I have so many ideas after watching the first two episodes of Bon Appetit, Your Majesty. For all of us Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo fans, we may finally have something to quench our thirst. Now, this show doesn't have a main cast of about eight male leads, but it does have a K-pop idol as the female lead, playing a character who time-travels during the era of a tyrant known only for the harm he perpetrated. In that case, it was a makeup artist, but in this one, it's a Michelin-starred chef who finds herself cooking for a king known for being a gourmet.
On the other hand, there was Mr. Queen, in which a chef woke up one day in the body of a queen in the Joseon period. However, what I find most interesting is how these shows portray tyrants as misunderstood and suggest they've internalized trauma that contributed to their behavior. I don't even want to talk about the heartbreak that was Moon Lovers, but I sense a pattern, though since I know nothing about the Joseon period or these kings, I just watch the shows as pure entertainment, and that's what they are. That said, let's dive into the 160 minutes of the first two episodes.
Stars: Im Yoon-ah, Lee Chae-Min, Kang Han-na
Episode 1 of Bon Appetit, Your Majesty opens with a scene from the future, where Ji-Young appears before a king, who tells her she will be his chef from now on. Everyone is shocked to learn that a woman will be cooking for him, but she soon breaks the fourth wall to tell us how she ended up in this situation. The story begins with Ji-Young winning a culinary competition in Paris, making her one of the top chefs with 3 Michelin stars. This is because, when her kitchen doesn't work at the last minute, she uses a Joseon Dynasty technique to sear her steak, making her dish stand out.
She's thrilled to tell her father about it over the phone just as he's about to leave Paris to return home. Her father tells her she will witness a solar eclipse during the flight. During the flight, Ji-Young uses the tube of gochujang she carries in her bag to spice up her food. When the eclipse begins, there is an announcement, and the man next to her accidentally spills his hot coffee on her and the bag in which she is carrying a Joseon-period book for her father. She runs to the bathroom to clean up and reads a romantic verse about "returning to me," just as the eclipse is occurring. Suddenly, she spins and falls into a Joseon-period trap, but obviously doesn't know where she really is.
The king is out hunting, despite it being an unfavorable day (an eclipse at that time, by the way). He finds a fox and chases it, but the arrow springs Ji-Young's trap. She tries to flee when she realizes the man is going to keep shooting at her, but she is caught on a cliff. The king has been told that if he hurts the ancestors' feelings by skipping the rituals, he will be attacked by a "gwinyeo," or a female ghost. This is what Ji-Young imagines, but she's run out of arrows. Ji-Young manages to stay alive, but loses her purse on a branch near the edge of the cliff. They both stand on the edge as she tries to save herself from who she believes is an actor pretending to be a king.
However, suddenly, an arrow hits her in the chest and drags her over the cliff. She wakes up, but realizes she needs to stop the bleeding in her chest to save him. She does this by using Vaseline in her pocket. He wakes up and tries to stab her with a knife, thinking she's trying to kill him, even though she just saved his life. She manages to demonstrate her skill with a knife, calling him a "chef," before knocking him unconscious and tying him up. She drags him to look for a place to drink water, and they end up finding a house in the middle of nowhere. The king tells Ji-Young that no one should live in the forest; it's his hunting grounds, but she goes into the house and even takes some clothes because hers are wet and dirty from everything that happened.
A young woman named Gil-Geum is in the house, and when Ji-Young hears a noise coming from it, she goes to check. Gil-Geum tries to hit her with a broom, calling her a thief, but Ji-Young has had enough chaos for one day and is shocked to see someone else acting crazy, because she thinks it's the Joseon period. However, as she listens to Gil-Geum, she begins to realize that she might have traveled back in time. Gil-Geum is hungry, as is Ji-Young, so she promises to make her a good meal. As she gathers things to cook and looks at the utensils she has on hand, Ji-Young's fears become more apparent.
