“Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” is a 2025 Korean drama series with 12 episodes, categorized as a romantic comedy (rom-com); streaming on Netflix. This k-drama was inspired by the web novel “Surviving as Yeonsan-gun’s Chef”.
- Memorable quote: “You saved your life with a spoon. Now feed the crown.”
SUMMARY: A gourmet chef wins a prestigious culinary award and catches a plane to return home to her father and celebrate her good fortune. On her way home, there was an eclipse and she ended up in the past during the Joseon Era and guess who’s king? A man known in Korean history as one of the worst tyrants ever! He became the tyrant’s chef. She’s got skills. Might as well use them to stay alive!
♦ Wait! How Did My Dream Come True Become a Nightmare?
“Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” begins in the future. Yeon Ji-Young is competing for a coveted culinary award. A chef who wins this award will be considered the “gold standard”, i.e., the chef that all other chefs, all around the world, want to emulate. Guess what? SHE WON! Can it get any better? Uuummm … well! Not sure. But it seems to have gotten worse. Or … maybe better? Definitely NEW! It’s a new experience. A new life in an old world, that she hopes to survive.
♦ OK! Let’s track back and figure this out.
First, Yeon Ji-young was on a plane. Then, there was a solar eclipse. Next thing she knew, she woke up, caught in a net and hanging from a tree. (O.o)
Chef Yeon Ji-young won Korea’s top culinary competition and was poised to take over as head chef in a Michelin-starred kitchen. She was offered work at a Michelin 3-star rated restaurant in Paris, France. Of course, she accepted. But she wanted to go home and celebrate with her father. He asked her to bring back a cookbook from the Joseon Era. He said his friend had mailed it to her. Yeon Ji-young checked her mailbox before leaving for the airport, and the book was there. She went to the airport, checked in her luggage, and boarded the plane with the book in her handbag. She planned to peruse it during the flight.
OK! So far, so good.
Her father had told her there was going to be a solar eclipse, and he was right. There was indeed a solar eclipse. While the solar eclipse was occurring, she got up to go to the restroom on the plane. The passenger seated next to her spilled a drink on her clothing and also on the cookbook. She knew the book was precious, so she went to the restroom to clean it up and somehow got locked in. When she opened the book, she read a message that was written inside and realized that it was a love note. Oh my! It wasn’t just a cookbook; it was about a romance. Just then, the plane was passing by the eclipse, and that’s where it gets confusing.
♦ Someone is Shooting Arrows at Me!
Yeon Ji-young remembers that she was locked inside the restroom on a plane, had her purse and the cookbook, then she started falling from the sky, and lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was trapped in a net, hanging from a tree, and somebody was shooting arrows at her. That “somebody” was King Yi Heon, a ruler known for his ruthless rule. On the plus side, he had a refined palate and knew great food when he tasted it.
At first, she thought she was on the set of a Korean drama, and the king thought she was a gwinyeo. (In western culture, she would be called a witch or an ogress.) Eventually, Yeon Ji-young realized that she had time-traveled and that the mysterious cookbook or the eclipse or both, sent her back to the Joseon Dynasty. She’s captured and used her cooking skills to please the king’s palate. He was so impressed he made her the chief royal cook.
That’s a great honor, especially considering that she’s a woman. A female chief royal cook in Joseon? That was unheard of. Whatever! She’s from the future where she is a 3-tar Michelin chef, and she needs to find her way back home. Back to the future! However, while she’s in Joseon, she must learn to navigate dirty and corrupt palace politics, deal with jealous concubines, and please the king with tasty dishes. She’s sort of like Scheherazade, only instead of entertaining the king with a new story every night, she prepares unique dishes for him to eat each day.
But wait! What if by her being there, she changes the past? Is it possible for her to change the course of Korea’s history? Even if it is possible, should she do it?
Main Characters:
- Chief Cook Yeon Ji-Young (played by Lim Yoon-A, “Exit”, “King the Land”, “Big Mouth”, “The King Loves”, “Prime Minister and I”, “The K2”)
- King Yi Heon (played by Lee Chae-Min, “Crushology 101”, “Hierarchy”, “See You in My 19th Life”, “Crash Course in Romance”, “Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow”
- Consort Kang Mok-Ju (played by Kang Han-Na)
- Grand Prince Jesan (played by Choi Gwi-Hwa)
Viewership and Rating:
- IMDb: 8.1 out of 10 stars
- My Drama List: 8.5 out of 10
- Common Sense Media: 4 out of 5 stars
My personal rating is the same as Common Sense Media.
“Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” is made for people who love to eat Korean cuisine and enjoy watching cooks or chefs prepare the dishes. As for the storyline? The scriptwriters stretched it, or rather, almost completely rewrote the history of a king who was supposedly a tyrant. But that’s easy to do when you use time travel and send someone back in time, especially a gourmet chef. Another plus is the king and the chief cook had great onscreen chemistry.
LINKS OF INTEREST:
“Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” Earns Highest Ratings Of Any tvN Drama In 2025 | Soompi
The Real History Behind ‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’ | TIME
Bon Appétit, Your Majesty: Netflix’s Latest K-Drama Hit | ScreenRant
TRAILERS/TEASERS:
@XabaraGaming. “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.” YouTube, Video, 12 Aug. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSxf9sKVtxM.
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