The culinary pride of Kwon Sung-jun, the winner of Netflix’s ‘Culinary Class Wars’ Season 1, has taken a hit! While working undercover as a “kitchen rookie” in Naples, Italy, Kwon Sung-jun experiences the humiliation of being scolded for his potato prep skills.
tvN’s new variety show ‘Undercover Chef’, premiering on the 21st, has released a teaser video giving a sneak peek into the nerve-wracking first day of undercover work for three of South Korea’s top chefs.
‘Undercover Chef’ is a program where star chefs representing Korea go undercover as “kitchen rookies” in restaurants located in the countries that served as the foundation for their cuisine. They must set aside their titles and take on hidden missions.
The newly released video captures the vivid and exciting moments as “Naturalist Saint Chef” Sam Kim, “Queen of Chinese Cuisine” Jung Ji-sun, and “Napoli Matfia” Kwon Sung-jun face a brutal “DAY 1” in authentic local kitchens without their professional titles.
First up, Sam Kim, who infiltrated a kitchen in Parma, Italy, under the fake identity of a former farmer, suffers the indignity of becoming mere “background scenery” in the kitchen.
In the non-stop chaos of the kitchen, he politely asks with his hands folded, “Is there anything I can do?” only to receive a firm “NO.” His flustered attempts to find his place in the corner of the kitchen are sure to bring laughs.
Meanwhile, Jung Ji-sun heads to Chengdu, China, with a shocking fake identity as a “former boxer.” She enters the kitchen with confidence after an interview, but is quickly overwhelmed by the intensity of the local ingredients.
She faces unimaginable ingredients, including frogs that look like they are still moving. The sight of the “Queen of Chinese Cuisine” screaming in the kitchen foreshadows that this undercover life will be anything but easy.
Kwon Sung-jun, who hid his identity as a “former baseball player” in Naples, Italy, also tastes an unexpected humiliation with ingredients.
Despite dominating cooking survivals with his precise techniques, he peels potatoes in a messy, haphazard way. This prompts a senior Italian chef to give him a sharp wake-up call, shouting, “This is how you peel potatoes!”
The bewildered expression on “Napoli Matfia’s” face as he is bombarded with a flurry of nagging in Italian over his potato-peeling skills makes his “rookie adaptation period” highly anticipated.
However, the effort to hide his identity is short-lived as his ingrained “chef instincts” become a variable. His sudden display of professional-grade knife skills and handling leads his local colleagues to cast suspicious glances, asking, “Have you worked in a restaurant before?”
With the risk of being exposed, all eyes are on whether he can successfully overcome these crises from day one and rise to the top of the kitchen within five days.
Meanwhile, ‘Undercover Chef’ will premiere on the 21st at 8:40 PM.
