Sam Kim Lost on Culinary Class Wars 2. Here's What He Won Instead

Sam Kim did not win Culinary Class Wars Season 2. He was eliminated in Round 10, defeated by fellow chef Jeong Ho-yeong in one of the season's most closely watched moments. But walk into any of his Seoul restaurants today and you will be told the next available booking is six months away. On social media, he has nearly twice the followers of the chef who beat him. And his most enthusiastic new fans are still in elementary school.

Appearing on KBS 2TV's travel variety show 1 Night 2 Days this weekend — his third time on the program and first in nine years — the celebrated Italian cuisine specialist opened up about how the Netflix competition had reshaped his career in ways he never expected. For a chef who had spent more than a decade as one of Korea's most recognizable faces in food television, what came after the show was something different entirely.

Six Months of Bookings and a Whole New Fan Base

The numbers are striking. Since Culinary Class Wars Season 2 premiered on Netflix in December 2025, Sam Kim's restaurant group — Trattoria Sam Kim and Osteria Sam Kim in Seoul — has been completely booked out. "After the show aired, six months of reservations filled up," he revealed during Sunday's episode. For a chef who had maintained a loyal following for years through food media appearances, the scale of the surge was unlike anything he had experienced before.

What surprised him most was who was showing up in his new fan base. "I think it's because I played the character who gets teased," Sam Kim explained, describing why so many elementary-school-aged children had started writing him fan letters. His run on the competition — marked by real pressure, honest emotion, and a consistently warm response under difficult circumstances — created an unlikely bond with young viewers who connected more with his personality than with the technical brilliance of his cooking.

The teasing has found its way home too. His own son, watching the show, spotted Jeong Ho-yeong on screen — the chef who eliminated his father — and cheerfully pointed out: "Dad, that's the guy who beat you." Sam Kim told the story with visible delight. The moment perfectly captures the tone of his post-show experience: a defeat that should have stung has instead become something everyone, including him, finds funny.

Who Is Sam Kim — And Why Losing Felt Like Winning

Sam Kim, whose Korean name is Kim Hee-tae, is 49 years old and one of Korea's most celebrated specialists in Italian cuisine. He first became widely known through the MBC drama Pasta in 2010, a show that sparked genuine national interest in Italian cooking and established him as the country's most familiar face in that culinary tradition. He subsequently became an original cast member of JTBC's Please Take Care of My Refrigerator when the show launched in 2014, where his quiet authority and dry wit made him a consistent fan favorite across multiple seasons.

His participation in Culinary Class Wars Season 2 — Netflix's follow-up to the breakout Korean hit Culinary Class Wars (흑백요리사) — introduced him to an entirely new generation of viewers. He competed as part of the "White Spoon" team, the group of established chefs going up against emerging culinary talents. Elimination in Round 10 was no disgrace — the competition is widely considered one of the most demanding cooking formats in Korean broadcast history — but the fact that Jeong Ho-yeong ended his run became a recurring piece of internet humor that Sam Kim has handled with admirable grace.

The irony that has circulated through Korean entertainment media is simple and pointed: after the show concluded, Sam Kim's social media following grew to nearly double that of Jeong Ho-yeong, the chef who defeated him. Culinary Class Wars demonstrated clearly that audiences do not always walk away remembering the winner. In Sam Kim's case, they remembered him, and they kept coming back.

Why He Almost Said No to 1 Night 2 Days

Sunday's episode was Sam Kim's first 1 Night 2 Days appearance since 2018 — nine years between visits to a show he had previously joined twice. When producers first reached out this time, he declined. His restaurants were running at full capacity following the post-Culinary Class Wars surge in demand, and the time away from the kitchen felt impossible to justify.

The person who ultimately changed his mind was Jeong Ho-yeong himself — the same chef who had eliminated him from the competition. The two have maintained a warm and genuinely close friendship since the show ended. Sam Kim revealed on air that during the intense "Black-White Alliance Battle" segment of Culinary Class Wars Season 2, the pair had been calling each other late at night, talking through strategy and keeping each other\s spirits up. "He's high-maintenance," Sam Kim said of Jeong Ho-yeong, with the unmistakable affection of someone describing a person they genuinely like.

The 1 Night 2 Days episode was filmed in Mokpo, a port city on Korea's southwestern coast with a strong food culture and a layered historical identity. Sam Kim and Jeong Ho-yeong joined the regular cast for a two-day trip, giving viewers a rare chance to see both chefs well outside any competitive pressure.

What Comes After the Six-Month Waitlist

The professional changes in Sam Kim's life since Culinary Class Wars Season 2 extend beyond the restaurant bookings. Advertising inquiries have increased substantially, opening commercial opportunities that were not previously part of his trajectory. He has also returned to JTBC's revived Please Take Care of My Refrigerator (2024), maintaining his presence in the food variety format where he first built a national audience.

The fan letters from children have become one of the most personally meaningful parts of the post-show period. "The letters are a bit rough," he said, smiling, "but they're sincere." That combination — unpolished, direct, genuine — mirrors what made his Culinary Class Wars run resonate in the first place. His culinary skill was never in question. What the competition revealed was the person behind the chef: someone who takes his work seriously, competes hard, and manages to lose without losing his warmth.

Sam Kim has also made news for encouraging comedian and personality Kim Pung to apply for a future Culinary Class Wars season, personally telling him that a season without Kim Pung felt incomplete. It is a small gesture, but consistent with the role Sam Kim occupies in Korean food culture: not just a craftsman of exceptional ability, but someone who genuinely enjoys the community around him.

His career has always been shaped by personal conviction. He once quietly defied his mother's expectations to pursue culinary training abroad — a decision he has described many times as the most important he ever made. That same instinct to follow his own path, to outlast a television defeat and turn it into a six-month reservation backlog and fan letters from eight-year-olds, is entirely consistent with how Sam Kim has always operated. The people writing him letters seem to sense the truth behind the charming underdog narrative. Based on the evidence, they are right.