"Culinary Class Wars 2" Black Spoon Culinary Monster, at the center of spoilers about reaching the final, this time has been embroiled in an issue over the fairness of the repechage.
On Dec. 30, the Netflix variety show Culinary Class Wars: Culinary Class Wars 2, which was released, featured the results of the black-versus-white team battle as well as a repechage showdown.
Among the Black Spoon contestants whose entire team was eliminated, the "repechage-last box" was held, and the rules of the contest required completing one dish using 1 main ingredient (primary ingredient) and 10 secondary ingredients. Of the nine contestants in total, Culinary Monster and Brewmaster Yun were decided as the winners, but some viewers raised concerns about one of Culinary Monster's secondary ingredients, "brown veal stock," saying it was unfair.
"Brown veal stock" is a brown broth made by roasting veal bones and then simmering them for a long time with vegetables and spices. Simply put, it can be seen as a secondary ingredient that enhances a dish's flavor, producing effects similar to chicken stock or oyster sauce. However, because this repechage proceeded on a strict rule that even basic ingredients such as salt, sugar and cooking oil would be counted as secondary ingredients, viewers' puzzlement grew even larger.
For example, the contestant "Gomtang from New York" who participated in the same mission included all the ingredients used for the gomtang stock—flower mushroom, shiitake mushroom, dried radish, dried carrot, and dried burdock—as part of the 10 secondary ingredients. Viewers pointed out, "If the same standard is applied, wouldn't stocks or commercial ready-made broths that contain various vegetables also be recognized as one secondary ingredient?"
However, the Barbecue Lab Director did not have the hickory wood chips used for smoking included as a secondary ingredient in the last box mission. It is unclear whether this should be seen as an individual's strategy or whether the production team did not count it as a secondary ingredient because it was not directly incorporated into the dish.
Culinary Monster brought the "brown veal stock" in a sealed container, but it is unclear whether it was a commercial product or something he made himself. Of course, "brown veal stock" is a product sold commercially in some cases, but it is an ingredient unfamiliar to the general public. In particular, some internet users raised suspicions that it might not be a commercial product but rather something Culinary Monster made himself to match the main ingredient asparagus, intensifying the controversy.
There are also opinions defending Culinary Monster's "brown veal stock," saying, "It doesn't seem to be a problem. The production team cited the ingredient, so the mission included it, and if you argue that way you would have to examine every food made by mixing various ingredients such as gochujang and mayonnaise one by one." But other internet users reacted, "If he made it himself, it would seem problematic," and "I wondered while watching if that was okay, and in the end a fairness controversy arose."
As such, the root cause of all the controversy lies largely with the production team's failure to present precise standards for secondary ingredients. If the production team had provided a prior explanation or subtitle saying, "Stocks or sauces are allowed, but only commercially sold ingredients may be used," such noise and criticism would not have occurred. In the end, ambiguous standards and differing definitions of the 10 secondary ingredients applied to each contestant caused great confusion among viewers.
As a result, malicious comments toward Culinary Monster have increased. Although he perfectly carried out the mission's intent to produce the best flavor with minimal ingredients, labels such as "loophole," "cheating" and "biased" were attached, causing him harm. Baseless misunderstandings such as "Is the production team pushing him?" and "It looks like a PD pick" have even emerged.
When season 1 opened earlier, during the restaurant operation team mission the production team suddenly revealed a surprise rule ordering each team to release one chef. In that process, White Spoon master Ahn Yu-seong and Black Spoon lunchbox chef among others left their teams, and the released contestants formed a team to run a restaurant. Naturally, the released team, which had less preparation time, was entirely eliminated in the mission, prompting strong criticism about fairness, and the production team said, "We humbly accept the controversy and are discussing improvements for season 2."
Recently, ahead of the announcement of the final TOP7 entrants, an editing mistake was detected in which the Black Spoon Culinary Monster's real-name name tag was exposed. Amid criticism that the production team spoiled the elimination of White Spoon Son Jong-won, questions about the fairness of the repechage have also been raised, and it remains to be seen what position the production team will take.
[Photo] Netflix
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