Since all of us here on this blog aren’t Koreans, it’s best to familiarize ourselves with some historical details so we can see where the director and screenwriter took creative license with real events for storytelling purposes.

Take for instance the name of the king: Yeonsangun vs Yeonhuigun.

“Surviving as Yeonsan-gun’s Chef” is the title of the web novel on which this kdrama is based. Yeonsangun (YSG) is a real Joseon king who reigned between 1495 to 1506. His personal name is Yi Yung.

He’s infamous for:

a. being the most brutal and tyrannical ruler in Joseon history.

b. launching two bloody purges in 1498 and 1504.

In the 1498 Literati Purge, YSG executed scholars and their political faction who criticized his ancestor King Sejo’s usurpation of the throne. By contrast, in the 1504 Literati Purge, YSG executed officials who supported the deposition and execution of his real mother, Queen Yun. Since childhood, he was led to believe that he was the son of the king and his third queen. When he discovered the truth that his birth mother was in fact the second queen who was deposed for scratching the king’s face and poisoning a concubine, he sought revenge on all the officials and scholars involved in her sorry affair.

c. forcing women from all over Joseon to serve him as concubine, courtesan, or entertainer in his court. I guess, this is analogous to the modern-day conscription of men to military service.

d. evicting commoners from their lands to create a hunting ground for himself in the capital. He loved sport hunting.

e. turning the royal university Sungkyunkwan into a brothel for his personal use.

f. suppressing Hangul (the Korean alphabet) because the commoners could easily spread written reports on his atrocities in Hangul.

g. and lastly, taking Jang Noksu as his concubine.

She was as blood-thirsty and power-hungry as they come, but YSG was blind to her wicked ways and took her advice on political manners. Fortunately, however, she was never elevated to the rank of queen despite being his favorite consort.  After he was deposed, she was beheaded because the general consensus was that she was a bad influence on him.

In the kdrama, our female lead Yeon JiYeong doesn’t talk about YSG.

Instead, she keeps referring to a “historical” (note the quotation marks) king named Yeonhuigun (YH). His personal name is Yi Heon.

As a matter of fact, she first brings him up during “La Poêle d’Or” cooking contest. When she impresses the judges with her method of grilling venison with rice straw, she explains that the steak is “a royal dish made using a centuries-old straw-fire grilling technique that originated in the Joseon Dynasty…. Long ago, when Korea was Joseon, there was a Yeonhuigun. He was a tyrant who was also a gourmet, and this venison steak was his favorite.”

Ha! When you think about this, she owes her first prize win to YH as he was her inspiration for her dish. All the contestants credit a former national ruler, namely, a Turkish sultan, the Portuguese royals, and Marie Antoinette, for their entrees. She happens to pay homage to YH.

To me, the use of a different name for the king is just one of the ways the script uses creative license to deviate from an actual historical figure and to depict the male lead character in a sympathetic light.

Here are the other ways:

a. The historical YSG was tyrannical, but the kdrama insists from the start that the “historical” YH isn’t merely a notorious tyrant, but also a famous gourmet. (🤪 As if being an epicure could absolve him of his cruel and despotic ways! For now, however, I’ll overlook the script’s false moral equivalence here.)

At any rate, by introducing the notion of the king’s dual nature early on, the script preconditions us viewers to give the male lead character a second chance. I find myself approving of YH when the taste of her bibimbap moves him to tears. Surely, he can’t be all that beastly if he can fondly remember a moment he was fed by his mother. He cherishes his mother’s love.

Likewise, I approve of YH in that scene when he recognizes and acknowledges a culinary genius like JY at the taste of her meat sprinkled with MSG. Again, he can’t be a rogue if he can give credit where credit is due. He’s genuinely interested in how she became a great chef.

These two scenes succeed in humanizing him. They show that there’s more to YH’s character than being despotic.

b. The 1498 and 1504 Literati Purges.

In the kdrama, we can glean from the scene when a group of officials meet secretly (timestamp 48:49) that the first purge is over. The men discuss the recent assassination attempt on the king while he was hunting and they assume that a victim of the “Muin Literati Purge” is behind the failed assassination.

We can also gather from this scene that the second purge is about to take place.

In Episode 1, the Dowager Queen is outraged that her grandson/current king skipped the official “salvation ritual” for a hunting expedition. She’s reminded by one of the royal ladies that the impending solar eclipse is heaven’s way of rebuking the king for his misdeeds. He should have stayed to perform the ritual and this hunting expedition of his is just his latest dereliction of duty.

But the Queen (I’m assuming she’s YH’s Wife) rises to his defense and blames his concubine. She says, “It’s because of the fourth junior consort. The Confucian scholars gathered outside the hall of governance to petition that she be punished.” In other words, she makes an excuses for the king’s absence. He’s simply running away from the relentless pressure of the Literati.

