Chef Ahn Sung-jae, who is the center of attention with Netflix‘s ‘Black and White Chef’, has released a pictorial. His cool and charismatic appearance when judging the contestants continued in front of the camera.

When asked which dish from ‘Black and White Chef’ was the most memorable, he said, “The most memorable dish is the food from ‘Lunch Price’. Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations at first, but once I started eating, I couldn‘t stop. It’s like when a kid is hungry at school and just eats their lunch. I just kept eating without thinking about it and thinking that it was delicious. When I came to my senses, I had finished half of it. (Laughs)”, he recalled the judging.

He continued, “There were still dozens of contestants left to judge, so I thought it wouldn‘t work out, so I stopped and put it on hold. In my mind, I had already passed, but I thought about it one more time. Even if Baek Jong-won had judged it as not very good, I would have said, “No, let’s just pass.” I still want to eat that food again.”

Regarding the reason he decided to appear on the show, he said, “There were only two conditions. The first was that chefs should not be portrayed in a pretentious or exaggerated way for the sake of entertainment. I take great pride in my job as a chef who works at a restaurant every day. I thought that chefs are often portrayed on TV in a less than authentic way, and I absolutely could not do that. The second was that the show had to be absolutely helpful to the restaurant industry. After a while, the production team contacted me again and said they would reflect everything I wanted.”

Lastly, regarding the way to develop Korea’s fine dining culture and restaurant industry as a chef, he said, “People say that Korea’s restaurant culture is backward, but we are a country where the restaurant industry is revived just by one Netflix program. People opening their wallets and experiencing dining out is an area that can grow sufficiently if they put in the effort. I think that in order to further develop the Korean restaurant industry, we need to further review and improve laws related to imports and exports,” he said, expressing his conviction.

Ahn Sung-jae’s pictorial and interview can be found in the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar and on the website.

Jeon Hyo-jin, reporter, Donga.com jhj@donga.com