Tastefully Yours: Episodes 3-4 » Dramabeans
Tastefully Yours: Episodes 3-4
by Unit
Our not-so-chabeol might have left Seoul, but the people he left behind are not done with him yet. And speaking of the past, we get some breadcrumbs from our chef’s backstory. In the meantime, our Jungjae family adopts a new member, and the team join forces to rise above some external setbacks.
EPISODES 3-4
It turns out Beom-woo doesn’t need to lie his way out of Yeon-joo’s “why are you really here?” question, because she provides the answer by herself. Earlier on, Yeon-joo overheard Beom-woo’s phone rant about Young-hye leaving Motto for La Lecel, and she (Yeon-joo) misunderstood the situation to mean Beom-woo’s girlfriend leaving him for his brother. A whole makjang plot! Anyway, Yeon-joo assumes Beom-woo came to Jeonju to heal from the heartbreak, and she commiserates with him — despite his many attempts to tell her that she’s wrong about everything. Lol.
Moving on, a petty Choon-seung spreads a rumor around town that Jungjae is going under, and he also reports the restaurant for every health and safety violation he can think of. Yeon-joo tells Beom-woo to stay put while she handles the situation, but an equally petty Beom-woo reports Choon-seung’s restaurant for a violation. Things escalate as both sides sling mud at each other, and Jungjae ends up on the losing side — leading to a pissed off Yeon-joo, who scolds Beom-woo for participating in the reporting contest.
Jungjae’s sauce supplier suddenly becomes unreachable, and Yeon-joo sets out to visit him. Beom-woo is quite grumpy after Yeon-joo’s scolding, but Mr. This-is-none-of-my-business wakes up early to accompany her on the trip. Lol. The duo learn that the supplier hurt his back while prepping a new batch, and Yeon-joo takes it upon herself — and a very reluctant Beom-woo — to finish making the sauces. Yeon-joo gives Beom-woo a crash course in traditional sauces and how the flavors influence the taste of food, and he’s drawn to how pretty and delighted she looks as she eagerly chats away. Essentially, this trip is an avenue for him to further catch unplanned feelings for her.
Beom-woo snaps out of the romantic mood when they get a call that Jungjae’s kitchen is on fire. It looks like arson, but there are no CCTVs and the police investigation will take time. Myung-sook marches off to confront Choon-seung, but he denies it. Sure, his drunk ass was loitering the premises, and he remembers breaking in and playing around with a lighter. But he swears he doesn’t remember actually setting fire to the place. Beom-woo and Myung-sook want to report him to the police despite his pleas, but Yeon-joo decides to give him a chance. She tells him to get the kitchen up and running in three days, and he readily agrees to this.
Choon-seung tries his best to be Mr. Fix-it, but he’s pretty useless with his hands, and Myung-sook scolds him for his immature and lazy behavior. He counters that he also knows he’s good for nothing, but it’s not like he wanted to live like this. Apparently, he had dreams of his own, but his dad said to stop doing “pointless stuff” and focus on the family business — which Dad won’t even put him in charge of! “I wasn’t born just to inherit the gukbap restaurant,” Choon-seung cries. Beom-woo is affected by this, and it looks like he can relate to Choon-seung’s story about the family business cancelling out personal life goals. His statement about double majoring in architecture seems to support this theory as well.
DIY aside, our Jungjae squad still needs about five million won to renovate their kitchen. Luckily, there’s a food truck contest at an upcoming two-day festival with that exact amount as the winning prize. They’re able to submit their application before (okay, some seconds after) the deadline thanks to Choon-seung — and he’s so proud to finally be of help to Jungjae, that he quits smoking. But here’s the kicker: he doesn’t remember setting fire to the restaurant because the arsonist is actually someone else!
Back in Seoul, Chairwoman Han is not impressed with Young-hye’s touched up neobiani recipe, and she asks if Sun-woo intends to serve “this trash” as La Lecel’s signature dish. Ouch! The chairwoman tells him that she knows he set Beom-woo up for dismissal, and she reminds him that his brother is the type to get even with people who backstab him. This is basically a “get your act together” warning from the chairwoman, and Sun-woo immediately starts digging into Beom-woo’s activities in Jeonju.
Young-hye heads to Jeonju, and a panicked Beom-woo introduces her to — an indifferent — Yeon-joo as his ex-girlfriend. Yunno, before Young-hye spills the beans that he is a recipe thief who preys on restaurant owners. Heh. Young-hye is curious about Yeon-joo seeing how she makes Beom-woo all flustered, but her curiosity turns into a bruised ego when Beom-woo tells her Yeon-joo is a much better chef than she is. It’s bad enough that Young-hye overheard Chairwoman Han’s scathing critique of her dish. And now Beom-woo is saying a “country bumpkin” has better skills? Ha!
The food festival finally arrives, and Beom-woo is enthusiastic about making money from the food truck, as well as winning the prize money from the contest. Then he finds out Hansang Foods is a last-minute sponsor of the festival, and his enthusiasm takes a nosedive. Of course, this is Sun-woo’s attempt to stick it to his brother — and even worse, Young-hye insists on participating with a food truck from La Lecel to confirm if Yeon-joo is really the better chef. Smh.
