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“‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” Limited Series EP 1: “Course No. 1 Gochujang Butter Bibimbap”

Run Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Rating: 13+

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Period Pieces

Subtitle Availability: English (CC), English, Filipino, Korean (CC), Korean.

Audio Availability: Korean [Original], English, Japanese

Warnings: Contains violence and profanity

*SPOILER ALERT! This section contains details from the first episode of “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.”

Following the success of the popular romantic drama, “King the Land,” Im Yoon-Ah (a.k.a. Yoona) returns to grace our screens with another romcom — this time serving a ‘king’ in the Joseon era.

The Girls’ Generation member stars alongside Lee Chae-Min (“Heirarchy”) in “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” a romantic historical fantasy K-Drama about a South Korean French cuisine chef who time-slips to the past and encounters a Joseon king, renowned as both the best gourmet and the worst tyrant.

This series was adapted from the web novel, “Surviving as the Tyrant’s Chef,” by Park Kook-Jae and directed by Jang Tae-Yoo, who is celebrated for his visionary storytelling in K-Drama classics like “My Love from the Star” and “Lovers of the Red Sky.” The time-travel series blends romance, comedy, and political intrigue as Yoona’s character, Yeon Ji-Yeong, navigates a life as a chief royal cook, serving both delicious and unique dishes to satisfy a king with a discerning palate.

Now in its third week since premiering earlier this month, the show has climbed to the Netflix Top 10 in 73 countries, even claiming the top spot in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. With over 58,500,000 viewing hours to date, it’s clear that this ongoing series has struck a chord with audiences worldwide. But does it truly stand out in the crowded field of time-travel K-Dramas? And is it worth adding to your watchlists? Let’s find out in this Screen Test.

A Recipe for An Isekai Crowd-Pleaser

The first scene showed Yeon Ji-Yeong being taken to King Yi-Heon, where his court pleaded for her to be sentenced to death, only to be appointed as the chief royal cook instead. We are then taken to a flash-forward scene, as Ji-Yeong explains how she got into that situation in the first place. We learned that she’s a French cuisine chef at the height of her career in the present, and has just won a prestigious culinary competition that named her the Head Chef at a 3-Michelin-starred restaurant.

During the competition, we saw Ji-Yeong as an ingenious and resourceful chef when she made a makeshift stove out of straw and rice when her stove stopped working in the last five minutes of the competition. This scene provided the perfect foundation for how the character’s skills would be used in her time in Joseon.

After the competition, Ji-Yeong shared the good news with her father, who also told her about a book that was sent by his professor friend in Paris. The chef receives the package and gets on a plane to South Korea, where the time slip happens. After a passenger accidentally spills his drink on her bag, she immediately takes the book to the toilet to examine it for damage. She realizes then that it was a cookbook, and reads an inscription on the back where the writer asked his loved one to come back to him.

In true Isekai (“Otherworld” – a genre that involves the protagonist being transported to a different world or time) fashion, a solar eclipse was also happening outside, and as she read those words aloud, it set off the magic that sucked her into the pages of the book, whisking her back in time and into an animal trap in the middle of the forest! While struggling to make sense of her surroundings, King Yi-Heon rides into the scene and almost shoots her with his arrow mid-hunt.

The series had an exceptional start, giving us a mid-conflict hook before winding back to show a brief backstory. Not only did it explain how she got there, but it also highlighted her exemplary skills that made the king appoint her as the chief cook. It was brief, but packed, and the pacing was just right.

All was well until King Yi-Heon and Ji-Yeong met, which we felt ran a bit too long, filled with unnecessary banter that made the king look a lot less intimidating than he was initially introduced to be. If he were truly a terrifying tyrant, he would’ve cut her down the moment she disrespected him, but instead, he played along with her antics, like a predator toying with her prey until he—quite literally—had her cornered on the edge of a cliff. Lee Chae-Min might have lacked the sinister look of a ruthless tyrant with his youthful good looks, but he managed to deliver with his acting and gave his character a unique personality.

