Miss Culinary (2019)

Why you may want to watch this drama?

+Thai food is superior, and you get to see it being made!
+ Thai historical setting. maybe it's just me but I enjoy historical settings in Thai larkons.
+ The method of how the son's plot and the mum's plot and how the mother's story is narrated through the son is incredibly wonderful.
+ The Nice guy finally prevails!

What should you be cautious of?

+ The mother and the son are both fickle throughout the drama. The mother swings between two men, and the son swing between two girls. This can be annoying as hell. It almost ruined the show for me, and this is why I haven't given the show a 9.

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Just watched on Netflix. It wasn’t as annoying as some Thai dramas I’ve seen. I was however irritated with the FL seemingly going back and forth with her emotions. I did however enjoy the fact that she was not an emotional train wreck and that she was dedicated to being the best she could be in learn everything that he could. That said this one apart from so many dramas that I’ve seen from this country.
Series revolves around a female that leaves home and discovers a love of cooking. It also surrounds her love interest and how she chooses. Overall not bad, a pretty decent ending, but I felt a bit robbed. There’s no major drama, crazy ex girlfriend or psychotic people.

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Little Chef in the Big City ♨️ Don't Watch This Hungry °7° °VG°

Food is good stuff - we all love to eat it. Why do we love to watch it being prepared on TV? One reason is that it's comforting. Another is that it brings people together.

Taew is a small town girl from rural Thailand. We meet her through the words of her son. In order to distract his angry girlfriend, Kelli, who is about to leave him, he tells the story of how his mother left the countryside, came to Bangkok, and became a wildly successful chef in the 70's. MC is a 2019 release that is rated 7.4 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 13 50-minute episodes. It feels like a true story but a quick goog didn't provide any intel, so it's hard to verify either way.

Taew's first gig is as a maid. Initially, her boss seems harsh, but as she gets to know and trust Taew, she teaches her how to cook. The woman soon recognizes Taew’s great potential. She pushes Taew out of the nest, telling her that she's FIRED. She gives Taew a letter E r of recommendation for a job at a friend's restaurant. That doesn't work out; when Taew gets there the place is closed. The next few episodes find Taew hustling. Wherever Taew works, she steals - she steals recipes, techniques, and secrets. Her first real break is as a prep cook at Samran Kitchen. There she becomes like family with the rest of the staff. Pol and Jom work there and they will factor heavily in her life. “Do you remember me?” Jom actually helped her catch a bus when she first arrived in town, but that was more than a couple years ago. The beautiful Taew doesn't recall him, but he's never forgotten her.

Gybzy Wanida Termthanaporn (Bumbat Ruk Bum Roong Sook, Mae Lueak Kerd Dai) plays Taew. Her earthy voice is a pleasure to listen to. Jason Young (The Crown Princess, Eng and Chang, The Deadline) is Pol. Handsome and tall, he's a bit of a womanizer - More distant. More condescending. More reserved. He would be the choice in a romance novel. Louis Thanawin Teeraphosukarn (The Eclipse, Only Boo!) plays Jom. He's like a puppy dog - always there, always pawing over her, always helping. Taew has friendly affection for him, but it's platonic. He has an uphill climb if he wants to cultivate her feelings to grow into something more. Jom makes mistakes by sometimes behaving clingy, paranoid, and demanding. They both had some growing up to do. Director E Suphakorn Riansuwan also brought us Win 21 Ded Jai Tur and Something Family.

MC is nicely done and a pleasant watch. Taew's journey to Bangkok is jazzed up with cut-outs and hand-drawn animation. The shots of food, the cooking, and the glorious entrees are seriously appetizing - don't watch this hungry, you'll just torture yourself. It is strange how relaxing it can be to watch food being prepared and cooked on TV. The characters are developed well and they maintain interest throughout each episode. Taew never gives up. She keeps going forward. She's inspiring.

Like mother, like son: Mom had trouble deciding between two men and the son seems to be having the same struggle in deciding between two women. The sexualized modern-day characters that are sharing the story don't add much seasoning to the main dish - I didn't like Shane, the narrator, much in the beginning. After the initial episodes they focus more on the story, which has worthy themes. Sometimes nice guys finish first. Persevering together is the primary theme. Survival is the sub-theme: “Women like us often have to do the opposite of what we actually want to do. Because we can't bear any more pain,” we hear. That's worth chewing on.


〰QUOTE〰

There are times in life when you come to a fork in the road. You know the New Path is better. However you're not ready to take it because you haven't come to the end of the old one.


〰IMHO〰

RATINGS
Directing 7
Writing 6.8
Acting 7.5
Romance 5
Flutters 4
Art 7
Sound & music 6
Ending 7.4

LEVELS
Warmth 4.5
Action/ Excitement 3
Laughs 2
Tears 3
Fright 1
Tension/Anxiety 3
Gore 2
Thought provocation 4
Snores 0

Re-watch? This one's in the good-to-pass-the-time category, but I may never pass this way again….


