The video revealed a series of offensive and abusive comments posted on her channel. Some commenters not only hurled insults but also made personal attacks.
In response, Seonkyoung expressed her anger, asking, “Who can say this isn’t cyberbullying?”
She also added screenshots of the malicious comments, both in their original form and translated into English, stating, “This isn’t even the worst of it. I’ve been receiving these comments continuously since last Tuesday. More than 8,000 people have commented on just one video. Seriously, how can this not be called cyberbullying?”
Seonkyoung Longest, a global cooking YouTuber with 2.21 million subscribers, has gained recognition for winning a U.S. survival cooking competition. She has worked as an executive chef at M Resort in Las Vegas, operated a vegan food truck in Hawaii, and authored cookbooks.
However, after appearing on Netflix’s “Culinary Class Wars“, she has been subjected to sudden waves of hateful comments. The negativity largely stemmed from her perceived lack of teamwork and communication issues on the show, particularly during conflicts with fellow chef Choi Kang-rok.
On September 29, Seonkyoung expressed her frustration again, stating, “I never imagined I would experience cyberbullying from Koreans, but unfortunately, that is what’s happening now.”
Seonkyoung Longest isn’t the only one from “Culinary Class Wars” who has suffered from hate comments. Chef Jung Ji-sun also shared her experience of receiving absurd comments. While discussing the background of one of her dishes on her YouTube channel, the chef clarified that she had personally cleaned up the sugar syrup used in the dish.
In a previous episode of “Culinary Class Wars”, Jung Ji-sun tried a cooking technique from China involving caramelizing sugar in oil or water and stir-frying pre-fried ingredients.
However, immediately after the dish was revealed, some people left malicious comments, claiming that the production team had cleaned up the dishes, such as the sugar water left after cooking. In response, Jung Ji-seon firmly stated, “I cleaned it up. I had some time after I finished cooking. You might think it’s hard to clean up, but it’s not that hard. When it hardens, you can just break it. You don’t have to leave it in the sink to melt it. Just tap it on the floor and it’ll break and you can wipe it clean.”
Chef “Triple Star”, a Black Spoon participant, also faced a slew of hateful comments.
Particularly, in an early episode, this chef was scheduled to be judged by either Baek Jong-won (also known as Paik Jong-won) or Chef Ahn Sung-jae. When Baek Jong-won was assigned to judge his dish, “Triple Star” said in an interview, “I actually wanted to receive it from Chef Ahn Sung-jae, but I ended up receiving it from Chef Baek Jong-won. I thought ‘I failed’ a lot,” adding, “As far as I know, Chef Baek Jong-won likes intuitive flavors and cooks popular dishes, but I wondered if he would know when I put in this much effort.”
This remark sparked backlash from viewers, who criticized it as a “careless statement.” The negative comments continued to flood his social media accounts.
Additionally, in a recent episode, chef Ahn You-seong, the 16th Korean master chef, was eliminated after being abruptly removed from his original team led by chef Choi Hyun-seok. Following this, netizens intensified their criticism of Choi Hyun-seok.
While the show has gained immense popularity, the accompanying backlash seems disproportionate. Though such reactions may be inevitable in high-profile projects, the excessive criticism towards chefs, who joined the show with the hope of promoting the food industry, might be crossing the line.
Meanwhile, “Culinary Class Wars” is a Netflix Korean cooking show which features a battle between highly skilled “Black Spoon” chefs (non-celebrity chefs) and “White Spoon” chefs (celebrity chefs). The final episode will be released on October 8.
Source: Daum
