Netflix's 'Culinary Class Wars' sparks renewed interest in local restaurant industry

Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars," now named the most watched non-English TV series on Netflix for two consecutive weeks, is drawing unprecedented crowds to restaurants across the country.

"Triple Star" chef Scott Kang in a scene of Netflix Korea's cooking survival show "Culinary Class Wars" [NETFLIX KOREA]

Dining out just got more exciting thanks to Netflix Korea’s chef survival show “Culinary Class Wars.”

The show, now named the most watched non-English TV series on Netflix for two consecutive weeks, is drawing unprecedented crowds to restaurants across the country. Reservations are full, sometimes for months, at over 100 establishments owned by the show’s participating chefs.

This heightened enthusiasm for restaurants in Korea is a byproduct of the show, a phenomenon evidently factored into many competing chefs' decisions when considering whether or not to join the production. The industry has been battling inflation in a saturated market to the point that some say the situation now is worse than during Covid-19. And while “Culinary Class Wars” is breathing new life into the local dining scene, it remains to be seen whether the buzz will last long enough to be meaningful.

Chef Edward Lee [NETFLIX KOREA]

“Culinary Class Wars” has the crude, albeit entertaining, concept of pitting the industry’s most famous veterans against lesser-known neighborhood chefs. Its producers were nevertheless able to cast major names from the culinary world, capturing the public's attention even before the show’s release.

“They really had no reason to be coming onto our show, but many already renowned chefs entered the contest with the hope that they could do something to help the struggling restaurant industry and cause a renewed new boom in the local dining scene,” producer Kim Hak-min told the press before the show aired on Sept. 11.

“Auntie Omakase #1“ chef Lee Mi-ryeong [NETFLIX KOREA]

Korea’s dining scene, as much as it is touted for its vibrancy and diversity, is a battlefield much more cutthroat than the imaginary scenarios in “Culinary Class Wars.”

The local restaurant industry recorded an all-time high in 2023, surpassing 100 trillion won ($76.6 billion), according to Euromonitor’s Consumer Food Service Report in April. But while the market size is notably ballooning, the analytics provider tied the figure to higher menu prices as opposed to the number of people actually dining out.

Judge Paik Jong-won [NETFLIX KOREA]

Last year, the Korean restaurant industry’s total transaction volume increased by 3.6 percentage points, only half of the average volume increase globally, which was 7.8 percent.

The average annual transaction volume growth rate in the domestic restaurant industry from 2020 to 2023 circled 1 percent, which is four percentage points lower than the average growth rate recorded over the three years before Covid-19 in 2019.

To make matters worse, the country’s comparatively lower barriers to opening a restaurant than in other developed states has created a massive pool of workers. The number of establishments in 2023, 818,867, is three times higher than Japan and the United States by population, according to business big data platform Openub.

This saturated competition doesn’t just sift out less competent eateries but also creates a difficult environment for all restaurants across the price spectrum.

According to Openub, 76,258 F&B venues in Korea closed last year. This is more restaurant closures than during the three years of the pandemic.

Despite the rather bleak backdrop, the success of “Culinary Class Wars” has shone a little more light on the industry.

GPS and restaurant platforms have eagerly joined the restaurant hype and compiled their own lists that allow users to easily view and book restaurants. KakaoMap said that the list was viewed by 55,000 people and saved by 34,000 within just 12 hours of the list’s release on Sept. 26.

But the renewed hype is likely temporary, said celebrity chef Edward Kwon, “considering how bad the economy is right now.”

“The show certainly did cause a spark, and it may have lit a candle, but it remains to be seen if it has caused a bigger fire," he told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Kwon is the head chef of modern Korean restaurant LAB XXIV by KUmuda in Busan, selected as one of the world’s top 1,000 restaurants in the global gastronomic guide La Liste 2023.

Judge Ahn Sung-jae [NETFLIX KOREA]

“If ‘Culinary Class Wars’ was released when the economy was better, then absolutely, it would have had a better chance of really making a meaningful impact across the whole industry.”

Owner chef Lee Sang-seok of restaurant Roast in Hong Kong, located in Yongsan District, central Seoul, agreed with Kwon about the show's temporary impact but said it could still foster a larger group of aspiring chefs.

“I see and hear of many people these days not wanting to be chefs because they hear it is hard,” he said. “But cooking shows have a way of drawing new talent to the industry, and I hope that we can see many young chefs in the future who’ve been inspired by the program.”

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]