The succeeding scenes went on like this, with Ji-Yeong convinced that Yi-Heon is some kind of actor in costume, and the latter convinced that she’s crazy. 70% of the entire episode was spent on them having an argument, dragging the episode out. However, their miscommunication due to era-specific language differences was comedic, and it did give us a lot of time to appreciate their on-screen chemistry. Despite that ten-year gap between the main actors, the chemistry was off the charts—and we’ve only ever seen them arguing in this episode. The cookbook’s inscription from the earlier scene may be hinting at a Soul Tie kind of relationship, so we’re looking forward to having their love story unfold.

In between the banter scenes, we were also introduced to some of the key figures in the palace and some of the king’s important policies, such as the “chaehon,” which takes women from all over the country to the palace. The reason was yet to be explained.

The episode takes a better turn when the duo comes across an empty house, and Ji-Yeong finds some clothes to change into, leaving a tied-up and injured king outside. There she met a girl, a maid named Seo Gil-Geum (Yoon Seo-Ah), who turned out to be hiding from the chaehon. In exchange for the clothes she took, Ji-Yeong offers to cook them a meal.

This was when things got interesting as we got to see the chef’s resourcefulness and skills, working with the ingredients and materials available to her at the moment. Despite working with materials from that era, Ji-Yeong was still able to make a delicious Bibimbap, a classic Korean dish made up of rice, vegetables, meat, and eggs. But you might be wondering — where did she get the butter and gochujang paste, the main condiment that gives it that signature spicy flavor and red color, when it hadn’t been invented yet at that time? Luckily, she always had a tube of gochujang on hand, which was in the pocket of her modern clothes, and the butter was from the plane’s food tray she had kept for later. Our Chef Ji-Yeong is always thinking ahead!

The process of her cooking the dish was what made this episode take off. The shots and sequences were similar to those of a cooking competition show, like “Culinary Class Wars” or "Master Chef.” We enjoyed watching her transform the ingredients into a delightful meal. Actress Yoon-Ah shared how she did an intensive cooking training for the role, and had chef advisors on set. Additionally, all the meals prepared in the drama were researched by experts on Joseon cuisine, so you can be sure that the dishes she made and the ingredients she worked with were in existence at that time.

The food gets some mouth-watering sequences too, with Ji-Yeong explaining the dish and even the history behind it, just like how she did in the earlier scene when she cooked a venison steak dish from King Yi Heon’s reign at the French cooking show. This was a clever foreshadowing implanted at the start of the episode, as now she got to face the king himself and have him taste her dish.

As expected, her bibimbap was a hit and even brought tears to the king’s eyes as the taste — and Ji-Yeong’s warm presence — made him remember his late mother. Afterwards, the chef leaves with Gil-Geum to search for her bag, which the king’s arrow had shot and sent flying off the cliff earlier in the episode. While they’re gone, the king’s men finally find Yi-Heon, and he orders them to find Ji-Yeong and burn the house down, showing his ruthless side once more.

The episode ends with Ji-Yeong and Gil-Geum being found by the cavalry by the stream.

Final Verdict

Upbeat, historically accurate, and comedic, “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” is as entertaining as any K-Drama would be. It has an interesting premise and strategically planted clues that foreshadow political intrigue and a timeless romance between a humble chef and a tyrant ruler. Although the romance aspect of it is nothing new, with several historical K-Dramas having the same premise of a strong-willed woman taming a beastly king, the cooking aspect of it might just be what gives the show its unique flavor.

Although a good chunk of this episode was wasted on Ji-Yeong and Yi-Heon finding their way back, dragging the episode longer, we still think it’s a promising start to the series, one where you can learn more about traditional dishes and inventive ways to transform ingredients.

With its stunning cast, captivating setting, and a concise 12-episode run, this series is poised to be your next foodie obsession. We expect even more mouthwatering dishes as the story develops, so go ahead and hit “Next Episode.”

Watch “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” on Netflix today.

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Enjoyed this article? Read more of our Screen Test reviews here.