CreatripTeam

A new cooking contest, "High School Chef: Ramen Wars," premiered on the JigeulJigeul Club YouTube channel, following six high-school finalists selected from 120 nationwide recipe entries. Sponsored by Nongshim for its 60th anniversary, the competition showcased teams preparing their signature ramen dishes in the main round. Judges included chef Hwang Jin-seon and Kim Jae-wook from Nongshim’s global R&D soup development team, who praised the students’ passion, skill and marketable ideas. The final challenge was a timed “convenience store cooking” mission: contestants had five minutes to pick items (e.g., milk, jokbal (braised pig’s trotters), mara sauce) and 30 minutes to cook, judged on technique, creativity and quick thinking. The winner will be decided by judges’ scores plus public votes on Instagram and the channel from Oct 17–30; prizes are 3,000,000 won for first, 2,000,000 won for second, and 1,000,000 won for third. A separate SNS vote gave student Choi Jong-beom the “ramen school attack” prize to gift ramen to his class.