The essay <What It Means to Cook> by Chef Choi Kang-rok. Courtesy of Cl

The essay by Chef Choi Kang-rok, who won Season 2 of Netflix <Black-and-White Chef: Culinary Class War>, showed a sharp rise in the bestseller rankings.

According to the third-week-of-January bestseller rankings released by Kyobo Bookstore on the 23rd, Choi Kang-rok’s <What It Means to Cook> rose by 82 places from last week to No. 18 overall. Given that the book was published in June last year, the jump is remarkable. The success of <Black-and-White Chef 2>, which ranked No. 1 among Netflix non-English shows, appears to have driven the rise.

By gender, male buyers (51.4%) outnumbered female buyers (48.6%). By age, people in their 30s (44.1%) and 20s (23.2%) were the main purchasers.

The No. 1 title in the cooking category was also <Choi Kang-rok Cooking Notes>. Books by other chefs who participated in the Black-and-White Chef series, such as <Temple Cuisine by Venerable Seonjae> and <Superpan Woo Jung-uk Recipes>, also drew renewed attention.

As the KOSPI index surpassed the 5,000 mark for the first time on the 22nd, investment and economics books also attracted reader interest. The Equation of Money by Morgan Housel entered at No. 2 upon publication. <Investing for Progress> (No. 5), <Minimal Economics to Survive in the Age of Capitalism> (No. 8), <Trend-Following Investment Completed with a Single Candlestick Chart> (No. 9), and <Trend Korea 2026> (No. 10) also made the top 10.

The novel <Goethe Said Everything> by Japanese author Yui Suzuki took the No. 1 spot overall for a second straight week. The book drew attention after becoming known as a recommendation by film critic Lee Dong-jin.