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 depicting the fierce culinary class war between 100 chefs. Highly qualified but undervalued chefs from the “black spoon” challenge the best star Korean chefs from the “white spoon”. It has received rave reviews since its premiere on September 17 and concluded its 12-episode run on October 8.
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 vice president of the World Chinese Culinary Association, his participation as a competitor, not a judge, attracted 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 graciously accepted the outcome, acknowledging his junior with humility, leaving a lasting impression.
As for the reactions after his appearance in “Culinary Class Wars”, Chef Yeo said with a gentle smile: “Foreign journalists stepped forward. I also received a cooperation offer from a hotel in Taiwan. After the show aired, I was helping to open a restaurant in Hong Kong and people on the street recognized me as “Master Yeo”. Although this has happened before, the frequency has increased. It was a valuable 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, around 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 am 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 feel that passion again. I haven’t cooked regularly for 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 angry 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 time of elimination, my only thought was: ‘Finally I can go home and sleep!’ Filming lasted all night and in the early hours of the morning I just wanted to go home. Even though we are chefs, we still had to take a short break and then go to work. All I wanted was to sleep a little more.”
Regarding the overwhelming public response despite his defeat, he said: “I forgot about the show after filming ended. I didn’t expect such a positive reaction even after losing. I asked myself, “Has the world changed?” I participated in cooking shows like “The Great Chinese Food Battle” and, at the time, losing in a competition meant being 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 the self-made chef: “There were a lot of juniors who wanted to challenge me. I couldn’t pick just one, so I tried rolling the microphone on the floor like roulette to pick any at random, but that didn’t work well. So I chose directly. Self-Made Chef reminded me of my early days and I thought “I’ve seen it before, but I don’t know it well”, so I chose it.”
He continued: “But then suddenly he bowed deeply before me. I was shocked. Even after he won, he bowed to me again and I told him, “You should bow to Baek Jong-won or Ahn Sung-jae, not to me.” Thankfully, viewers saw him in a good light.“
After filming, Self-Made Chef visited Yeo’s restaurant with his wife and colleagues, asking to become his apprentice. “He asked me if I could take him on as a student, but it was a busy time, so we didn’t talk much and I couldn’t give him a definitive answer. Later, I heard from a lot of people that he’s been through a lot and worked hard, so I reached out to 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 a chance to meet up. Hopefully, when things calm down, we can sit down, talk and maybe even openly share some of our experiences on my YouTube channel..”
Source: Daum
