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Pierce Conran

This article contains spoilers.
3/5 stars
Lead cast: Go Min-si, Kang Ha-neul, Kim Shin-rok, Yoo Soo-bin
Latest Nielsen rating: 3.8 per cent
Tastefully Yours, a delectable food-themed romcom about a big city restaurant entrepreneur (Kang Ha-neul, Squid Game season 2) who connects with a small-town chef (Go Min-si, Sweet Home), foregrounds a curious paradox that exists at the heart of South Korea’s infamously competitive environment: its obsession with both authentic home-grown culture and aspirational high-class markers from the West.
On the one hand, you have the members of the Hansang restaurant conglomerate, including Han Beom-woo (Kang) and his brother Seon-woo (Bae Na-ra, Weak Hero Class 2), who each run their own fine-dining restaurant.
The two are bitter rivals who steal Western-influenced recipes in their quest to have the first Korean restaurant to achieve a three-star Diamant Guide rating – the show’s version of the Michelin Guide – and thus the recognition of their stern mother, Han Yeo-ul (Oh Min-ae, When Life Gives You Tangerines), who will not be happy until one of them earns Hansang this accolade.


On the other hand, you have Mo Yeon-joo (Go), who runs a quaint eatery in the city of Jeonju, where she sources local ingredients to make local dishes that speak to the heart.
After Beom-woo is fired and loses control of his restaurant thanks to a dastardly plot executed by Seon-woo, he invests in Yeon-joo’s restaurant in the hopes of stealing her recipes and creating something new for himself.
But he is slowly seduced by her country ways, her homestyle cooking and, of course, Yeon-joo herself. He discovers a new passion for what’s really important in life.
As this is a romcom, he has to suffer a little bit first when his initial scheme is revealed to Yeon-joo, forcing him to go away, regroup and return by sincerely demonstrating how he’s changed.

But the camps aren’t quite so black and white as the division makes them appear to be as there is plenty of crossover between the two.
Yeon-joo is a great chef because she worked under a celebrated Japanese chef at his French-style restaurant in Sapporo.
After a disappointing professional and personal experience there, involving her ex-boyfriend Jeon Min – played by Yoo Yeon-seok (Hospital Playlist) in an extended cameo – she has retreated to Jeonju to heal her wounds.
Yeo-ul finally gets her coveted three-star rating after some of Beom-woo’s former colleagues steal Yeon-joo’s recipes, as was the original plan.

In a Deus Ex Machina twist, Yeon-joo’s unknown restaurant also gets a three-star rating, despite not having had an official review. This happens because the head Diamant judge happens to visit during an engagement dinner at the restaurant as the father of the bride.
However, with Beom-woo and Yeon-joo at loggerheads after she finds out her recipes were stolen, Yeo-ul swoops in and buys the restaurant. Sensing a publicity opportunity, she pits the two three-star restaurants against each other in a televised competition.
Yeon-joo has yet to return from a Buddhist temple where she is gathering her thoughts, so Beom-woo and Yeon-joo’s colleagues Jin Myung-sook (Kim Shin-rok, Hellbound) and Shin Choon-seung (Yoo Soo-bin, Weak Hero) team up to prepare a French dish with a Korean twist.
Their rivals, led by ambitious chef Jang Young-hye (Hong Hwa-yeon, Buried Hearts), present a Korean dish with a French twist.

Fusion, the trend of mixing global cooking styles, is prominent in modern Korean cuisine. Yet fusion is also common in our daily lives in other respects. Being in any kind of relationship requires two people to find a way for their different personalities to coexist. When it works, you get friendship and romance.
This is also how you get a good romcom, through the compelling fusion of two personalities who initially don’t seem like they can coexist.
Yeon-joo’s restaurant gets the most votes, but Yeo-ul lies, announcing a tie and calling for a rematch. Though unfair, Yeon-joo, who has since returned, wizened from her Buddhist retreat, suggests she will cook a meal just for Yeo-ul.
The dish she chooses to prepare? A simple, home-cooked spread, the kind you would find on a Korean dining table at home, not at a fine-dining restaurant.

Recalling the Pixar classic Ratatouille and its severe critic’s change of heart, the humble meal, which Yeon-joo explains she “cooked from the heart”, reconnects Yeo-ul with her buried maternal instincts.
Though she pre-emptively conceded defeat, Yeon-joo wins in the end. Her restaurant survives and she and Beom-woo live happily ever after.
They get to keep their three-star rating, which they never sought out, gaining international recognition through an authentically Korean restaurant, in addition to Yeo-ul’s respect, all while staying true to the heart.
Though it’s not on the menu, they get to have their cake and eat it too.
Tastefully Yours is streaming on Netflix.


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Tastefully Yours might not be full of surprises but this Korean drama starring Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul has a warm message at its heart


Tastefully Yours might not be full of surprises but this Korean drama starring Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul has a warm message at its heart.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tastefully Yours might not be full of surprises but this Korean drama starring Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul has a warm message at its heart

Tastefully Yours might not be full of surprises but this Korean drama starring Go Min-si and Kang Ha-neul has a warm message at its heart