Tastefully Yours’ ending is a sweet one that is a fitting conclusion to this tastefully done show. The K-drama industry has been overflowing with the rich man, poor girl trope for years now. However, when a show stars actors like these and is all about food, I’d never give it a pass, and I’m glad, because it was quite a delightful watch. The Netflix drama tells the story of a rich chaebol who steals recipes from famous restaurants and then shuts them down so that his mother’s company can be the only one in the country with those recipes. But when he meets Yeon-Joo at her restaurant, Jungjae, he transforms as a person, falls in love with her, and grows a conscience. Nearing the end of the show, he gives up on his mom’s company and tells his brother he can keep it all, but he’s desperate to keep Jungjae open and running. Does it work? And who wins the competition set up by Chairwoman Han? Let’s find out in the final episode of Tastefully Yours.
Spoiler Alert
Who Wins The Competition?
Episode 10 begins with the Hansang Group and the Diamant Guide coming together to announce the competition between Motto and Jungjae. This is when the Jungjae family realizes that the man who came to their restaurant with his French family was actually a reviewer for the Diamant Guide. The ingredient chosen for the competition is chicken, and both restaurants have to cook the best dish they can with it. Of course, Hansang is always cheating, so in this case, they make sure that Jungjae can’t get any chicken for their chicken dish. Influencers are meant to visit both restaurants along with the two main judges, the chairwoman herself and the French guy. At Motto, Young-Hye doesn’t slack off. In fact, she, for once, wants to make her own dish rather than stealing from somebody. She makes a Korean dish using French ingredients. On the other hand, since the boys at Jungjae aren’t able to buy any fresh chicken, they get their hands on frozen chicken and just trust the fact that Myung-Sook will be able to make a banging dish regardless. The recipe book has a French dish using a Korean twist, so they’re sorted there.
The influencers enjoy food at both restaurants. Nobody seems to be biased towards either of the restaurants in particular. Additionally, Choon-Seung’s dad also shows up at Jungjae and tries his son’s makgeolli. He really enjoys it, and I suppose he can finally understand what his son’s passionate about. Choon-Seung has also come a long way since the beginning of the show. He can take over his dad’s restaurant with no issues now. Myung-Sook should also be proud of herself for managing to do the work and keeping Jungjae’s name alive as the head chef when it was necessary.
Even before the results are announced, Young-Hye quits and only tells Yu-Jin that she’s leaving because she’s finally had a chance to make her own food, and she’s done copying people. She wants to do something of her own. Yeon-Joo meets Sun-Woo and stops him from smoking at the Hanok Village. She asks him why both brothers are so messed up, and he tells her about how their childhood shaped them. In a flashback, we see the Chairwoman on a TV show where she was explaining how she was going to cook a dish that her kids loved, but while it was airing, Beom-Woo was begging her in front of the screen to stay back and play with him. She shut him up then and continued to work on her phone. It was his grandma who made him eat then, and we see the kimchi, the same one Beom-Woo was later reminded of at Jungjae.
The results of the competition favor Jungjae, but the chairwoman announces that it’s a tie. The French guy refuses to cheat like her and storms off. Somehow, nobody goes after him, but okay. The chairwoman suggests a rematch, and this is when Yeon-Joo walks in, saying she’s happy to do a rematch, but Motto doesn’t have a chef anymore. Yeon-Joo tells the chairwoman that she’ll cook for her, and if she doesn’t like the food, they’ll close Jungjae down for good, just as she wishes. When she’s alone with Beom-Woo, it becomes obvious that she’s forgiven him, and it’s probably got to do with what her mother said. But also, she knows that Beom-Woo has genuinely changed, plus it was his mother who caused all the problems. This is the one part of the show that I found quite problematic, because at the end of the day, the blame goes to the mother who wasn’t able to be home for her kids while trying to build her own empire. A man in her place would be praised for “leaving” his family behind. But of course, she does it all for them, so it’s all good.
Does Jungjae Survive?
The meal that Yeon-Joo whips up is the same dish that the chairwoman was making in that TV show. She gets the men to sit with their mom for the meal too and finally presents the trio with a “home-cooked” breakfast. The chairwoman is immediately dismissive, asking if Yeon-Joo seriously expects her to judge this food. Yeon-Joo tells her then that she’s already accepted defeat. She also says that she was taught that she’s supposed to cook keeping the person who is eating the food in mind, not the person who is cooking. She says she finally understands that sentiment now. She cooks a home-cooked meal for this trio to remind them what family is. To remind them how important what they have is, and they should not forget about it. In her case, she’s got a family that’s not related by blood, but they love her dearly, and she hopes this meal can bring them together. As they say, a family that eats together stays together.
Beom-Woo is the first to try the shrimp rice jeon and tells his brother to try it because it’s delicious. Sun-Woo then asks their mom to try it too. After trying it, she says it’s good and then tells Yeon-Joo that she liked the kimchi. She then yells, “Cut.” It seems at this point that Yeon-Joo’s going to have to close Jungjae for good. But when Beom-Woo says he’s going to close the restaurant down as promised, his mom tells him not to bother, because if it closes there, they’ll probably open another one somewhere else. It may not be called Jungjae, but where the family is, Jungjae is too.
In Tastefully Yours’ ending, Myung-Sook’s chicken dish is sold at Choon-Seung’s restaurant as a collaboration. This way, both restaurants get recognition, and they’ll thrive. But they’re visited by a popular actor, who happens to be played by Park Ji-Hoon. Choon-Seung and Myung-Sook are delighted to see him, but Choon-Seung suddenly asks the guy which high school he went to. He just gives him a terrifying stare. This is in reference to the show Weak Hero Class 2, in which both the actors who play Choon-Seung and Sun-Woo have roles. Fun crossover. On the other hand, Young-Hye’s started her own food truck, and Yu-Jin tells her he’s going to work for her too. They make quite the pair, and I think their experience at Hansang will help them make a successful business. I’m sure Young-Hye and Yeon-Joo will get along well too. In the end, everyone is healed, and Beom-Woo goes “home” to Jungjae and meets his girlfriend, Yeon-Joo, whom he loves dearly. The Korean title of the show loosely translates to “the taste of you.” I quite enjoy this title for the show, and it makes full sense, seeing as the “taste” of Yeon-Joo transformed Beom-Woo for good.
