Reviewed by Alicia Glass 

Rising star chef Yeon Ji-Yeong finds herself cast back in time to the Korean Joseon period, where she is stuck creating fancy cooked dishes for a tyrannical King with the palate of a gourmand. 

Any true artist wants to create art just for the sake of it, while the chefs and cooks of the world have the much harder task of creating ephemeral, in the form of edible, art that is often subject to the harsh critiques of others. Paintings and music and plays and such are wonderful and the world would be considerably less rich without them, but food is something every human requires pretty much on a daily basis, and to try and turn food into art is a monumental task that humanity has strived for throughout history. This is the task Yeon-Ji faces when she gets transported back to Joseon times and falls in with the tyrant King. Make sure your gochujang paste is all packed, and let’s dive into this! 

So being a female chef in what has long been a male-dominated industry, even on the rise as Yeon Yeong-Ji (Im Yoon-Ah) is, has never been easy. Moreso, since Yeon-Ji is a Korean woman who happens to specialize in French cuisine, but with irrepressible pride and a desire to do justice to the food of her homeland and the father that always believed in her. After winning a coveted cooking competition and being gifted what appears to be an ancient Korean cookbook called Mangunrok from her father, Yeon-Ji finds herself fielding weird magical turbulence on a plane and next thing she knows, it’s not a movie set and a bunch of method actors, no, we’re actually here in Joseon-era Korea. 

The man Yeon-Ji saves from his terrible arrow wound is arrogant beyond belief and insists that he is the eras King known as Li Heon (Lee Chae-Min), whom Yeon-Ji remembers from a terrible period in Korea’s past, complete with a murderous tyrant King who caused an entire purge of the nobility and faced a bloody uprising as a result of it. But King Li Heon is also known for being a huge foodie would-be gourmand with a very sensitive palette and a standard for cooking that would make Gordon Ramsay pause. So in order to save her own life and the life of the dog-nosed Gil-geum (Yoon Seo-Ah), a peasant woman whose hanbok (traditional Korean dress) she borrowed who now follows as her cheerful assistant, Yeon-Ji has to convince Li Heon of her cooking prowess, but quick! 

You’d think finally being labeled the Chief Royal Cook (and also hilariously a gwinyeo, a female spirit demon) would earn Yeon-Ji some kind of respect, as she invades the royal kitchens to prepare for the Kings fancy daily meals. Nothing could be further from the truth, as Yeon-Ji is regarded with suspicion by everyone – the royal cooks, all men who can’t believe a woman has been chosen to lead them; the various plotting royal family members who each either want to use Yeon-Ji somehow or just see her dead, especially Royal Consort Kang (Kang Han-na); even still the King himself, with his wicked sense of humor, inflated ego concerning everything, and semi-constant death threats if his sky-high standards are not met perfectly. 

As with most feudal-era Asian kingdoms, there is plenty of strife and lies to go around in King Li Heon’s world. Burdened with trauma from his beloved mothers horrific death when he was a child, consumed by rooting out corrupted officials in his Kingdom, the King occasionally indulges in fits of rage that terrorize his servants and set his royal family members to consider replacement by any means necessary. The Dowager Queen (Seo Yi-Sook) tries to keep the peace among the womens chambers while holding many secrets, the most volatile of which is what really happened to the Kings beloved deceased mother; Prince Jesan (Choi Gwi-hwa) has carefully cultivated a mask of imbecility for the Court, while organizing a political coup in the background; even First Consort Kang has her own reasons for plotting against Yeon-Ji, and ultimately against the King himself. It’s a good thing the head Eunuch, Chang Seon (Jang Gwang), is actually a good person and willing to help Yeon-Ji. 

Even after at least initially proving her worth to the King and getting named Chief Royal Cook, Yeon Ji still faces an uphill battle with the entire Joseon court and even outsiders – who knew food for Royals would get so political? First up is a cooking contest ordered by the Dowager Queen, where the stakes are enough that Yeon-Ji and her competitors stand to lose an entire arm, much less position as head of the Royal kitchens, and all in the name of what being filial means; then comes a very high-stakes cooking competition against the Chinese chefs who came with the Envoy Yu Gun (Kim Hyung Mook), where it turns out not only do the “gifts” turned into trade licenses hang in the balance, but the prestige of both countries; and of course the big grand banquet for the Grand Dowagers birthday, where nothing less would do but for Prince Jesan to plan an explosive uprising right in the middle of it. 

Each competition Yeon-Ji finds herself thrust into has the flash and limelight of everyones favorite shows like Iron Chef and an international Masterchef, where Yeon-Ji demonstrates a wide variety of techniques and skills, using traditional Korean ingredients and flavors, with pride and love. The competition against the Ming cooks Tang Bai Long (Jo Jae Yoon), Kong Wen (Park In Soo), and Yai Fei Xiu (Seung You), in particular, where Yeon-Ji and the Royal kitchen staff spend precious days making gochujang, a very traditional Korean staple, only to have it stolen at the last moment and have to pivot to something else, showcases the versatility and the eternal resourcefulness of the Joseon and Korean people especially when it comes to cooking. 

Of course, intertwined around all this political intrigue, infighting, and food with a flair, there is a tiny little burgeoning plant of a love story, between an arrogant and very lonely King, and an entirely misplaced but eternally proud Korean chef. Yeon-Ji tries to tell anyone who will listen that she’s from the future and very much needs to go back there, but the heart of the Joseon tyrant King of history could use some healing, his Court could use some rearranging, and our feisty little chef is the very woman to shake everything up! 

Discover a twist on the modern and the classical, a handful of the international, a cup of love and a sprinkling of laughter, all to make the perfect recipe for an adorable little fantasy K-drama in Bon Appetite, Your Majesty, on Netflix now!