Tastefully Yours (2025) 당신의 맛
Directed by Park Dan-hee, starring Go Min-si as Mo Yeon-joo, Kang Ha-neul as Han Beom-woo, Kim Shin-rok as Jin Myeong-sook and Yoo Su-bin as Shin Choon-seung.
Watched 21 May - 11 June 2025 — 10 episodes (NETFLIX)
*Finished this rom-com series last Wednesday, with the latest episode being aired just the day before. The first four episodes had started promising but unfortunately the show didn't live up to its full potential. Though I enjoyed it, I didn't completely love it.
*Kang Ha-neul as Han Beom-woo is a calculated business man, but becomes quite endearing when he meets Mo Yeon-joo (played by Go Min-si). I like how much Beom-woo likes Mo Yeon-joo and how he often acts nervously around her, stammering and stuttering. I didn't like him all the time and occasionally he is annoying. And I definitely didn't like how badly he treated the arsonist in ep. 8, visiting him at his workplace. Beom-woo had put the man out of business, bought his restaurant, made it lose money so they could shut it down, and then took his recipes. I hated how Beom-woo was acting all high and mighty, reminding the man how he had received a fortune for selling the restaurant — mind you: unwillingly! Okay, burning down Yeon-joo's restaurant was a horrible thing to do, but still ... I didn't like Beom-woo's attitude. Fortunately we see Beom-woo making amends and setting up a new restaurant for the wronged man in the final episode.
*Beom-woo is going through a redemption phase, induced by his love for Mo Yeon-joo, but I wonder ... if he wouldn't have fallen for her, would he still be stealing recipes and shutting down restaurants? I understand it takes an inciting incident to start a redemption arc but to see Beom-woo so quickly transformed by his love for Yeon-joo is maybe not totally believable. It needed more build-up. After his dishonest intention's are being found out by Yeon-joo, we're mainly shown a miserable, devastated and remorseful Beom-woo. I did like this serious side of him, actually. When the other team members Jin Myeong-sook and Shin Choon-seung accepted him back and he stopped acting miserable and changed to his former self, it felt quite abrupt and I liked him less.
*Though I like the female lead character Yeon-joo (she's devoted to her cooking, stays true to her values, is practical and down-to-earth), she stays a bit aloof and isn't engaging on an emotional level. With her backstory being revealed, growing up at the monastery with the monks, her character doesn't really get more depth. She does break down in tears when she's hurt by Beom-woo's betrayal, but she never really makes her hurt palpable. In that respect Kang Ha-neul as Han Beom-woo does a better job in conveying his feelings. You really see a man in emotional pain.
*I like Kim Shin-rok as Jin Myeong-sook and Yoo Su-bin as Shin Choon-seung as part of the restaurant team, but at times they also annoyed me. Overall the team dynamics and the found-family vibe are the highlight of this show.
*Love the beautifully shot food scenes but there aren't enough of those, unfortunately.
*The episodes with Yeon-joo's ex-boyfriend (special guest appearance by Yoo Yeon-seok as Jeon Min) and the trip to Japan could have been shortened. It distracted from the main story, and as the series only has 10 episodes, it could have used some of that precious screen time to develop the main story better. Also, I had to suspend disbelief when the Japanese chef, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, tasted Yeon-joo's dish and all of a sudden could remember everything.
*I liked the pretty bitchy chef and Han Beom-woo's brother: Hong Hwa-yeon as Jang Young-hye (head chef of the fine dining restaurant Motto) and Bae Na-ra as Han Seon-woo (eldest son of Hansang and the head of La Lecel, another fine dining restaurant). Both initially not very likeable, they learn from their faults and turn to the good path. I had hoped for a romance between Young-hye and Seon-woo but that never happened. Instead Bae Yoo-ram as Lee Yu-jin, employee at Motto and Han Beom-woo's secretary, comes to work for Young-hye and maybe that will lead to something romantic.
*In ep. 10 we are shown a bit of the backstory of Beom-woo, told in a flashback, with his CEO mum being busy all the time, too busy to attend his granny's funeral, and also Lee Yu-jin of Motto telling Yeon-joo about Beom-woo's past. I would have actually preferred the backstory to be revealed in a talk between the main couple. They didn't have meaningful conversations and there's not a lot of depth to their relationship. The romance is just not well developed. I also didn't feel the love on Yeon-joo's side.
*The first part of the show is definitely the best part and it loses a bit of steam after the Japan episodes. I did like how in the end Yeon-joo cooked the home-made breakfast meal for Beom-woo's family, in the hope to reunite them. CEO mum, who is the main villain of our story, retains some of her mean streaks, but she also comes around a bit eventually.
*Lovely OST, by the way.