Food critic Paik Jong-won, the star of Netflix’s hit cooking competition Culinary Class Wars (2024) and a prolific food-and-beverage entrepreneur, faces an uncertain future amid mounting controversies about him, ranging from workplace abuses of power to violations of food-related regulations.
The 58-year-old was reported to authorities for allegedly breaching country-of-origin labelling laws for food products in March. A soybean paste produced by Paik’s company, Theborn Korea, was marketed as a domestically made product despite using imported ingredients.
