Choi Hyun-seok Brings Korean Cuisine's Global TV Moment to Singapore's Tables

Four dishes bring a television chef closer to Singapore diners

Choi Hyun-seok brought four dishes to Singapore in September through a collaboration with Korean grill restaurant chain Bulgogi Syo, giving diners a chance to taste the creativity that has helped make him an international television personality. The menu, Memories on a Plate, connects his restaurant cooking and screen appearances with the growing appetite for Korean food beyond Seoul.

The collaboration arrives amid the attention surrounding Netflix's Culinary Class Wars. The cooking competition debuted in September, amassed more than 17.5 million views and ranked as the most watched series in a language other than English globally for two consecutive weeks. Its reach was especially strong in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Choi is an instantly recognizable presence: 1.9 meters tall, with a straight back and an easy half smirk. Years in front of television cameras have shaped his confidence, while appearances on popular streaming shows have carried his fame from a national audience to viewers around the world.

His cooking offers a quieter counterpoint to that imposing image. Choi has said he does not enjoy following the crowd and admits that very spicy food scares him. He wants to reinterpret tradition through invention and make fine dining welcoming to ordinary diners, including people encountering kimchi, gochujang and a modern Korean table for the first time.

The Singapore menu brings those ambitions into a practical setting. Clam broth, fermented sauces, seasoned raw beef, rice and pork braise provide several routes into his cooking, with flavor built through texture, aroma and balance as well as heat. The partnership also extends his ideas beyond the restaurants he leads in Seoul.

How Korean culture turns curiosity into a meal

Korean music, television dramas, films and fashion have opened windows into everyday Korean life. Food gives audiences a particularly approachable way to take part: a dish seen on a screen can become something to order, cook or share.

Social media posts, street food clips and recipe videos help turn interest into cravings. Diaspora communities create local demand, while restaurants respond with formats ranging from barbecue specialists to neighborhood establishments serving soups, stews and noodles. Streaming adds another route, encouraging viewers to watch chefs with the same attention they give television dramas and then seek those flavors in their own cities.

Culinary Class Wars accelerated that connection between watching and eating. Competitors saw reservations increase, while memorable dishes moved from the screen onto restaurant menus, into meal kits and into packaged products. For audiences across the region, the contest offered both entertainment and a reason to visit a Korean restaurant.

The sequence of developments links the screen, Singapore's dining rooms and Choi's wider international work:

• September: Culinary Class Wars debuted on Netflix, beginning a surge of attention that included more than 17.5 million views and two consecutive weeks at the top of the global ranking for series in languages other than English.
• September: Choi visited Singapore to launch Memories on a Plate with Bulgogi Syo.
• October 8: The competition's finale was released, following a buildup of restaurant bookings and social media interest.
• 2025: A sold out pairing dinner with Chilean winery Don Melchor provided another international setting for Choi's Korean flavors.

The timing shows how several kinds of exposure can support each other. Viewers discover a chef through a contest, restaurants give them somewhere to taste the food, and overseas collaborations carry that interest into another market.

Why the spoon contest struck a chord

Culinary Class Wars builds its competition around a metaphor familiar in Korean society. A spoon represents a person's background and opportunities. Gold, silver or diamond spoons suggest privilege, while a black spoon signals a more difficult starting point.

The program adapts that language into two groups. White spoons are established chefs with reputations and resources; black spoons are talented cooks without the same advantages. Their contest becomes a struggle for recognition and a fair opportunity to succeed, rather than simply a comparison of recipes.

Kwon Seong-joon, a black spoon competitor, won the series. His victory reinforced the show's idea that skill can overcome status and connected its kitchen battles with wider conversations about inequality and social mobility.

Judges and chefs involved described a production that promised to respect their craft rather than turn cooking into gimmicks. That approach helped make culinary skill, training and restaurant work subjects of public interest and pride. The appeal came from watching people work under pressure as well as discovering what they put on a plate.

Choi's approach combines precision with surprise

Choi has built a cooking style around technique, humor and surprise. Television gives him room for drama, but he treats the kitchen seriously and puts flavor ahead of presentation. In the dining room, precise cooking and balance underpin the playful experience.

