"Just straight up cruel'- Culinary Class Wars viewers express disappointment over last minute team member eliminations during restaurant mission

On Tuesday, October 1, the eighth, ninth, and tenth episodes of Culinary Class Wars season 1 were released on Netflix. In the most recent episodes, the participants took on the "restaurant mission" to get the top eight spots on the show, with fifteen players at the time.

In the end, the top eight spots were achieved by Choi Hyun-seok, Ho-jun Jang, Cooking Stone, Imokase No. 1, Triple Star, Jeong Ji-seon, Napoli Matfia, and Edward Lee.

Nonetheless, the audience was disappointed by an unexpected elimination twist during the restaurant mission. The three teams, comprising five members each, were asked to secretly vote out one member from their group.

Following this, the three eliminated members were regrouped into a fourth team, which also participated in the mission. The fourth team members were Ahn Yu-seong, Torn Apart, and Iron Bag Chef.

Many viewers of the survival cooking show spoke out against this turn of events. They argued that the fourth team was short-handed by one person. Additionally, the fourth team was particularly hindered due to a six-hour time deficit. Their odds of victory were already low due to constraints in menu planning and ingredient sourcing.

Viewers of the show swamped the internet expressing their disagreement with the show's rules. One such disappointed viewer wrote on X:

“#CulinaryClassWars episode 8 is just straight up cruel like wtf you’re kicking out people from their team”

One viewer described the twist as "humiliating", while another referred to it as ‘evil.’

“Each team must dismiss an incompetent member….. THIS IS SO HUMILIATING BYEEEEEEEEE," a viewer wrote.

“No one on culinary class wars is mean so the production team has to be the mean one. What was that rule in ep 9," an X user remarked.

“The extra team is too evil... Dismissing one member from your team, with the assumption they are the less effective. The way omakase auntie can feel her being excluded already," another viewer commented.

Another X user voiced their disappointment with the time given to the fourth team and called it ‘cruel.’

“Not sure if anyone else is watching #CulinaryClassWars but the [spoiler] plot twist about the sudden creation of the fourth restaurant team??? This show is so wildly accurate about sk’s obsession with bureaucracy and class too," an X user ovserved.

“Can we just talk about how the elimination rounds kinda' s*ck with Teams? Would've been better if the members of the losing teams went into a face off. Or just all blind tasting all the way. Seeing the dish, tasting it but not knowing who made it," suggested another fan.

“Culinary class wars is so cruel for that extra team twist when HOURSSSS have passed after everybody else started prepping”- mentioned another viewer.

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Culinary Class Wars PD discusses restaurant mission eliminations

On October 2, Korean media outlet Nate News quoted a PD (Producing Director) on Culinary Class Wars eliminations twist during the restaurant mission.

The PD said, “Even so, ‘Culinary Class Wars’ is a groundbreaking program. Without considerable expertise, it would be impossible to film a large-scale survival cooking show with 100 chefs, using fire and knives.”

He added:

“It’s disappointing that contestants like ‘Cafeteria Guy’ and ‘Master of School Meals’ were eliminated, but it’s impossible to capture everyone’s story in a survival show”

The Culinary Class Wars season 1 is the first Korean cooking reality series on Netflix. It premiered on September 17. The finale of season 1 is scheduled for October 8. The show has a total of 12 episodes.

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1) Culinary Class Wars ‘Restaurant Mission’ recap: Team revenues, eliminations, final 8, & more explored

2) Culinary Class Wars: Guide to all cast-owned restaurants you must visit