Tastefully Yours: Episodes 7-8 » Dramabeans

KDramaHQ AdminJune 5, 2025

Tastefully Yours: Episodes 7-8

by Unit

The penultimate week of our tasteful show proves that the probability of a drama’s backstory overshadowing its main plot is low, but it is never zero. Thankfully, the overly extended cameo is finally over, and we can return to regular programming.

EPISODES 7-8

Yeon-joo still doesn’t know what to cook for her mentor, Chef TATSUO (Kim In-woo), so Beom-woo brings her to a ramen shop to lift her mood. Yeon-joo notes the uniqueness of the ramen, and she learns that Tatsuo and the ramen chef experimented a lot with the recipe, but they couldn’t achieve the specific taste Tatsuo was looking for. As it turns out, Tatsuo was seeking a taste of Yeon-joo’s ramen — which was the first staff meal she made as a rookie at Le Murir. The takeaway of this discovery, as Beom-woo points out, is that Yeon-joo now knows what to cook for Tatsuo. And she rewards his suggestion with a kiss!

Min assists Yeon-joo with the cooking, and Beom-woo does his best to be a third wheel. Heh. They bring the ramen to Tatsuo, and he eats with gusto for the first time in a long time. The long-lost taste reminds him about Yeon-joo and he snaps back to lucidity. He apologizes for not standing up for her after the incident with the rating inspectors, and their tearful mentor-mentee reunion makes me tear up as well. Then Min ruins the moment with his “Chef, there’s something I have to tell you.” Dude, you are not the main character in this story. Stop inserting yourself into the poignant moments. Ugh!

After a closed-door conversation with Tatsuo, Min informs the Le Murir employees that he is now the new chef-owner of the restaurant. Yeon-joo immediately calls him out when she discovers he has been trashing Tatsuo’s medication to worsen his condition in order to speed up the M&A with Hansang. Min’s gaslighting ass comes up with some BS excuses that don’t fly with Yeon-joo, and he eventually tells her the merger is a done deal regardless. But guess who cut a deal with Chairwoman Han to get reinstated as a director in order to nix the merger? That’s right, Beom-woo did. I love how he patiently waited for Mr. Scheming to be done with his BS before revealing the plot twist. But I don’t love the chairwoman’s ominous “You owe me for your reinstatement” text message to Beom-woo.

Moving on, Min apologizes to Tatsuo who forgives him — because Min supposedly loves Le Murir and everything he did was to save the failing restaurant — and I can’t even. If Show wanted to redeem Min so badly, he might as well just have come clean with Tatsuo about Yeon-joo taking responsibility for his mistake. Instead, everyone is crying and distributing “I’m sorry” out like candy, and I’m just rolling my eyes because, really? This is what we wasted 3/10 episodes on? Sure, Yeon-joo finally gets closure on her life in Japan. But I promise you, this entire plotline would have been better off as a mini standalone drama. Thanks-but-no-thanksly Yours.

While the cats are away in Japan, the mice are on a scavenger hunt in Korea. Long story short, Young-hye and Yoo-jin steal Yeon-joo’s recipe book! Sigh. From starving a sick man of his medication in order to steal his restaurant, to breaking into a restaurant at night to steal their recipes. Criminals are roaming too freely on these Thievingly Yours streets, and I don’t like it. I don’t even want to start with our OG criminal, Beom-woo, who graduated from recipe thefts to kidnap and confinement in order to — ironically — prevent Yoo-jin from stealing Yeon-joo’s recipe.

Beom-woo discovers the theft when he and Yeon-joo return to Korea, and he rushes back to Seoul to retrieve the book before Yeon-joo finds out. But by the time he arrives at Motto, Young-hye has already dazzled the rating inspectors with Yeon-joo’s seopsanjeok. Young-hye all but tells Beom-woo that his character growth is his personal business when he scolds her for stealing the recipe. After all, she is just following in his footsteps. She also tells him to wrap things up at Jungjae and return to Motto to await their three stars. But for all the noise about these Diamant stars, I doubt the objectivity of the ratings if restaurants can easily identify the inspectors and specially prepare for their “secret” inspections.

Beom-woo returns to Jeonju with the recipe book and a guilty conscience — which intensifies after he learns that Jungjae’s arsonist is the owner of a restaurant that went out of business after he acquired it. Ah! I did not see this coming. But Mr. Scorned Ex-restaurateur, though. Why did an innocent restaurant have to pay for Beom-woo’s sins? Sigh. To worsen matters, Chairwoman Han has been keeping tabs on Beom-woo, and she tells him Hansang will handle the arsonist. In the meantime, she needs him to put Jungjae out of business because word on the street is that the inspectors liked Motto’s menu, and Motto does not share menus with any other restaurant.

Beom-woo decides to come clean to Yeon-joo — but she announces a templestay vacation for her employees, and Beom-woo holds off on telling her the truth. Yeon-joo tells Beom-woo she brought him to the temple to introduce him to the monks who raised her, and the sincerity behind her gesture further thrusts Beom-woo into misery. Next thing you know, he’s texting to inform Sun-woo that he’s not returning to Motto, and he’s dropping out of the Hansang succession race. Aw. Not Mr. Disney princess giving up his inheritance because of love.

Immediately after the vacation, Beom-woo gives Yeon-joo the “You changed me and made me become a better man,” speech. He then says he has something to tell her, and she throws her hand around his neck and kisses him. Girl, I know you think he was gearing up for a romantic confession, but you should have let him finish. And dude, those precious seconds you spent kissing her back should have been utilized to complete your sentence. Gosh, I’m so stressed!

My stress level rises when Sun-woo arrives to drag the cat out of the bag because Motto has officially been granted the coveted three stars, and he assumes Beom-woo’s “I’m dropping out of the succession race” is a lie. “Your seopsanjeok recipe got Motto the three stars,” a petty Sun-woo informs Yeon-joo, and our chef is left in a puddle of heartbreak.

I knew this day would come, but it still hurts. Not Yeon-joo getting betrayed again after she opened her heart to another man. This is why people have trust issues! I wish I could sympathize with Beom-woo, but he made his bed. Okay, damn that devastated look on his face because now a part of me feels bad for him. Anyway, the onus is on him to redeem himself in Yeon-joo’s eyes in our final week — and hopefully, the drama won’t spend all its final moments on the angst because we need cute, fun, and romantic moments to wrap up the show.