His Seoul restaurants include Choi Dot, Central Reducer and Dahlia Dining. Each explores a different expression of Korean cooking, combining classic ingredients with contemporary methods. Together, they give him several settings in which to develop ideas rather than rely on a single restaurant format.

Choi's wish to make fine dining accessible also shapes his collaborations. He wants food to be memorable without intimidating guests, so a first visit can be enjoyable without requiring a guidebook at the table. Modern presentation serves that experience rather than replacing the pleasure of eating.

His reluctance to chase trends sits alongside a willingness to experiment. A Korean ingredient can meet an Italian technique, or a television dish can become an approachable restaurant plate. The connection to Korean cooking remains in the ingredients and flavors, even when the finished dish takes an unexpected form.

Clam noodles and beef introduce the Singapore menu

Memories on a Plate distills Choi's television appearances and restaurant repertoire into four dishes. He curated the Bulgogi Syo collaboration for local and international palates, bringing modern presentations to flavors rooted in techniques and ingredients used in Korean kitchens for generations.

Vongole sujebi places hand torn wheat dough noodles in a rich clam broth tinted with squid ink. Sujebi is a homey noodle made by tearing pieces of dough by hand into broth. Here, its chewy texture meets shellfish flavor and the gentle brine of squid ink, creating a conversation between Italian and Korean cooking.

Jang trio with Omugi beef tenderloin pairs seared beef with three fermented sauces. The combination includes aged doenjang butter and gochujang sauce, alongside pickled radish accented with truffle. Creamy savor, warmth and sweetness meet acidity, crunch and aroma, with the beef carrying those contrasting flavors.

Jang is the umbrella term for Korea's family of fermented sauces. Doenjang is a fermented soybean paste with a deep flavor, used in stews and sauces. Gochujang is a fermented chili paste that brings sweetness, spice and savory notes. These ingredients help explain why a Korean dish can have considerable depth without relying entirely on intense heat.

The tenderloin dish also illustrates umami, the savory taste that makes food feel rich and satisfying. Fermented sauces provide that depth, while pickled radish offers a sharper counterbalance. Diners encounter several parts of Korean flavor in one plate rather than through a single dominant seasoning.

Raw beef, pot rice and a Korean Italian pairing

Fresh Omugi beef yukhoe sotbap places seasoned raw beef over layers of rice and vegetables cooked in a small pot. The dish draws attention to differences in temperature and texture as well as the flavor of the beef.

Yukhoe is Korean seasoned raw beef, often served with pear and egg yolk. Sotbap refers to rice cooked in an individual pot, where the cooking develops flavorful crust and texture. The menu brings those two ideas together in a layered rice dish.

The fourth option, Maeun dwaeji galbi jjim with triple cheese risotto or spicy pork stew, pairs a comforting pork braise with creamy risotto. It connects two traditions of comfort food, giving a proudly Korean braise a rich rice accompaniment.

Choi's favorite dish in the set, a Daegu style risotto, combines creamy rice with Korean aromatics for a gentle but rich profile. His preference against extreme heat helps explain an approach that builds complexity through fermentation, aromatics and gentler spice.

Singapore diners can find familiar pleasures across the set: seafood, quality beef, comforting rice and a range of spice levels. Heat can be adjusted while the central appeal of depth and balance remains. The collaboration also fits Bulgogi Syo's emphasis on lively grill flavors and approachable plates.

Fans of the Netflix series gain another connection. They can compare the impression a dish made on screen with the flavors in front of them, bringing some of the show's excitement into an ordinary dinner. The menu's modern appearance and recognizable ingredients make that transition from watching to eating easier.

Television attention fills restaurant calendars

Restaurants across the region reported booked calendars and greater social media attention in the buildup to the October 8 finale. Many added dishes from the competition as specials or permanent menu items. Booking a table became a way for viewers to continue the story and form their own opinion of food they had seen the judges assess.

Finalist Kang Seung-won, known to fans as Triple Star, entered the program during a difficult period for his business. After the episodes aired, reservations filled and his public profile rose. The response showed how quickly television attention could reach a restaurant's dining room.

Kim Taesung's casual restaurant Pono Buono also benefited. Interest spread beyond expensive dining, bringing attention to different kinds of establishments and to the preparation, craft and pressure behind restaurant service.

