'Culinary Class Wars' winner crashes reservation app, warns scalpers

A screen capture of the reservation page for Chef Kwon Seong-jun's restaurant Via Toledo Pasta Bar on Catch Table

More than 110,000 users attempted to book a table at the restaurant of the winner of Netflix’s hit reality cooking show, "Culinary Class Wars," temporarily crashing a reservation app on Thursday.

Reservations for the Italian restaurant Via Toledo Pasta Bar, run by Chef Kwon Seong-jun, also known by his nickname "Napoli Mafia," opened on the restaurant booking app Catch Table at 10 a.m. on Thursday. As fans rushed to secure a table, the app became unresponsive and was down for about 20 minutes due to the traffic surge.

The app later recovered, and as of Friday, all available seats for October are fully booked with the waitlists for each day having reached their capacity of 100.

Kwon on his Instagram expressed surprise at the unprecedented interest and apologized for the inconvenience caused due to the server outage. The chef also said he would look for ways to expand available seating.

He also warned against scalpers trying to resell reservations at much higher prices, while sharing a screenshot of posts advertising two-person bookings for over 700,000 won ($519). “If we find any scalpers, we will permanently ban them from the app and the reservation fee will be nonrefundable,” he said, adding that they will check visitors' identities before allowing them to enter the restaurant.

Kwon also encouraged users to report any scalping incidents, offering future reservation as a reward for those who help catch offenders.

Other restaurants run by chefs who appeared on the Netflix series are also enjoying an explosive surge in reservations, making it almost impossible to book a spot at some.

According to Catch Table last Monday, reservations for the restaurants of the show's participating chefs jumped by 148 percent in comparison to the previous week. The search volume also increased 74-fold from the previous week.

“Culinary Class Wars,” which aired its finale last Tuesday, has enjoyed immense popularity here and overseas. The 12-episode series stars 100 participants engaged in an intense cooking battle, pitting renowned star chefs against lesser-known cooks and local restaurant owners.