“Trying to keep my mental state from breaking down”- Culinary Class Wars’ Ahn Yu-seong gets candid about his emotions post-elimination

On Thursday, October 3, Culinary Class Wars’ chef Ahn Yu-seong posted several photos through his social media account following his recent elimination from the survival cooking show during its restaurant mission. The eighth, ninth, and tenth episodes of Culinary Class Wars came out on October 1.

During these episodes, the fifteen contestants competed against each other in the restaurant mission for the top eight spots. However, the White Spoon, Ahn Yu-seong, couldn’t get his way into the top spots, which resulted in his elimination.

Ahn Yu-seong shared an emotional post expressing his feelings post-elimination. The caption of his post read:

"During the filming of ‘Culinary Class Wars’, I went two full days without sleep. The hardest part was coming out alone at dawn, looking at my mom’s picture and trying to keep my mental state from breaking down.“

The images captured scenes from the production of the reality show and childhood memories of Ahn Yu-seong with his mother.

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Culinary Class Wars’ restaurant mission resulted in Ahn Yu-seong’s elimination

Episodes 8 to 10, released on October 1, showcased a team restaurant mission to identify the top eight candidates. At the end, Choi Hyun-seok, Ho-jun Jang, Cooking Stone, Imokase No. 1, Triple Star, Jeong Ji-seon, Napoli Mafia, and Edward Lee took the top eight positions.

Initially, the fifteen contestants were divided into three teams, each with five members. These teams were asked to secretly vote out one extra member from their group. Ahn Yu-seong was voted out from Chef Choi Hyun-seok’s team.

Subsequently, the three omitted members were put together into a fourth team, which also engaged in the restaurant mission. The fourth team members included Ahn Yu-seong, Torn Apart, and Iron Bag Chef. In contrast to other teams of four players, the fourth team consisted of only three members.

Nevertheless, their team was smaller in size than the others, leading to a setback. The fourth team was significantly impeded by a six-hour time gap.

During the restaurant mission, the staff encountered difficulties in expediting dish service. Notwithstanding these hurdles, the trio received no advantages, ultimately resulting in their team achieving the lowest sales and subsequent elimination.

On October 2, the Korean media outlet Nate News cited a Producing Director regarding the elimination move in the Culinary Class Wars amid the restaurant mission. The PD stated,

“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.”

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Season 1 of Culinary Class Wars is the first Korean food reality show on Netflix. The program was first broadcast on September 17. The last two episodes of the first season are set to air on October 8. There are a total of 12 episodes of the show.