Two Culinary Class Wars contestants joining reboot of Korean cooking show

Choi Kang-rok and Edward Lee are joining the upcoming reboot of Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator. The show originally aired in November 2014 and ran for five years. 

Culinary Class Wars contestant Choi Kang-rok will join runner-up Edward Lee on the reboot of JTBC's popular cooking show Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator, the South Korean broadcaster announced on Monday (Nov 4).

Both Choi and Lee appeared as “white spoon” chefs on Culinary Class Wars, a hit Netflix show that dominated the streaming platform’s charts for weeks after its release in September 2024. The term “white spoon” refers to Korea’s top chefs, many of whom are celebrated restaurant owners with distinctive signature dishes.

The two chefs will reunite on Please Take Care Of My Refrigerator, also known as Chef & My Fridge, the South Korean cooking variety show that debuted in November 2014.

Known for its unique format, the show challenges chefs to create meals from ingredients found in a celebrity’s refrigerator within a limited time. 

The reboot will be produced by Lee Chang-woo and written by Kang Yun-jeong, both of whom were involved in the original season that aired for five years. 

The exact broadcast date has yet to be announced.

Choi, who owns Neo in Seoul’s Songpa District, is known for his course meals inspired by Japanese culture. Though he was eliminated in the sixth episode of Culinary Class Wars, he previously won the second season of MasterChef Korea in 2013.

Lee is an award-winning American-Korean chef who gained fame after his victory on Iron Chef America in 2010. He is also the author of cookbooks such as Buttermilk Graffiti and Bourbon Land: A Spirited Love Letter to My Old Kentucky Whiskey. 

In addition to running his Louisville-based restaurant 610 Magnolia, Lee was invited to the White House in 2023 to prepare a state dinner during South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to the US.