The show, which was selected as “Koreans’ most loved program” (as announced by Gallup Korea), saw its once sky-high popularity suddenly plummet.
The cause of this drastic change in sentiment lies in the latest episodes. Viewers’ candid reactions can be seen in the comments section of Netflix’s YouTube channel, particularly under the video featuring never-before-seen footage of Ahn Yu-seong.
In episodes 8~10, released on October 1, the third round “Black vs. White Team Match”, the consolation round, the fourth round “Black and White Mixed Team Match” and the first mission of the semi-final. However, many missions have faced heavy criticism. In the fourth round, the chefs from the Black Spoon and White Spoon teams were mixed to form new teams and tasked with running a restaurant for mukbang creators. Each team had a leader and suddenly the notice was given that the teams had to vote to expel the least willing participant. Three participants were excluded and later formed their own team, but ultimately had the lowest sales and were all eliminated.
Many viewers found this twist to be unfair. The sudden elimination seemed excessively harsh given the disadvantageous circumstances such as shortage of manpower and time. Furthermore, Ahn Yu-seong’s elimination from Choi Hyun-seok’s team by vote seemed awkward and out of place. The mission was also criticized for conflicting with the show’s original premise of competing solely on the basis of culinary skill, regardless of class status.
Additionally, viewers expressed disappointment over the lack of screen time for contestants such as Lee Young-suk and Master of School Meals. Although Netflix released some previously unreleased footage after public demand, negative reactions continued to persist.
Criticism also concerned the evaluation criteria, which were based exclusively on sales, without considering crucial factors such as profit and customer loyalty. Some viewers believed that the program should have revealed that mukbang stars were given a budget for their orders, which affected their reviews.
On Ahn Yu-seong’s video, numerous negative comments reflected viewers’ dissatisfaction: “How is this a cooking competition?”, “The production team should suffer the same treatment, being eliminated for not contributing to the company”, “If the show is about cooking, then why is a master chef eliminated due to political maneuvering? Explain it”, “I came to watch a cooking competition, not a restaurant competition”, “Why did the production team give such unfair terms to the eliminated team when they had actually blindfolded people in previous rounds to ensure fairness?“…
The remaining episodes, including the second semi-final mission and the grand finale, will be released on October 8.
Source: Wikitree
