Synopsis
Recognized as the talented three-star chef of a famous French restaurant, La Cuisine de La reine, in Ginza, Tokyo, Hoshino Mitsuko was a high figure in the cooking community. However, due to an issue that cropped up between her and the restaurant owner Shinoda Shogo, she finds herself fired. In her struggle to find a new job given her prideful attitude and Shinoda’s interference, Shogo ends up creating school lunches for a popular variety programme by the hotshot producer Yaguchi Saki. While she initially believes that the job would be easy, she finds herself surprised to find the exact opposite. As she tackles the world of school lunches, she finds herself learning more than she expected.
The Good
The fun thing about dramas is that most often than not, they dish out strong female protagonists like Shogo. She’s engaging in her development and the way that she finds different solutions to her problems makes a good show on her intelligence and growth. As expected, the food presentation is great and the ideas behind them are rather creative. It also helps to see how the characters get into preparing the food and how the people who eat them enjoy it.
Character-wise, other than Shogo, the secondary characters also have their interesting points in how they develop mainly in learning to like cooking. Other than this, the plot flow was good and the way it was built held a good story for the series.
The Bad
The first notable issue with the series is with the antagonist of the series. For one thing, it feels like his only role is to ensure that the series does have conflict. In addition, it feels like there isn’t much substance to him being the villain given that there isn’t enough exploration given on his part. Actually outside of maybe one or two secondary characters didn’t stand out as much as they should have given the amount of screen time they have. Basically, a little more exploration on the other characters could have been good.
Conclusion
More than a show about food and cooking, it’s a show that presents what it means to work as a chef. The series held strong in showing Shogo’s strengths and development but could have worked on the other characters more. As a whole, the series really does well in showing the joys of food and cooking and the struggle that may come with it. Overall, it’s a cooking series that could have been better with more character development.
Rating: 7/10