Chef Edward Lee (Nami, 610 Magnolia) has gone international. He’s featured in a new cooking competition on Netflix. "Culinary Class Wars" is a Korean-launguage cooking competition featuring the best Korean chefs against the Junior best Korean chefs. There are the White Spoons who are Chef Lee’s group of chefs and the Black Spoons, who are the juniors. The show premiered on Netflix on Sept. 17. In the first three episodes, the chefs are introduced and have their first one-on-one competitions between one White Spoon and one Black Spoon. Chef Lee is one of the first and easily wins his competition. The show continues to release new episodes weekly. The next release is on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
LEO got the chance to ask Chef Lee a few questions about the show and what he ate while in Korea.
LEO: How did you get involved with “Culinary Class Wars?”
Chef Edward Lee: Don't know if they just emailed me, hmmm, and said we're doing a new show in Korea and we want you to be involved. We did a Zoom interview and talked to the producers. They told me about the concept and I was intrigued. Last year, I did the White House state dinner for the Korean president. Apparently, that made some headlines in Korea. I think I was on their radar in Korea because of that, but also because of other things.
Have you met any of the chefs (White Spoons or Black Spoons) before?
I didn't really know any. I'd known of some of them just by name. I met everyone for the first time, because I don't really travel to Korea that often.
Tell me about your experience on the show but also winning your first challenge using the aged Kimchi, Makeunji.
It's nerve wracking. I'm in a foreign land. I'm the only foreign chef that doesn't live in Korea. A, I’m jet-lagged, because I have to fly from Louisville to a foreign land. I have an interpreter. So there's a lot going on. I speak passable Korean. As you can see, it's not that great. So I'm missing a lot. They had different ingredients. They had access to better ingredients. I don't know where the cool markets are, and stuff. Anyway, it's a lot of things. But, yeah, nerve wracking. It's really cool to be able to cook with my peoples.
It was a really unique experience. I really enjoyed meeting everyone. You go to Korea, and you go as a tourist, or you go for work. And, to spend quite a bit of time there is really nice to be able to be there with the whole chef community. That felt really special.
How long were you in Korea?
There was a couple of trips because they didn't film it all the way through. But all told, probably, like, three weeks for everything together. Very nice. Good Time.
What did you eat while you were in Seoul outside of the competition?
I always try and do a couple of fancy restaurants, but I really just love going to the hole-in-the-wall, mom and pop stores. You know, eating things that you just don't see available in the US. Like, there are restaurants that only focus on cow intestines. It sounds gross, but it's actually really delicious. It’s different places along the intestinal tract. They're all marinated and grilled. It's called Gobchang. It's like a delicacy there. It's really good.
I would just go to stuff like that, like authentic noodle houses. There's something called Gejang, which is marinated crab, which is one of my favorite things. Every home will probably make it. It's like a home cooked thing. You just don't see it in restaurants very often because it's really perishable.
Once you make it, you have to eat it right away.
See Chef Edward Lee on "Culinary Class Wars" each Tuesday night on Netflix.
