“Culinary Class Wars” Chef Yeo Kyung-rae “Great Match with ‘Self-Made Chef’, He Asked to Be My Apprentice”
In a recent interview at Hong Bo Gak, located in Novotel Ambassador Gangnam, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Chef Yeo met with OSEN to discuss Netflix’s variety show “Culinary Class Wars”.
“Culinary Class Wars” is a survival variety show that depicts the fierce culinary class war between 100 chefs. Highly skilled yet underappreciated “black spoon” chefs challenge Korea’s top “white spoon” star chefs. It has received rave reviews since its premiere on Sep 17th and concluded its 12-episode run on Oct 8th.
In the show, Chef Yeo Kyung-rae appeared as a chef representing Chinese cuisine among the white spoon ones. With a 50-year career and his position as the Vice President of the World Chinese Culinary Association, his participation as a contestant, not a judge, garnered attention. The shocking twist came when he was eliminated after a 1-on-1 battle with the black spoon “Self-Made Chef”. Despite this, Chef Yeo gracefully accepted the result, acknowledging his junior with humility, leaving a lasting impression.
Regarding the reactions after his appearance on “Culinary Class Wars”, Chef Yeo said with a gentle smile, “Foreign journalists have been reaching out. I even received a collaboration offer from a hotel in Taiwan. After the show aired, I was helping open a restaurant in Hong Kong, and people on the street recognized me as ‘Master Yeo’. While that had happened before, the frequency increased. It was a precious experience.“
When asked about participating in a show with so much at stake, he explained “Honestly, my main goal was to train the next generation. Initially, about 7~8 members of the production team came to recruit me. I thought, ‘If I win, I lose, and if I lose, I lose even more.’ I’m 65 years old” and laughed. He added, “But then I thought about how much energy I had when I was younger, and I wanted to experience that passion again. I haven’t cooked regularly in about 10 years. At my age, I mostly teach and appear on shows, and even my team discourages me from cooking. They ask ‘Are you upset about something, Chef?’ when I say I want to cook. But as a chef, I wanted to show that I hadn’t lost my touch.“
Reflecting on his defeat, Chef Yeo shared, “To be honest, when I lost, I just thought, ‘It’s over.’ I wasn’t embarrassed at all about losing to a junior. At the moment of elimination, my only thought was, ‘Finally, I can go home and sleep!’ The shoot went overnight, and by the early hours, I just wanted to get home. Even though we’re chefs, we still had to take a short break and then head to work. All I wanted was to catch a little more sleep.”
As for the overwhelming public response despite his defeat, he said, “I had forgotten about the show after the filming ended. I didn’t expect such a positive reaction even after losing. It made me wonder, ‘Has the world changed?’ I’ve been on cooking shows like ‘The Great Chinese Food Battle’, and back then, losing in a competition meant getting criticized. But now it’s different. Maybe it’s because Korea is still influenced by Confucianism, but I was surprised by how positively people viewed it.”
Chef Yeo also discussed the process of competing with Self-Made Chef, “There were many juniors who wanted to challenge me. I couldn’t choose just one, so I tried to roll the mic on the floor like a roulette to randomly pick someone, but it didn’t stop well. So I picked directly. Self-Made Chef reminded me of my early days, and I thought ‘I’ve seen him before, but I don’t know him well’, so I chose him.”
He continued, “But then he suddenly bowed deeply to me. I was shocked. Even after he won, he bowed to me again, and I told him, ‘You should be bowing to Baek Jong-won or Ahn Sung-jae, not me.’ Thankfully, viewers saw it in a good light.“
After filming, Self-Made Chef visited Yeo’s restaurant with his wife and colleagues, asking to be his apprentice. “He asked if I could take him on as a student, but it was a busy time, so we didn’t get to talk much, and I couldn’t give him a definite answer. Later, I heard from many people that he’s been through a lot and worked hard, so I contacted him and said, ‘Let’s have a drink sometime.’ But since ‘Culinary Class Wars’ aired, we’ve both been so busy that we haven’t had the chance to meet. Hopefully, when things calm down, we can sit down, talk, and maybe even share some of our experiences openly on my YouTube channel.”
Source: Daum
