On Skill vs Artistry
A quick meditation on 'Culinary Class Wars'
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
Schopenhauer
I recently enjoyed the Korean cooking competition ‘Culinary Class Wars’ (흑백요리사: 요리 계급 전쟁) on Netflix.
I wasn’t really expecting it to be my cup of tea but there’s something very specific I loved about it.
It’s hard to create a competitive environment for true artistic and creative disciplines, but cooking seems to be a rare exception, and the ability to see such mastery on screen revealed a lot to me about the nature of creativity.
The show is essentially a competition between Master Chefs (experienced chefs with Michelin stars, competition winners, etc.) called “White Spoons” and more up-and-coming ambitious Younger Chefs called “Black Spoons.”
In episodes 3 and 4 in particular, there are a series of head-to-head matchups of one White Spoon vs one Black Spoon, optimizing for a random ingredient, with the judges tasting the dishes blindfolded.
In general, the Black Spoons exert a ton of effort, try to use as many techniques as possible to really optimize and pack the flavors, and really try to demonstrate as many techniques as they can in the challenge.
The more accomplished White Spoons, on the other hand, show tremendous creativity but in a highly constrained and focused way. They also don’t seem to care as much about the judges directly, but instead are really trying to optimize the expression of the ingredients in way that they feel is a true expression of self, the dish is highly intentional and the competition is secondary to the expression.
In the early head-to-head match ups the White Spoons essentially dominate the Black Spoons without contest - and indeed there’s a period where you think that the White Spoons are just going to sweep the entire competition.
The Black Spoons that do make through however, are the ones that can show not just strength of technique, but the same type of inventiveness and artistry that flows so naturally from the more accomplished master chefs.
What I enjoyed about this segment of the show is that, in a way that other high art forms can’t really display on TV as well, it renders manifest the stark divide between extreme skill and artistic genius.
As the show progresses and the distinction between White and Black Spoon disappears, the best chefs are clearly the ones who go beyond technique and use the flavors and ingredients as a canvas to express specific intentions.
What’s true in the kitchen holds true across other creative pursuits.
Colin Goltra, November 2024