A poster for Season 2 of Netflix’s cooking show “Culinary Class Wars” / Courtesy of Netflix
The second season of hit cooking competition show “Culinary Class Wars” on Netflix is stoking consumption at restaurants and retailers, as consumers are frequenting the restaurants of chefs featured in the program and buying products they developed in collaboration with major firms.
The trend is on the rise as the 13-episode show, which premiered on Dec. 16, has posted more than 10.2 million accumulated views in its first two weeks and is set to release its season finale on Tuesday. Market analysts say the show has proven to be a rare media phenomenon in which fandom generated by a global streaming platform translates into viral consumption patterns in local markets.
According to a poll conducted last week, a majority of respondents said they had felt the impact of the popular show in their everyday lives. The response came from 62 percent of 2,600 adults aged 19 to 59 who participated in a survey conducted by data consulting firm PMI on Wednesday and Thursday.
An even larger share of viewers — 73 percent — said they were willing to visit restaurants run by chefs featured on the program or purchase new food products developed in collaboration with the chefs at local retailers.
Some viewers have already put their plans into action. A bakery cafe in Seoul’s Mapo District on Friday saw a long queue of customers waiting to buy its kouign-amann, a French pastry similar to a butter cake. Michelin-starred fine dining chef Son Jong-won, one of the competitors on the show who finished in eighth place, mentioned the pastry in the fourth episode as a “thing to taste before death.”
Fans flocking to restaurants operated by the show’s chefs are also crowding major online restaurant reservation platforms. CatchTable said its monthly active users rose 1.6 times in December from the previous month. The number of new subscribers also spiked 1.5 times from the previous week during the week of the show’s premiere on Dec. 16.
Chef Son Jong-won appears in a commercial for Nespresso Professional, released last month / Courtesy of William Grant & Sons Korea
Corporate collaborations with the program and its chefs are further fueling the consumption trend. A sundaeguk, or Korean blood sausage soup, restaurant franchise run by Dining Brands Group has collaborated with canteen chef Lee Mi-young, a contestant on the program, to develop a new soup item. The company launched the product last month at its 400 franchise restaurants nationwide and has sold more than 20,000 bowls in a month.
Chef Choi Gang-rok, a finalist on the show who specializes in braised dishes, has signed partnerships with Lotte Shopping and Korea Seven to launch new beef cut products and a soju brand at Lotte Mart hypermarkets and 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Oriental Brewery’s imported beer brand Stella Artois is running a raffle offering free meals at restaurants run by five chefs from the show through later this month. Diageo Korea on Friday also launched a pop-up store at Lotte Department Store’s Jamsil branch in Seoul for a new Johnnie Walker Blue edition modeled by Son.
Consumer trends and corporate marketing efforts centered on “Culinary Class Wars” demonstrate the Netflix show’s influence not only over its fandom but also over broader consumer groups in Korea. A PMI official described the show as a “psychological consumption engine” amid a sluggish domestic market.
Industry observers say the slumping distribution and dine-in sectors, hit by soaring costs and rising retail prices, are increasingly betting on “Culinary Class Wars” to stimulate consumption and boost sales.
“Companies’ collaborations with the chefs are not simply about borrowing their names for branding,” said an official from William Grant & Sons Korea, the importer of Scotch whisky brand Balvenie.
“They go deeper by connecting each chef’s philosophy to a brand’s identity. The show’s gastronomy-based content is becoming a key element in creating new customer experiences for food and beverage brands.”
Fine dining chef Anh Sung-jae, a judge on “Culinary Class Wars,” last month partnered with the whisky brand for a new promotional campaign following the show’s launch.
Dining and Cooking