A gritty tale of a disgraced chef clawing back his way up the Michelin ladder and beyond. After causing an international incident, French cuisine chef Obana is spurned by his brethren and christened as "Shame of Japan." The superiorly talented chef wants to make a comeback after a brief interlude, but realizes the cooking world itself has changed. The drama centers around his challenge, his personal growth attempting to evolve his cooking to fit the new world and the multifaceted difficulties he faces in his path. The chef also evolves personally becoming more amenable to work together as a group with his friends around him.
Delectable dishes appear one after another. The making of each dish is deconstructed from basic ingredients to every cooking idea which turns the dish into an absolute delicacy. A good cooking Jdrama is not rare; one is reminded of 'Dinner' which similarly centers around French cooking. The difference is this drama has a more specific theme where the chef is trying to Japanize French cooking . He wants to maintain the complexity of flavor of French cooking by utilizing simple Japanese ingredients and his culinary skills rather than depending on expensive imported ingredients.
The personalities of the characters also shines through the drama. Themes of friendship, aspiration, loyalty, jealousy, courage and redemption are explored making this cooking show a very human affair.
One can easily lose oneself in this world of visually stunning dishes, the life cycle of a recipe from its inception to its completion and the clash between the various personalities in this drama. A must -watch for anyone interested in cooking genre.