries, including France and Hungary, and ranked second in Netflix's global Top 10 Non-English series for two consecutive weeks.