We all know how frustrating it is to watch the early episodes of a season of a cooking competition because we have to keep track of ten or fifteen chefs their personalities and the kind of cuisine the specialize in So imagine how we felt coming into a new South Korean cooking competition series that starts with 100 contestants CULINARY CLASS WARS STREAM IT OR SKIP IT Opening Shot Here 100 chefs have gathered today in hopes of becoming the best chef in Korea In a scene from the episode two judges are on a stage and the camera pulls back to show 40 chefs at 40 stations ready to cook The Gist Culinary Class Wars takes the concept of a cooking competition and expands it to somewhat unfathomable proportions We first see 80 chefs filing into a room sitting in a circular arrangement of four tables of twenty We dont know their names theyre each given a nicknamedescription like Side Dish Master or Triple Star A few of the chefs are a bit odd like the chicken sandwich maker wearing a chicken mask or one with an Elvisstyle pompadour wig on Some own wellregarded restaurants others own tiny casual joints They all know that the competition will actually be 100 chefs so they wonder where the other 20 contestants are Then on a platform above them the other 20 chefs rise out of the floor Theyre all famous chefs in South Korea some with Michelin stars some with Frank Beard Awards others have won other cooking competition shows They are all introduced by name The famous chefs are put in a class called White Spoon Chefs whereas the unknown chefs are called the Black Spoon Chefs Twenty of the Black Spoon group will go on to compete directly with the White Spoon group with the winner getting 300 million won about 225000 This means that 60 of the 80 Black Spoon group will be eliminated first Two groups of 40 chefs have 100 minutes to create their best dish Judges are restauranteur Paik Jongwon and threestar Michelin chef Anh Sungjae who will take 20 chefs each After they taste the dish they will either eliminate someone move them on or put them in limbo Once the first 20 to move on are selected the round is over What Shows Will It Remind You Of Culinary Class Wars is essentially Top Chef on steroids Our Take The concept of Culinary Class Wars sounds interesting but the execution at least in the early going is overwhelming The eighty Black Spoon chefs come at the viewer in a fast and furious manner all with nicknames that mean next to nothing without context Our heads spin during the early episodes of Top Chef when there are fifteen or so chefs to deal with at the numbers the producers of Culinary Class Wars are giving us our head spins trying to follow just who is who During much of the first half hour of the first episode no cooking occurs the 80 chefs file in and chat with each other then the 20 White Spoon chefs are individually introduced then all the rules are laid out Its all done in an overthetop manner like its a sporting event but it made us antsy to actually see the Black Spoon group cooking After that though the show proceeds like an extralarge Quickfire Challenge The producers do a good job of highlighting certain chefs as the judges eliminate them or move them on to the final 20 Black Spoon contestants But given the fact that this is only half of the 80 that will be winnowed down to 20 were wondering how monotonous finding the 20 Black Spoons that will go up against the White Spoons is going to get Sex and Skin None Parting Shot One of the Black Spoons who happens to be an apprentice of one of the White Spoons makes some dumplings that shes afraid are too dry Paik takes a big bite then another Then hes about to say whether shes eliminated or moves on and we cut to black Sleeper Star We like the dude who came to the competition with the chicken mask on his head Most Piloty Line One of the Black Spoon chefs wore a Fall Out Boy tshirt to the competition We would have just eliminated her because of her taste in music Our Call STREAM IT While the early episodes of Culinary Class Wars feel overwhelming due to the sheer number of contestants the premise of the contest is pretty intriguing Joel Keller joelkeller writes about food entertainment parenting and tech but he doesnt kid himself hes a TV junkie His writing has appeared in the New York Times Slate Salon RollingStonecom VanityFaircom Fast Company and elsewhere