Deep-down inside, however, the Dowager Queen wonders whether something more serious is up. She suspects that her grandson is finally remembering what happened to his deposed birthmother. After all, the former queen’s deposition happened as the same time as this solar eclipse/salvation ritual.

Historically, the Dowager Queen had a hand in the deposition. She was the one who actively sought to have the queen deposed after the face of the king was scratched. The king himself tried to cover up the incident because he knew his wife would be severely punished for it. (It was considered treason to scratch the king as he was heaven’s representative on earth.)

However, if you watch that scene again (timestamp 19:24), you’ll see the king ordering the queen’s banishment himself. Noteworthy: there’s a scratch on his face, too. 😂 They got that detail correct.

The script is setting up the events in such a way that there’ll be an alternative outcome to the second purge in 1504.

c. In Episode 2, our female lead Yeon JiYeong (JY) deduces that the second purge will be triggered by the forced conscription (or “chaehong”) of the governor’s young granddaughter into sex slavery.

But as it turns out, the king has decided to leave the granddaughter behind and takes JY in her place. He doesn’t really want to take the young granddaughter. He only wants to punish the governor because he believes the old man was involved in his mother’s deposition. He wants the old man to feel the pain of knowing there is nothing he can do to save his family, that is, to feel as helpless as he was when they took away his mother. He wants the old man to live and suffer in agony for years for driving his mother to her death.

Clearly, he’s a man with a mission to seek retribution and justice for his deceased mother. He isn’t as debauched as he was in the history books.

In fact, he gets offended when JY tells him that the “chaehong” is all wrong. He defensively points out that it serves a noble purpose. According to him, the king’s greatest duty is to ensure an heir and preserve the royal lineage and kingdom. But JY outright rejects this “heir” rationale as absurd and attributes the “chaehong” to the king’s fondness for women or his perversion.

He sputters in anger. 😂 His reaction tells me that he isn’t as lecherous as the real YSG.

d. In the kdrama, Kang Mokju takes on the role of Jang Noksu with a twist. Not only is she spying on the king, she seems to be cheating on him, too, and having an affair with the Prince (or official?) who rescued her from prison seven years ago.

With the arrival of JY, however, her infamous place in history may be downgraded. As of Episode 2, JY appears intimidated by Kang Mokju because of what she’s read in history books, but inevitably, she’ll wield more influence over YH than Kang Mokju. As it is, she already made YH release all the women seized for “chaehong” after their argument.

At any rate, the primary trope of this kdrama is to prove the idiom “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” correct.

My comments on the book “Mangunrok” –

To me, the book is evidence that somewhere back in time, JY already met with the King YH. One of them wrote the book and dedicated it for the other person. Hence, the foreword:

“My dearly beloved, if you were to read this someday, may you come back to my side.”

It isn’t a romance novel as JY surmised, but a record or registry of all the food that she created for him while she was with him back in his world.

I’m saying this because:

a. the butterfly jade pendant dangling from the book appeared in the forest and flitted from YH to JY. To me, the butterfly is meant to indicate that some rebirth had previously taken place.

b. one of the entrees in the cookbook was “kurim buruille.” 😂 That’s Korean phonetics for “crème brûlée” or “burnt cream” in English. 😂 What’s a recipe for a French dessert doing in a 16th century Joseon manuscript? She’s the Michelin three-star restaurant chef who can speak French. Not YH.

But on second thought, she can’t write Chinese, but YH can. It’s more likely that he wrote the book for her to read in the future.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that Professor Pierre Bergelo from La Sorbonne was somehow involved in the time travel. If I were a Professor of Asian History, I’d seriously question the authenticity of an ancient manuscript with modern vocabulary.

A short note on the titles because I don’t think the food selections are chosen just randomly –

Episode 1. Course Number 1 Gochujang Butter Bibimbap
Episode 2. Course Number 2 Sous Vide Cuisine

The bibimbap in Episode 1 is interesting because it combines two worlds. The butter (or beurre noisette) represents the French world, i.e., the world that she just came from, and the Gochujang paste represents the Korean world, or his world that she landed in. When mixed together with the other ingredients, the taste is out of this world.

Kinda like their meeting.

When her world collides with his, their newfound experience is also out of this world. Literally.

As for the sous vide cuisine in Episode 2, it foreshadows how a close encounter can soften even the toughest, most stubborn personalities. In JY’s demonstration of the sous vide process, tough meat becomes tender when sealed tight then submerged in a water bath for a long period of time. This water bath + vacuum seal + precise temperature are a metaphor of JY and YH’s encounter. They fell in the water together, spent time in each other’s company, and familiarized themselves with each other’s thoughts and caprices. Naturally then, they’ll warm up to each other or soften up.

I’m looking forward to their next course.