Seoul, South Korea – December 17, 2025: Netflix series “Culinary Class Wars: Black and White Chefs” at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where participants Jeong Ho-young, Hoo-deuk-chuk, Monk Seung-jae, Song Jeong-won, producers Kim Eun-ji and Kim Hak-min, Yoon Ju-mo, Yoon Nara, French Papa, Chinese food witch, and Baby Beast pose at the press conference for “Season 2.” (Photo credit: iMBC/Imagins via Getty Images)
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Korean Netflix The show “Culinary Class Wars,” which ended its second season on January 13, is causing ripples in the food industry.
According to a report released by restaurant reservation platform CatchTable through Korean media, five weeks after the show’s second premiere, contestants’ restaurant reservations and waiting lists increased by an average of 303% compared to the previous five weeks.
Reflecting the dichotomy between street food and Michelin-starred experiences, ‘Culinary Class Wars’ divides chefs into ‘Black Spoon’ (hidden masters) and ‘White Spoon’ (elite) chefs, with viewers eager to taste dishes from both ends of the spectrum.
This is especially true for Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z born after 1996, who want to experience cultures other than their own, according to Euromonitor International’s Asia Pacific 2025 Lifestyle Survey.
Interest in gourmet tourism
Dawn Teo, chief operating officer of Singapore-based hotel and restaurant developer Amara Holdings, said it was “impossible” to book a restaurant at a restaurant featured on a Netflix show when she visited Seoul last October.
Teo said the show’s impact “makes people sit up and take notice.”
In December, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism announced a shift toward incorporating food tourism into its 2026 strategy. South Korea is not the only country where travelers’ interest in food is increasing.
Food was one of the main drivers of record tourism spending in Singapore from January to September 2025, according to the Singapore Tourism Board. Compared to the same period in 2024, tourist food and beverage receipts increased by 15%, even though overall tourism growth was only 2.3%.
And in Japan, about 82% of tourists say eating Japanese food is one of their expectations for their trip by 2024, up from about 70% in 2015.
According to Eric Wolfe, executive director and founder of the World Food Travel Association, food is a way for travelers to experience authentic culture.
“It’s less about travel and more about culture everywhere in the world. Especially since the pandemic, people want to go to more rural places, secondary and tertiary places. They want to get to know people and really get to know them,” Wolf told CNBC by phone.
The dichotomy between gourmet and street food
Hotels are responding to this growing interest in food as well.
According to Hilton’s 2025 Trends Report, nearly one in five travelers specifically seeks out new restaurants and culinary experiences, and 60% of luxury travelers prioritize hotels with delicious dining options.
“Today’s hotel restaurants can’t just be hotel restaurants; they have to be restaurants or venues in their own right,” said Candace D’Cruz, executive vice president of luxury brands Asia Pacific at Hilton.
For consumers, DeCruz added, the focus needs to be on the entire experience, from seasonal produce to where glassware is sourced. “If I go to Japan, I want to eat white peaches during peach season. I want to eat strawberries and white strawberries during peach season,” she said in an interview with CNBC.
In Singapore, Amara Holdings aims to satisfy this desire for cultural experiences by offering guided tours of hawker centers and local markets near its flagship hotel in downtown Singapore.
Amara’s Mr Teo said it should not be considered a loss “if a guest does not eat with us for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or if they go to eat at another Ji Char outlet or hawker center nearby”. Ji Char refers to cheap street food.
Rather, Mr Teo said if a hotel can bring people closer to an authentic cultural experience, it should be considered a success.
Customers look at fruit at a stall in Singapore on Saturday, January 31, 2026. Singapore’s tourism revenue rose 6.5% year-on-year to S$23.9 billion ($18.8 billion) in the first three quarters of 2025, a record high.
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Wolff noted that most people don’t frequently eat at fine-dining or gourmet restaurants when they travel, suggesting that Michelin-starred restaurants are associated with high costs, which could put people off a destination.
Although Michelin features luxury experiences in its guide, it also focuses on local hawkers and inexpensive food stalls. When former Michelin-starred restaurant Hawker Chan won the honor in 2016, it featured a $3 chicken rice dish on its menu.
But for Hotel Capella Singapore’s culinary director Eric Neo, “fine dining is about intention and storytelling, which gives us the opportunity to interact and curate an experience for our guests,” while casual dining is more about “speed,” he said in an interview.
On Capella’s tours of local markets, chefs guide guests through the process of selecting ingredients and taking them back to the kitchen to prepare their dishes.
Mr Neo said he was also extending invitations to chefs from outside Singapore as part of his desire to “foster a culture of learning between the two different countries”. He said experiences like this broaden the horizons not only for hotel guests but also for chefs. Capella brought Korean-American chef and “Cooking Class Wars” contestant Edward Lee to Singapore in August to plan a celebratory dinner.
It’s also important not to lose sight of the historical and cultural influences behind the food we consume, “particularly the influence of women in preserving food culture” and “the culinary seeds of agriculture,” Wolf said.
