Chef Seong-jun Kwon, who gained fame by appearing as "Napoli Mafia" on the Netflix cooking competition program "Culinary Class Wars," mentioned the reality of the restaurant industry and said, "If I were to be reborn, I would never work in anything related to cooking."
Chef Kwon appeared in a career exploration content on the YouTube channel "Mimi Minu," which was released on the 13th. When asked about the average salary of chefs, he replied, "Chefs are known for their low pay, and fine dining chefs have the lowest income among all chefs." Fine dining refers to high-quality meals, combining the word "fine," meaning quality, with "dining."
He continued, "There are many who want to do it, and many who have done it, so the supply is high, which drives down prices." He added, "I also started with zero won. I had some dining experience in Korea, and although it was about 6-7 years ago, my salary at that time was around 1.5 million won a month." He further noted, "Even by today's standards, there are hardly any chefs making over 3 million won a month."
When asked about owner chef revenue, he explained, "My first restaurant did well right after opening in Yeonnam-dong. It's a fact that doing well immediately after opening is almost impossible. Normally, you need about 3 to 6 months as a lead time to build regular customers," adding, "Since I was alone, I had no labor costs, the rent was low, and when there were no investments, I made about 100 million won a year after tax, which I think is the peak."
Chef Kwon also mentioned the changes in his revenue after winning the final of "Culinary Class Wars." He said, "My store's sales have increased slightly," adding, "I received 300 million won as the first-place prize in 'Culinary Class Wars,' but I've earned more through broadcasts, events, and advertisements than the first-place prize."
Despite that, he said, "If I were to be reborn, I would never cook. I wouldn't take any job related to cooking. I don't think I could work as hard as I did in this life." He explained, "At that time, I did it thoughtlessly, but looking back, I don't think I could do it again."
He advised those dreaming of becoming chefs, "Not all cooks are fine dining chefs. If you have passion and dreams, challenge yourself. However, you need to have meta-cognition. You must decide whether you can do fine dining and if you want to start a business and push forward."