Netflix‘s cooking survival show ‘Black-and-White Chef: Culinary Class Wars’ has topped global charts and broken various buzz indices, becoming the undisputed ‘most popular content of the year’. PDs Kim Hak-min and Kim Eun-ji, who produced the program, held a press conference at the Hotel Naru Seoul M Gallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 7th, a day before the final episode where the final winner will be revealed, and expressed their gratitude for the great love and explained some of the controversies surrounding the program’s fairness.

○“Proud to see the food service industry become more vibrant”

‘Black-and-White Chef’, which is unusual for a Netflix entertainment show to have topped the global non-English TV show chart, also topping the Good Data Corporation buzz index, which is selected through big data analysis, for two consecutive weeks. In particular, the score for the second week soared 66.1% compared to the previous week, recording the highest score for Netflix content since last year‘s drama ‘The Glory’.

PD Kim Eun-ji attributed the driving force behind this popularity to “100 Chefs”. PD Kim said, “It’s the result of a good harmony between new and old chefs” and was proud, saying, “I think the charm of familiar famous chefs as well as newly introduced chefs was well conveyed.”

He also expressed his gratitude to the judges, Baek Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, and Chef Ahn Sung-jae, for their hard work. In particular, he emphasized that the judging process and results of the two were “done without any intervention from the production staff”, and said, “The two judges are very pleased that the domestic restaurant industry seems to be revitalized through the program.”
○“5:5 black and white ratio, not the production team‘s intention”

They also explained some of the controversies and suspicions surrounding the program. After the second round mission, 11 white spoon and black spoon chefs each passed, and the top 8 was also decided to be 4 ‘white and 4’black, some raised suspicions that the production team ‘adjusted the black and white ratio of the contestants who advanced to the rounds’.

Regarding this, PD Kim Hak-min said, “The production team also felt regretful whenever the black and white ratio was divided precisely. In fact, the production team wanted the ratios to be mixed. However, the results of the missions do not always go as the production team intends. Rather, he explained, “It’s about accepting the realistic results.”

Regarding viewer complaints about the frequent team missions that make it difficult to properly demonstrate individual skills and the unfair rules such as suddenly forcibly removing some team members during the process, he carefully responded, “We are listening.”

In particular, PD Kim expressed regret that he could not immediately reflect viewer feedback in the program due to the pre-produced variety show, but expressed his will to “improve” through future seasons. He also added, “The individual mission, “The Ultimate King,” that you’ve all been waiting for will be included in the episode that will be released on the 8th.”



Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com