For Choi, the exposure helped bring customers back after the pandemic era lull. The program reminded guests of the excitement of eating out and restored the energy of a busy dining room. Busier restaurants also created opportunities for his teams and suppliers, including young cooks learning techniques and farms and artisans connected to his menus.

The effect therefore extended beyond the chefs who appeared on television. More activity at the table could support the people preparing food, producing ingredients and keeping service running. The contest made that work more visible while giving diners a reason to return.

Balanced flavors and accessible ingredients help Korean food travel

Korean cuisine brings sweet, sour, salty, spicy and umami flavors together, usually in combinations rather than isolation. Fermentation adds depth, barbecue supplies char, and stews offer warmth and comfort. Banchan, the collection of small side dishes served with a meal, gives diners several tastes to explore.

Sharing is another part of the appeal. Food arrives for people to enjoy together, allowing curious diners to sample several dishes and return to the ones they like. That social format can make an unfamiliar cuisine feel welcoming from the first meal.

Ingredients have also become easier to obtain outside Korea. Gochujang appears on supermarket shelves far from Seoul, while doenjang and Korean soy sauce are more accessible. Seaweed, perilla, rice cakes and glass noodles are common in specialty stores, allowing chefs in major cities to develop Korean inspired menus without long waits for supplies.

Restaurant formats offer further flexibility. Barbecue establishments, neighborhood dining rooms and restaurants serving tasting menus can each introduce Korean flavors to a different audience. Choi works across that range, combining Italian technique with a recognizably Korean identity or translating a television sensation into a casual plate that feels familiar on the first bite.

International fame creates opportunities and pressures

Choi's sold out pairing dinner with Chilean winery Don Melchor in 2025 placed Korean flavors alongside wines and dining traditions from elsewhere in the world. Such events introduce wine lovers to fermented sauces, gentle sweetness and flavors built slowly, including pairings in which gochujang and doenjang meet Cabernet.

Greater interest in Korean restaurants can also make room for young cooks to train, suppliers to expand and regional specialties to gain attention. Chefs who use their visibility to teach and invest in teams can help turn a burst of popularity into better jobs, stronger sourcing networks and a broader pool of culinary talent.

Expansion across borders still brings practical pressures. Traditional flavors depend on fermentation that takes time and careful control. Restaurants can struggle to obtain consistent supplies of gochujang, doenjang, soy sauces, seaweed and premium beef in markets where availability is limited.

Pricing and labor add further demands. Restaurants must decide how much to adapt to local preferences while retaining their identity, and those choices affect both how the cuisine is perceived and whether the business can last. Easier access to some ingredients does not remove the work of securing dependable quality for every service.

Choi also faces the higher expectations that come with television fame. Diners arrive with a story already in mind and expect hospitality that matches the excitement of the screen. His longstanding preference for creativity over copying trends becomes especially relevant when more people are watching his work and seeking out his plates.

The Singapore collaboration brings those ambitions to a concrete test: four dishes in a restaurant setting, where fermentation, careful cooking and approachable flavors must deliver the experience that first drew viewers' attention. International visibility opens the door; the meal gives diners a reason to come back.

The Bottom Line

• Culinary Class Wars amassed more than 17.5 million views after its September debut and topped the global ranking for series in languages other than English for two consecutive weeks.
• Choi Hyun-seok visited Singapore in September to launch the four dish Memories on a Plate collaboration with Bulgogi Syo.
• The menu includes Vongole sujebi, Jang trio with Omugi beef tenderloin, Fresh Omugi beef yukhoe sotbap and Maeun dwaeji galbi jjim with triple cheese risotto or spicy pork stew.
• Black spoon competitor Kwon Seong-joon won the contest, whose finale was released on October 8.
• Restaurant interest reached both fine dining and casual establishments, including those associated with Kang Seung-won and Kim Taesung.
• Choi leads Seoul restaurants including Choi Dot, Central Reducer and Dahlia Dining, and favors creativity, fermentation and balanced flavors over extreme heat.
• International collaborations, including a sold out Don Melchor pairing dinner in 2025, extend the audience for Korean cooking while restaurants face sourcing, pricing and labor pressures.