Studio SLAM, the company behind "Culinary Class Wars", issued a statement via its official YouTube channel, saying that since the show’s recent broadcast, certain chefs have faced personal attacks, malicious comments, and even harassing messages to their private social accounts.
“These actions seriously damage the reputations of chefs who have devoted their lives to the craft and inflict lasting harm on civilian contestants,” the studio said, adding that it will pursue legal measures to ensure chefs competing out of pure passion aren’t further harmed by defamation or targeted harassment.
The production added that it is actively collecting evidence of defamatory posts and abusive DMs aimed at specific chefs and warned that verified offenders will face strong legal consequences without leniency.
The move follows a wave of unfounded claims spreading across online communities. Some users have falsely alleged that Ahn, a judge on "Culinary Class Wars", is ethnically Chinese and biased toward Chinese cuisine ― and even pushed the baseless conspiracy that he’s affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party. In reality, Ahn was born in South Korea, immigrated to the United States as a child, is Korean American, and previously served in the U.S. military with deployment to the Iraq War.
With other "Culinary Class Wars" chefs also targeted by hostile posts, the production says it will no longer look the other way and is proceeding with legal action.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Sun-ae)