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On Tuesday, October 8, the much-awaited finale episodes of Culinary Class Wars were released on Netflix, featuring Chef Edward Lee and Napoli Matfia (Kwon Seong-joon) as the show’s finalists. While the former belonged to the White Spoon, the latter represented the Black Spoon. Chef Edward Lee further added to his name, owing to his performance in different challenges in Culinary Class Wars.
For the uninformed, Edward Lee is a well-known chef, restaurateur, and writer from Brooklyn, New York. He has also been a judge on Gordon Ramsay's reality show Culinary Genius. Besides, Lee made numerous appearances in other popular culinary shows, including Top Chef and The Mind of a Chef.
Lee has been nominated for the James Beard Award multiple times. As a writer, he wrote two award-winning books—Smoke and Pickles and Buttermilk Graffiti. As of this writing, Chef Edward Lee has over 190k followers on Instagram (@chefedwardlee).
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Chef Edward Lee appeared in several culinary shows, including Top Chef and The Mind of a Chef
Lee kicked off his professional career in the culinary world at the age of 22. He acquired knowledge about cuisines, cooking styles, and techniques in France and the United States. Lee then fell in love with Louisville and Southern food after visiting the Kentucky Derby in 2001.
Therefore, he relocated to the city in 2002 and started working at 610 Magnolia, which he now owns. Other establishments owned by Chef Edward Lee include Whiskey Dry (Louisville), Succotash Prime (Washington, D.C. and National Harbor), and Nami Modern Korean Steakhouse (Louisville).
In 2011, he was a participant in the ninth season of Top Chef. Furthermore, Lee was the host chef in the third season of The Mind of a Chef.
Moreover, Chef Lee was nominated for four consecutive years in the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef: Southeast (2011 to 2014). The celebrity chef also released a cookbook titled Smoke and Pickles in 2013.
The chef founded The LEE Initiative in 2015, where LEE stands for 'Let's Empower Employment.' The chef's eponymous website offers more details about the purpose of the initiative.
"We started the LEE Initiative in Louisville, KY in 2015 after we saw a need for more diversity, more training, and more equality in our own restaurants. We wanted to redefine what it means to give back to our local community based on our research, our experiences and most of all, our instincts."
Chef Edward Lee was named a Culinary Genius juror in 2017. Further, Lee’s Buttermilk Graffiti, originally published in 2018, was designated the Best Food Book of the Year by several known publications: Smithsonian, Boston Globe, Plate, and BookRiot. It was also a semifinalist in the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards.
The White House state dinner, held on April 26, 2023, invited Chef Edward Lee as a guest chef. His tasks included serving South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in the U.S.
In April 2024, Lee released his third book, Bourbon Land, and most recently, the renowned chef competed in Netflix's Korean food reality series Culinary Class Wars. There are a total of twelve episodes in the show, streaming exclusively on the OTT platform. Given its name, the show featured two classes, called 'White Spoon' and 'Black Spoon.'
