Country: South Korea
Year: Jan- Mar 2010
I wanted to watch this drama because of Lee Sun Kyun, loved him in Coffee Prince and My Wife's having an affair this week. When I discovered that my local cable TV was airing this show, I was so happy! My ex-colleague also said that it was a nice drama.
So, what's this drama about?
Seo Yoo Gyeong has been working as a kitchen assistant for three years at the La Sfera restaurant, a fine dining restaurant which specialises in pasta/ Italian food. One day, she was finally promoted to be a cook but her joy was short lived. The Italian chef was fired and a new chef took over.
This new chef is Chef Choi Hyun Wook, a famous chef who was trained in Italy previously. When he took charge of the kitchen, he fired all the female chefs because he did not want any women in his kitchen.
Seo Yoo Gyeong had met Chef Choi earlier while in the streets when someone knocked into her while crossing the road. Her packet of live goldfish fell onto the ground. She was panicking and Chef Choi happened to pass by at that time. He helped her to save the goldfish and there were some brief exchange of flirtation between them. Chef Choi asked about La Sfera and Seo Yoo Gyeong thought he was the new kitchen assistant to replace her.
But to her horror the next day he came in as the new Chef of La Sfera. Shocked and frustrated, Seo Yoo Gyeong refused to leave the restaurant and hung on for dear life. The rest of the story goes on with how she tries to survive in Chef Choi's kitchen and also her romance with him.
Overall thoughts
I expected to be blown away with mouth watering pasta dishes in the likes of Let's Eat drama series. However, the food that was presented in this drama did not spark any hunger pangs at all. The portion of the pasta was soooo minute...(Yes, micro gastronomy... Fine dining...Duh!) that I could finish it in three bites. (-_-") No kidding!
Best parts of the drama?
The Italy boys of course! XD Chef Choi brought his team of chefs from Italy after firing all the female chefs. I must say they are eye candy for the whole series! And yes, they were the only reason I continued watching this drama... ;P
The part where Chef made them take off their clothes in the freezing winter cold! No, we aren't complaining! ;DD
Of course, my favourite of the three... Philip! Well, actually the curly hair guy is kinda cute too.. ;P
The kitchen and La Sfera restaurant interior is pretty neat...
I did like Chef Choi's kitchen in his apartment...
Mini Coopers! La Sfera's owner, Mr Kim San drives one... The part where he meets Chef Choi in the car park. Actually Chef is driving a BMW X5 which is much more impressive imo, but at the end of the series he changed it into a cooper as well...
Notable scenes:
I guess this is essentially a romantic drama so there are a lot of couple scenes between Seo Yoo Gyeong and Chef Choi. So much that I kinda found it ugh.... Sorry but not sorry! ;D
Second lead syndrome! Yes totally... I wished she would end up with Mr Kim San... but she never even gave him a chance at all right from the start. The fact that she is so dumb not to realise that he is the cactus man... *rolls eyes*
Special Mention
I don't know if you noticed this character while watching this drama... He is one of the waiters in the hall named Nemo. He was a quiet, hardworking character and he somehow struck out to me from the first episode. I kinda thought he would be Seo Yoo Gyeong's best friend or something but it was never explored in that direction.
Conclusion
After all the bickering and fighting in and out of the kitchen, the story ends with a happy ending. The local chefs won the New Chef competition and are heading to Italy for training. Meanwhile, the fired female chefs were re-hired by Mr Kim San to fill in the empty vacancies.
Seo Yoo Gyeong and Chef Choi will continue working in La Sfera and live happily ever after... I think?! ;P I just didn't get that part, she was supposed to go to Italy but then her slot was given back to the injured cook. They just showed the part where Chef Choi and that cook having the conversation and Chef said he will break the news to Seo Yoo Gyeong. What??!! :O
In all, it was just a meh drama for me. Considering it's a drama made 7 years ago... I'm just wondering was everyone really watching this back then?! Was it really that nice?! Hahahah!! I started watching because of the lead guy, but in the end I found myself disliking his character so much!! He was like a screaming Gordon Ramsay all the while and his behaviour to Seo Yoo Gyeong is very much like a typical male chauvinist...
Meanwhile Seo Yeo Gyeong was like a total bimbo... Sorry, I had to use that word. I guess her character is someone who is really simple minded and very naive to the point that it annoyed me. But yeah, both leads did act very well and portrayed their respective characters on point.
That's all for now. I'll leave you with more pics of Philip! ;D
