Chef Ahn Sung-jae is taking a break from YouTube following allegations of wine swapping at his restaurant.
On the 13th, the production team for the “Chef Ahn Sung-jae” YouTube channel announced via their official channel, “The production team intends to take some time to reorganize the channel’s overall direction, operation, and ensure careful content creation.”
They added, “We will strive to return with a more responsible image and better content for those who have supported and watched the channel.”
Chef Ahn Sung-jae shot to fame through the Netflix show “Culinary Class Wars” released in September 2024 and launched his YouTube channel in January last year. The channel currently boasts 1.23 million subscribers and high view counts.
However, the channel has been affected by recent reviews claiming that wine was swapped at his fine-dining restaurant, Mosu Seoul. Although Mosu Seoul issued an official apology, the controversy persisted, leading Ahn to post a lengthy apology on his personal channel on the 6th.
Ahn stated, “I have taken measures to remove (the employee) from the sommelier position responsible for customers’ wine,” and promised to manage the restaurant strictly to prevent recurrence.
But just one hour after the apology, a new video was uploaded to the “Chef Ahn Sung-jae” channel, sparking further backlash. Critics pointed out that even if the production team handles uploads, it seemed as though the apology was merely a precursor to continuing YouTube activities.
It appears the production team decided to reorganize the channel in response to this criticism.
Here is the full statement from the “Chef Ahn Sung-jae” production team:
“Hello. This is the production team for Ahn Sung-jae’s YouTube channel.”
“The production team intends to take some time to reorganize the channel’s overall direction, operation, and ensure careful content creation.”
“We will strive to return with a more responsible image and better content for those who have supported and watched the channel.”
