Is Culinary Class Wars Rigged?

Culinary class wars is a South Korean cooking contest in the dramatic style Physical: 100. It featured 100 elite chefs divided into white spoons for veterans and black spoons for newcomers, competing for a prize of W300,000,000. A second season is confirmed to be in production, with a release date of 2025.

The two judges were Paik Jong Won, a celebrity chef and veteran restaurateur, and Anh Sung Jae, the only Michelin-starred chef in Korea. Although they became full after tasting so much food, Paik ate his lunch as well.

To ensure impartiality, care was taken. The judges were blindfolded in the first round of black versus white so they wouldn’t be influenced by contestants’ status. After judging, all the food was thrown away so that neither the crew nor the contestants could taste it or challenge the judges’ decision.

I’ve been binge-watching Culinary Class Wars lately, and I can’t help but wonder: is this cooking showdown genuinely fair, or has someone whispered to the editor, “Make it dramatic!”? In this article, I’ll dig into the heart of the matter and ask the burning question on every viewer’s lips: culinary class wars is Rigged, or is it just good TV? Let’s slice into the details—no fancy jargon, just honest thoughts with a dash of humor.

What Is “Culinary Class Wars”?

At its core, Culinary Class Wars is a head-to-head cooking competition. Each episode pits two amateur chefs against each other in a race to impress a panel of judges. They whip up signature dishes, face surprise ingredient reveals, and sometimes endure awkward timed challenges—think “quick-fire pancake toss” or “mystery meatball mayhem.” The winner moves on; the loser is sent packing. Simple enough, right?

The Case for “Rigged” (Dramatic Edits and Heavy Music)

1. Over-the-Top Music and Pauses
   Have you noticed how the show freezes on a contestant’s shaky whisk movement, then cuts to ominous bass drops? It’s like the producers want you to gasp in terror. These dramatic cues make every slip-up feel like a catastrophe. This kind of editing inflates small mistakes into season-defining disasters. It’s TV magic, but it can feel Rigged against contestants—making them look worse than they really are.
2. Judges’ Sudden Mind Flips
   One round, a judge is raving about perfectly seared scallops; the next, they’re calling them “too pedestrian.” It’s hard to track whether the feedback reflects genuine kitchen critique or a script demand. When judges change their minds faster than a soufflé collapses, viewers start to question if the outcome is set in stone before the plates even reach the table.
3. Casting Choices
   Ever notice the pattern? You get one tragic backstory chef, one brash “I’ve cooked on a yacht” type, and one underdog with a heartwarming hometown tale. Sure, real shows need characters, but when the personalities line up so neatly, it suggests casting directors pre-select for maximum drama. That kind of lineup makes you wonder if culinary class wars is Rigged from the start, with personalities chosen to push you toward a specific conclusion.

The Case Against “Rigged” (Real Skills and Genuine Surprises)

1. Unofficial Behind-the-Scenes Clips
   If you peek at behind-the-scenes clips online, you’ll see contestants honestly cooking under bright lights, not camera tricks. They struggle, they sweat, and they genuinely celebrate each little victory. Those moments aren’t scripted—no one can fake relief when you remember you forgot to turn on the stove.
2. Unexpected Eliminations
   In one season, a fan-favorite chef won three challenges in a row, then flopped spectacularly on a dessert round and got eliminated. The judges seemed genuinely disappointed. If the show was rigged, why remove a popular contestant who delivers ratings gold? That surprise exit felt painfully real.
3. Audience Voting
   Some seasons invite viewers to vote online for a “wildcard” return. When fan-chosen chefs make it back, it proves that at least a slice of the outcome is in our hands. That interactivity suggests the show trusts its audience, not just a secret producer’s room.

How Editing Shapes Perception

Even if every judge’s decision is fair, editing alone can make events look biased. Fast cuts, reaction shots, and background music guide our emotions like a chef guiding a knife through butter. When you yell at your screen, “Hey! That fall was just a slip, not a meltdown!”—you’re reacting to the edit, not pure reality.

I’ve learned to watch with one eye on the action and one eye on my skepticism meter. When I see a contestant hesitate for half a second, and the camera lingers as if they dropped the Taj Mahal, I lower my eyebrow in distrust. Culinary class wars is Rigged—or at least heavily produced—to maximize drama.

Judges: Fair Gatekeepers or Scripted Puppets?

Judges are the heart of any cooking show. On Culinary Class Wars, they claim to focus on taste, creativity, and presentation. But their comments sometimes feel like they’re reading from cue cards. One moment they praise a dish’s “delicate balance,” the next they knock it for being too “safe.” That could be genuine chef mood swings, but it also smells of producer direction: “We need conflict here.”

However, most judges are real chefs with reputations to uphold. They risk credibility if they blatantly favor one contestant. Their honest passion for food can’t be faked entirely. So even if a few snide remarks come across as contrived, overall they seem invested in the cooking, not just the ratings.

Contestant Confessions

I’ve scrolled through cooking forums and Reddit threads where past contestants share tales of long shooting days, constant retakes, and the pressure of knowing how their mistakes will be magnified on screen. They admit producers sometimes ask for “another take” of the same cut, but they also confirm that the judging itself was unscripted. If it’s true, then while the presentation might be rigged, the actual verdicts weren’t predetermined.

Final Verdict: Is It Really “Rigged”?

So, culinary class wars is Rigged? Yes and no. If by “Rigged” you mean shaped by editing, music, and casting to deliver maximum suspense, then absolutely—it’s rigged for your entertainment. Producers orchestrate suspense like kitchen sous-chefs plating a dish. But if you’re asking whether winners are pre-chosen regardless of performance, the evidence is murkier. Surprise eliminations and audience wildcards suggest there’s real competition under the gloss.

In simple English, the show uses all the tricks in the TV playbook to make you sweat. It’s like adding a pinch of drama, a spoonful of suspense, and a dollop of tear-jerking backstory into the soup. But at its core, the cooking battles appear genuine. The chefs cook, the judges taste, and the best plate (most of the time) wins.

Next time you watch, remember to take the ominous music with a grain of salt. Enjoy the thrill, scream at the screen when things look unfair, but trust that behind the Rigged veneer, there’s still real cooking talent on display. And hey, if nothing else, you’ll get hungry watching it—so rigged or not, that’s a recipe for success in my book!