Chef An Sung-jae. Provided by Netflix

Chef An Sung-jae, who rose to fame as a judge on Netflix’s ‘Culinary Class Wars’, is facing his biggest crisis after being swept up in the so-called ‘wine vintage swap’ controversy. Commentators point out that the crux of this affair lies more in the ‘speed of the response’ than in whether the incident occurred. For stars who live on public trust, the first hour after a controversy erupts is like a ‘golden time’, yet this time Chef An missed that timing.

■ The paradox of ‘perfection’… the ‘two weeks’ An Sung-jae missed

The incident began on April 18, when at the fine-dining restaurant ‘Mosu Seoul’ that he operates, a 2005 vintage wine was served instead of the 2000 vintage the customer had ordered. When the customer raised the issue, suspicions were added that the sommelier had swapped the bottle to show a different one, and the ‘mistake’ escalated into ‘deception’.

The problem was what followed. After the matter became public via online communities on April 21, an apology in the name of the restaurant came three days later, but Chef An Sung-jae’s own official position did not come until May 6, about two weeks later. In the meantime, sharp criticism from outsiders, including the wine YouTuber ‘Wine King’, continued, and Chef An’s image plummeted. In a belated apology he bowed, saying “It is all my responsibility”, but the label of ‘too little, too late’ had already stuck.

Especially, less than an hour after he posted the apology, he uploaded a late-night snack video to the YouTube channel he normally runs, and even his sincerity came under suspicion. Under his video, negative comments poured in such as “Say whatever, so what?”, “Release the CCTV”, “A three-star mentality”, and “Fire the sommelier”.

Chef An Sung-jae. Netflix screenshot

■ When silence poisons stars… the brutal cost of ‘lukewarm responses’

As in Chef An Sung-jae’s case, missing the initial response window and letting a situation spiral, or suffering damage to the point of being unable to recover, has repeatedly played out in the entertainment world. Influencer Freezia, who rose to stardom with Netflix’s ‘Solo Hell’, responded lukewarmly to a 2022 controversy over wearing counterfeit items by deleting related posts instead of offering a clear explanation. That triggered a ‘full audit’ by online sleuths, and in the end her past was dissected in full. She issued a handwritten apology and announced a hiatus, but the price of that brief silence was severe.

The crisis that began for Seo Ye-ji in 2021 with allegations that she gaslit fellow actor Kim Jung-hyun snowballed into catastrophe because her agency’s statement was late and unclear. While her own direct clarification was delayed, allegations of falsified academic credentials and abuse of staff surfaced one after another, expanding the issue from a mere private-life controversy into one that provoked social outrage. Missing the golden time ultimately led to numerous ad penalty payments and a prolonged hiatus.

■ Risk management in the age of social media: ‘transparency’ is the only alternative

There was a time in show business when ‘self-reflection’ and ‘silence’ were treated as virtues. But in the social media era, where information travels faster than light, silence can no longer be a strategy. The public watches not to condemn a star’s mistake itself, but to see ‘how they take responsibility’ for it. In fact, after swift action and acknowledgment, public forgiveness tends to come more easily.

Had Chef An Sung-jae himself spoken directly at the outset, he could likely have blunted much of the sniping by YouTubers and the backlash of public opinion. In the end, for stars who wield image power, the strongest shield is not ornate excuses but honest and swift feedback delivered within the golden time. In today’s world there is no ‘later’. Only the sincerity of ‘right now’ can power the rebuilding of a shattered image.