She decides to make a gochujang butter bibimbap with the exquisite ingredients Gil-Geum has gathered herself, then adds the butter she saved for later in her trench coat and the tube of gochujang. She wakes the king, who, of course, forces her to try it first, and she still doubts her intellectual capacity. She finds it delicious and takes a bite, but instantly becomes enraged because it's too spicy. The same happens to Gil-Geum, because they've never tasted anything like that before. But Gil-Geum says he wants to keep eating because it's delicious after the spiciness wears off. The king also relents, and when Ji-Young lifts her spoon to him (did they have spoons back then?), he remembers his mother feeding him and tears come to his eyes. The first episode ends with the soldiers finding the king and burning Gil-Geum's house down while the "traitors," i.e., the two women, rendezvous at the nearby river. Episode 2 begins with the two women being imprisoned.
They are soon brought before a group of women being singled out for their youth and beauty, to be inspected by Inspector Chaehong. This man is Im Sung-Jae, known as the treacherous subject of the future, who brought women to the king to manipulate him. Ji-Young knows a lot about history, especially as the daughter of a history professor. Ji-Young claims to be 27, so she is immediately saved, and Gil-Geum does the same, although she is actually 18. These women are taken into captivity again, while the others are taken away for inspection, but Ji-Young makes a deal for them when she learns that all the kitchen maids have escaped. Ji-Young tells the governor that she will prepare a fantastic dish for his guests if he promises to free these women. She tells him that his guests are not like the others and always make a fuss, no matter what they eat. She is ready for the challenge.
Ji-Young cooks the meat sous vide, using natural ingredients from the region for the side dishes. He's going to serve a Joseon-era steak. What he doesn't realize is that this will be insulting to anyone who sees his plate, because it's literally just cuts of meat. Im Sung-Jae doesn't even bother to taste the food before dismissing it as an insult. What's more, he tells the governor of Gyeonggi that he's taking his granddaughter to Chaehong. The governor draws his sword, but his son stops him from making a grave mistake.
He suggests they bring out the women who cooked the food and blame them for it. Ji-Young tells the men they should taste the food before discarding it. They'll enjoy the nature of the area with just a bite. This shocks Im and his father, but they lie, saying it's just boiled meat. The governor tastes it and reprimands Sung-Jae for lying, saying he just wants to take his granddaughter. But that's when the king shows up and asks to taste the food. He believes he'll only spare Ji-Young if it's better than the bibimbap from before. He's fascinated by meat, and he can taste everything that's been used to prepare the different ingredients.
There's also a joke about MSG. This is where things are revealed. It turns out that Yi Heon, the king, was a tyrant who carried out two bloody purges in his lifetime. It was because his mother was murdered, and he had a great affection for her. The series gives the impression that the whole Chaehong thing is specifically because of how much his mother's death affected him. This is his revenge against the governor, taking his granddaughter. Ultimately, Yi Heon wants this man to suffer for having contributed to his mother's death, so he wants him to live a life of suffering. He calls him a criminal who blasphemed his king.
We then see a sweet relationship between Sung-Jae and Yi Heon, which confused me a little. The former asks if he can take the king's place with the ladies, since the king isn't in the mood (oops!). On the other hand, Yi Heon decides to take Ji-Young and Gil-Geum back to the palace, but they manage to escape thanks to the governor's son keeping his promise to let them go if the food was up to par with the guests. The girls run to find Ji-Young's purse, as she realizes the book is her ticket back home, 500 years in the future, something she had told the king about.
He soon finds them, and she tells him she only needs the purse because the book will help her go back 500 years into the future. He uses the purse as leverage, because she says she'll do anything he wants as long as he gives it to her. Meanwhile, there's a strange story with the queen, Kang Mok-Ju, but I didn't quite understand it. Is she conversing with a ghost? Or is she a real person? I'm a little confused about what's going on. She's heard about the assassination attempt, but she knows the king is still alive. The "ghost" tells her she should captivate the king by mentioning his mother, thus sparking his curiosity about her.
At the end of episode 2 of "Bon Appetit, Your Majesty," Yi Heon returns to his wife and, very excited, tells her he wants to show her something. Ji-Young is immediately intimidated by the queen, who apparently had Yeonhuigun under her control and had caused all kinds of tyranny. The king doesn't even hesitate to grab Ji-Young by the chin and force her to face him in front of the queen, but he tells her that Ji-Young's purpose is not the same as that of the other women who are usually brought to the palace. He claims she will cling to him for dear life.
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