Age 14+
Language: pr!ck, $h!+ - maybe one or twice each

This is no chaste Kdrama or Cdrama.
The FL offers to do a strip tease for the gods if they grant her prayers. She tells her boss she wants to propose something. Next thing she knows, he's naked. The guys telling the story is a womanizer. Frequently, there's shirtless guys,

In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:

♥️ -
C:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Wait, My Youth-8.4

Romance junkies only
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Meteor Garden-7.4 - 70% flowing 30% dragging and BOF is better,
Hidden Love-7.8

K:
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2; Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha-8.4,
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10; Love Struck in the City 7.3,
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9; ♡When the Camellia Blooms-8,
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;

Japanese lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5


Taiwan
Age of Rebellion-9.5
Autumn's Concerto-7.2
The Fierce Wife-8
Two Fathers-7.5

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Well, friends, the last thing I expected was to like a lakorn called 'Miss Culinary', starring Gybzy Wanida. I never liked her lakorn before, and I never liked her. As for Jason Young, I never as much as COUNTED him as an actor. As for the younger generation couple, I don't know. I don't like two-generation stories and I sure don't seek out period setting. And I don't care for COOKING the slightest! LOL. But, this was great. See, I say it all the time that it's not about what the lakorn is ABOUT:) However, it had a huge flaw, not concentrating on its theme (being food), rushing heroine's career line too much, while plaguing the screentime with weak "romance" line.

I do like work dramas so that aspect worked well with me, obviously. The main heroine aspires to be great in her work and I seem to always enjoy that trope. I'm not keen on the whole story being actually narrated by somebody else, but never mind. I was enjoying the main heroine's journey to become a great chef so much I could spare romance line completely. But no, she has to have a double one. Both the guys she meets are good, both the romance lines are lame and go from nowhere to nowhere, but we dwell painfully long time on it. While it's funny one of the guys is half her age and it's not the one portrayed by Jason YOUNG, I wished we could just focus on the work drama.

That's very pleasant, well executed, the main heroine knows passion for her craft, willingness to learn, humility and endurance, AND in stark contrast to her "romance" behavior, isn't picky. She gets to work for vastly various people. The topic of cooking (which does NOT interest me) is made as interesting as possible, the work challenges are engaging, visual works perfectly and the acting - including those actors I previously never praised - is commendably understated. No cheap overacting in this lakorn: and that's something in the case of Jason Young, especially:) Who directed this? Let them make more lakorns, please.

With the series progressing, we repeatedly change the main heroine's workplace rather abruptly, while I wouldn't mind to spend way more time in there. We then spend the time with the modern generation couple, which is not a couple, but another threesome. The guy talks straight to the camera explaining various ways how to determinate which of the two girls he actually loves. I say if he loved someone he'd hardly have doubts, THAT would not be his problem, lol. In short, I'd prefer if this lame guy would concentrate solely on telling the story of his mother: and preferably the one about her success, not about "how his mother met his father". Luckilly, we always return to the period line (perhaps this should rather be a story of his GRANDmother? if she "invented" that much of thai cuisine), but even there we have the same thing going on. Soon, Gybzy Wanida's main heroine is asking her friend which of the two guys who are crushing on her should she choose. I felt like smacking her face. Didn't she already moved in with one of the guys, introduced him to his mother, told him she loved him and nobody else? Seriously, this should just concentrate on her work-related journey. She seemed like completely different person in her spare time! When I was watching the work side of her, I was cheering for her so much. I wanted to keep that. Therefore, I wanted to watch the work drama where I got a heroine I rooted for. Not the relationship drama where I got a leading lady acting like a c*w.

Period line was bearable only partially (when whole episode got dedicated to relationship stuff only, it was a disaster). The present line was completely unwatchable. Again and again, one of the girls was asking the son of the main heroine which of the guys his father was. Again he did not reveal it. I wanted to shout: I don't care! LOL. The son definitely knew about his mother's lovelife in too much detail. Seriously, all I wanted was for this series to stop dealing with it. I would accept gladly had the mother chosen either of the guys, even the one I liked less, as long as the other one would immediatelly pi** off. And while we're at it, the son might, too. Both the period surplus guy and the whole present time "story" could (and should) be axed. Let the mother have just one guy, let's focus on her work story, and let's keep the son only as voiceover. Would that be so hard to do?

This way, the series felt long despite having 13 short-runtime episodes only. While the relationship drama got overplayed in a loop several times over, the work drama was interrupted and incomplete. As a result, half the time I loved this series, half the time I wanted to drop it immediatelly (yes, without getting to know who the modern line guy's father was, or which girl he chooses, geez I would take pride in NOT learning it). How to rate it now? This series was definitely successful in making me enjoy a story about pursuing a career in cooking (though it ends up in weird paradox of her still not knowing the same as nearest street vendor), and even more particularly successful in making me resent watching a romantic line (despite the otherwise likeable characters), which always used to be my favorite. Gee, I could recommend this show if you call yourself incurable romance junkie and wish to get cured. Try this one, it might do the trick;)

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