The good news is, Sun-woo increases the prize money to ten million won. The bad news is, none of the festival attendees are stopping at Jungjae’s food truck. While planning their menu, Yeon-joo insisted on selling basic gimbap even when Beom-woo suggested they sell a fancier dish. Now that it’s all crickets around their truck, Beom-woo swings into action by ordering boxes of premium laver and beef. This is Mr. Experienced Marketer insisting that Ms. Chef needs to be a little flexible if she’s interested in selling out and winning the contest. Yeon-joo relents and goes from basic to fusion gimbap, and the customer response is overwhelmingly positive. At the end of day one, it’s Jungjae 1:0 La Lecel.
Young-hye vows to turn the tides on day two, but Sun-woo isn’t confident in his chef’s ability to win on her own. Ouch! He organizes a meet and greet with a popular trot singer to attract customers to La Lecel’s food truck, and Young-hye’s ego takes another hit. Pfft. But it’s one thing for your boss to not trust you, and it’s another thing for you to not trust yourself — to the extent of changing your menu to a similar one as the competition! Smh. For someone who complained Beom-woo was stifling her creativity by making her recreate recipes, Young-hye sure lacks originality when the occasion calls for it. Perhaps if she stops being so publicity-hungry and goes back to the drawing board, she might turn out to be a more decent chef than she currently is.
Beom-woo calls out the blatant cheating with the meet and greet strategy, and a scorned Young-hye expels her frustration with snide remarks at Yeon-joo. She rants about all the “nobodies” parading themselves around as chefs — and the whole time, she’s referring to our very own summa cum laude graduate from a prestigious culinary school in the U.S! Didn’t nobody teach this snob not to judge a chef by their country accent? Tsk. In all of this, Yeon-joo is unfazed because at the end of the day, her cooking skills will do all the talking.
Jungjae struggles to make sales no thanks to La Lecel’s meet and greet, and Choon-seung suggests pairing their gimbap with his self-made nonalcoholic traditional liquor. His teammates are hesitant to try the liquor — because, let’s face it, who wants to drink anything Choon-seung brewed? — but they’re blown away by the taste. Choon-seung actually has talent? Who would have thought. Lool. Jungjae goes back to selling regular gimbap after an influencer requests for it, and their sales pick up. Our resident rumormonger also goes around sharing his liquor for free, and telling everyone to vote for their gimbap because Beom-woo and Yeon-joo are expecting a baby and they need the prize money for baby formula. I absolutely cannot deal with Choon-seung! LMAO!
But despite Jungjae’s best effort, La Lecel ends up winning the contest. Aish! On the bright side, Jungjae gets four million won as second place winner, and that combined with the profit they made from sales is enough to repair their kitchen. An upset Choon-seung insists he counted the votes a minute before they closed, and Jungjae had the most votes. Beom-woo confronts Sun-woo for rigging the contest — and for the arson at Jungjae — but Sun-woo denies the accusation. And now that Beom-woo has lost to him twice, Sun-woo no longer sees his brother as a threat.
Young-hye comes to gloat over winning, and a still-pissed Beom-woo tells her to stop calling Yeon-joo a country bumpkin. Young-hye points out his feelings for Yeon-joo, and our hero stutters in denial before leaving. Young-hye might have “won,” but she can’t deny Yeon-joo’s skills when she sneaks a plate of Jungjae’s gimbap. In the meantime, an irritated Beom-woo wrestles with his feelings all the way back to the restaurant, and after Yeon-joo’s repeated probing, he explodes. “Apparently, it looks like I have a crush!” He spurts. “Have a crush on what?” Yeon-joo asks. “On you. I like you,” Beom-woo replies, before going in for a kiss. Whoa! Slow down, guys, we’re just two weeks in!
I’m really enjoying this show, and I love that Beom-woo has settled in nicely with the Jeonju folks. Sure, he hasn’t shelved his thieving plans yet, but he has genuinely begun to care about Jungjae and its people. My highlight of the week is the gimbap illustration of how Beom-woo and Yeon-joo’s different areas of expertise can be combined to achieve best results. Yeon-joo understands the palate, hence her insistence on selling regular gimbap because customers easily get tired of fusion — as proven by day two. But Beom-woo knows that customers are initially attracted by flashy visuals, and Jungjae would not have made its first day sales if they didn’t switch to the fusion gimbap. Beom-woo and Yeon-joo complement each other in the best of ways, and I can’t wait to see more of their partnership outside of the romance.
I’m also more curious than ever about Yeon-joo’s backstory. She schooled abroad and used to work at a fancy restaurant in the past, so why is she running a struggling restaurant in Jeonju? So many questions, I hope we get our answers soon. In the meantime, I’m loving the random blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos, and Kang Haneul’s many meme-able expressions. This man is having so much fun with his character, and I’m here for it!
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