Recreating Popular Culinary Class Wars Dishes

Making the most popular recipes in the form of a 3-course meal!

After binge-watching Culinary Class Wars with Nate (our go-to dinner entertainment!), I couldn't resist attempting to recreate some of the most tempting dishes from the show. Today, I'm sharing a three-course meal inspired by the series, adapted for home cooking.

The Menu

I chose three dishes that were some of the most popular:

• Appetizer: “Mala” Cream Shrimp Dimsum (The Dim Sum Queen - Jung Ji Sun)

• Main Course: Tuna Bibimbap (Chef Edward Lee)

• Dessert: Chestnut Tiramisu (Napoli Matfia - Kwon Seong Joon)

While trying to stay true to the spirit of the original dishes, I made some practical adjustments to make it more home cooking friendly and easier to prepare

The Complete Recipes

1. Mala LaoGanMa Cream Shrimp Dimsum

Recipe adapted from: Elanne Boake

The main change I made for this recipe was replace the Mala Oil with Lao Gan Ma. I personally don’t love the numbing taste of mala oil and it also added so many more ingredients I had to get.

For the Lao Gan Ma Cream Sauce:

• 2 tsp oil

• 1 shallot, minced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing Wine (or cooking wine)

• 2-3 tbsp Lao Gan Ma

• 1 tsp brown sugar

• 1 tbsp salted butter

Instructions:

1. Start with a cold pan. Add minced shallot and garlic with oil.

2. Heat to medium and cook until aromatics start browning.

3. Deglaze with Shaoxing wine and let the alcohol cook off.

4. Add cream, and reduce heat to low.

5. Stir in brown sugar and lao gan ma oil.

6. Simmer while stirring constantly.

7. Finish with butter and let cool to room temperature.

For the Fried Shrimp Balls:

• 400g of shrimp paste (you can find this in the hotpot section of asian grocery stores or you can mince your own shrimp)

• 100g lotus root or I used can water chestnuts here and it was great!

• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing Wine

• 1/4 tsp white pepper

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp cornstarch

• 10 spring roll wrappers

• 1L neutral oil, for frying

Instructions:

1. Combine all ingredients and refrigerate 30-60 minutes.

2. Prepare spring roll wrappers: separate into two stacks of 5.

3. Fold each stack like a letter and slice thinly.

4. Divide chilled shrimp paste into 9 portions.

5. Roll into balls with oiled hands.

6. Fry in batches (3 at a time) for 2-3 minutes until golden.

Garnish:

• Green onion, sliced lengthwise

• Red pepper, thinly sliced and scraped

• Soak both in ice water to curl

Assembly:

1. Place 3 dollops of the lao gan ma cream sauce on the plate

2. Top each with a fried shrimp ball

3. Garnish with curled green onion and red pepper

Main Course: Tuna Bibimbap

Recipe adapted from: Elanne Boake

For this one I interpreted the recipe from the reel I linked above so not very exact measurements!

Ingredients:

• 7-8 slices of sushi-grade tuna

• 1 cup of Cooked rice

• 2 Cloves of Garlic

• 1/2 White onion

• 3-4 Qyster Mushrooms

• 2 Handful Spinach

• Quail egg or Pickled Dikon which is what I used

• Garnish leaves (optional)

• 1tsp Sesame oil

• 1tsp Salt

• Gochujang Sauce (any prepared sauce is fine, or just thin out some gochujang with water to create a sauce consistency )

Instructions:

1. Cook rice and let cool slightly

2. Finely chop mushrooms and garlic

3. Dice white onion

4. Sauté mushrooms and onion until fragrant

5. Blanch spinach, drain well

6. Season spinach with garlic, sesame oil, and salt

7. On cling film, flatten rice in a circle and add fillings

8. Place daikon or quail egg yolk in the centre

9. Form into a ball using the cling film

10. Deep fry until crispy (everything is cooked so no exact cooking time)

11. Flatten tuna slices between 2 sheets of cling film

12. Remove 1 cling film and wrap the tuna around the fried rice ball

13. Serve with red sauce and garnish leaves (optional)

Dessert: Chestnut Tiramisu

Recipe adapted from: frankhubakes

Ingredients:

• 200g roasted peeled chestnuts (2 packs)

• 2 cups milk

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

• 1 pack whole wheat digestive biscuits

• 1 cup toffee or hazelnut flavored coffee (or espresso)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 400g heavy cream

• 75g sugar

• Chocolate and chestnut for garnish

Instructions:

1. Boil chestnuts in milk for 3-5 minutes

2. Blend chestnuts with half of the milk, adding more as needed to form a paste

3. Chill chestnut paste in the freezer

4. Mix cream cheese with sugar and vanilla extract

5. Fold chilled chestnut paste into cream cheese mixture

6. Whip heavy cream to medium peaks

7. Fold into the chestnut mixture

8. Dip biscuits in coffee and layer in serving container

9. Add cream mixture

10. Repeat for at least two layers

11. Refrigerate several hours

12. Garnish with grated chocolate and chestnut before serving

Final Thoughts

Okay, real talk - the LaoGanMa Cream Shrimp Dimsum and Tuna Bibimbap are absolute bangers! They're honestly pretty hard to mess up because, let's face it, these flavor combos are just classics for a reason. As long as you don't go crazy with the seasoning, you're pretty much-guaranteed something delicious. I mean, crispy shrimp with a creamy sauce? And anything wrapped in fresh tuna is already a win in my book.

Now, the Chestnut Tiramisu... that's where I learned my lesson about getting too cocky in the kitchen 😅 I thought I could wing it by using less sugar and not fully whipping the cream (rookie mistake!). Sometimes you need that first messy attempt to appreciate why desserts don't play around with their measurements!

Let me know in the comments if you try any of them, and don't forget to check out my video for step-by-step visual instructions.

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Note: These recipes are my interpretations of dishes inspired by Culinary Class Wars, adapted for home cooking. The original recipe credits are linked above - please show these amazing chefs some love! Follow along with my video for additional tips and techniques!