Joseon Chefs (2023)
Genre: Food, Historical, Friendship
Plot:
It tells the story of nobleman Kim Yu, a real person in the Joseon Dynasty who wrote the recipe book “Suunjapbang.” In his third year of taking the national civil service exam, Kim Yu meets Gye Am, who calls himself the best chef in Joseon and starts searching for the life he really wants as he gets immersed into the world of gastronomy.
Cast & Crew:
Yoon San Ha as Kim Yu
Kim Kang Min as Gye Am
Supporting Cast - Baek Sung Hyun, Kang Shin Il, Won Geun Hee, Jo Jae Yoon, Lee Tae Sung
Director - Choi Yeon Soo
Screen Writer - Kim Ik Hyun, Jo Soo Yeong
Music:
No tracks of note, but the background music is well chosen and sets the tone of the drama well.
Overall:
In a hurry to finish my drama challenge for the year off with a quick historical drama I picked this up after spotting it on someone else’s challenge list. A fictionalised take on the creator of Korea’s 2134th treasure, the recipe book Suunjapbang. When I spotted it I thought, I might have found the perfect drama for me.
[Sidenote: I love how Korea categorises and numbers off various items as national treasures and now refer to my favourite belongings as treasures also.]
While watching I couldn’t help but think this drama special has a lot of themes that are still common in the modern day and we could easily transplant noble man Yu into a modern chaebol family and see him disappointing the family by failing to get into a SKY university instead.
At times the drama special didn’t feel like it was completely faithful to the time period but I tried to ignore those little niggles and fully immerse myself in the story.
I enjoyed the story of Yu, who slowly realised over the period of the drama the pleasure that a good meal can bring to all people and wanting to make that his life's work. Alongside that the path from enemies to lovers friends of our two male leads was enjoyable to watch. There were some great comedic moments between the two, especially at the beginning of the drama when they were antagonising one another. The two actors did a reasonable job bringing their characters to life.
Some of the scenes were really visually appealing, I had to stop and appreciate them fully. I’m not even talking about the food porn scenes here, but the nature ones!
Overall, the tone of the drama was light-hearted and it was an easy watch. At times it was sentimental and made me a little emotional. I really liked the message of the drama about finding one's own path but I think it just needed a little more oomph to really capture my heart.
Rating: 7/10
Watch it: KOCOWA
Trailer: KBS Drama YouTube










