Dear Gossips,   

Let’s start today with something that, I think (?), we can still agree on: the love language of food. Culinary Class Wars was released exactly a year ago yesterday on Netflix and became one of the platform’s most popular non-English language shows, the first unscripted Korean series to break into the Top 10. 

 

Now, a year later, a scripted Korean limited series about cooking and food is taking over the timeline. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is a huge hit in Korea and with international audiences, rising to the top of the Netflix global chart for non-English programming, with media coverage in English language media, including the New York Times just this past weekend. 

 

I am obsessed with this show, to the point of anger. Because they only release two episodes every weekend and even though I put off watching it through TIFF, thinking that I’d be able to gradually get through it and always have a fresh episode in the bank, I mainlined it pretty much in one sitting and now have to wait. 

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is about a brilliant chef who wins a prestigious culinary competition in France but, on her flight home to Korea, during an eclipse, obviously, time slips back to the Joseon Dynasty in the 1500s during the rule of a tyrant king. Who happens to be a discerning gourmand. She basically has to cook for her life. But it’s a comedy and a romance, on multiple levels. Like, yes, because of course the chef and the king become close but, so far, the stronger romance is between the characters and the food. Food is the main event – the gathering of ingredients, where they come from, the most effective way to use them, how they’re prepared, but also what they mean. What food means. What certain dishes mean to different people. The care and attention that goes into a menu, for each individual, based on thoughtful consideration by our plucky heroine who isn’t just technically skilled, but also observant. 

 

This is true of the best chefs that I’m privileged to know personally, like Eva Chin, one of the most innovative chefs in Toronto. Eva’s work was featured in the New York Times Style Magazine late last year and a seat at her restaurant, Yan Dining Room, is the hardest reservation to get in the city. 

 

In Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, the chef is played by Yoona who started off as a member of the girl group Girls Generation and has now become one of the most successful K-drama actresses in the business. This is a career-best performance, she is delightful in the role, and it’s also a breakout for Lee Chae-min who plays the tyrant king. He’s the one who’s doing most of the eating…and foodgasming, LOL. The foodgasms are one of the reasons why the show is going so viral – our chef is so good at cooking, anyone who tastes her food is instantly transported. These scenes are a big part of what makes the show so funny. 

 

And now, of course, it’s a trend on social media. 

@thisisariworld

Drama overreacting tapi seru wkwk 😂 #bonappetityourmajesty #imyoona #kdrama #drakor #leechaemin

♬ suara asli - Ari Setiawan - Ari Setiawan
@adie_space

The edits are so extra 🔥#bonappetityourmajesty #kdrama #kdramalover #netflixseries #leechaemin

♬ original sound - aizelliaovaldez - aizelliaovaldez
 

This is a response to the show, but it’s about how the show has been able to illuminate how it feels, from the inside, when you taste something that blows your mind. Over eight episodes so far, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is nailing it when it comes to focus, keeping the focus on the food – not the palace intrigue, the scheming, or even the chemistry between the chef and the tyrant, but on the actual chemistry of food science. 

 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey 

Photo credits: Netflix

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