Food, glorious food! This could have been so much better if they just stuck to that theme but alas, the writer took us down the garden path, deep dive a dank rabbit hole, before magically transported us to the Fairy meadow where the unicorns are frolicking like they were on drugs.

Any reader who has watched the original Karate Kid (and similar movie/show) would recognise the central plot. In this case, instead of martial arts, we have culinary arts. A Michelin star chef needs to find and train a new apprentice, but that person must have a supernatural sense of taste. Of course, this was not done through the kindness of his heart but because he is losing his own ability to taste food, so he needed that someone to taste for him when he creates new dishes. All this is hushed up so people were confused when he decided to mentor a girl (FL) who accidentally entered a top tier cooking competition but can’t cook at all. To compound his woes, he is quite a prickly character and very temperamental. In essence, a stereotypical master craftsman/creative type. All the classic clichés were deployed included the equivalent of the old wax-on-wax-off training trick to bring the hapless FL to some semblance of proficiency. However, this is a rom-com so the tale as old as time was given its due and the master/apprentice relationship took on a much more personal spin.

Speaking of food and cooking, this show has so much food porn. From street food to eateries serving local delicacies and all the way up to Michelin star restaurant. The food was a highlight, and those dishes were shot with skill and a singular focus. I do wonder whether the production team hired a food stylist and specialist photographer. This ended up being the saving grace of the show and I gave it extra marks.

You may well say there is nothing wrong with that storyline, sounds quite interesting and delicious. That is indeed the case, if they stick to it. However, into that pot were added several antagonists as well as dramatic change in tones. I mean descent into madness type of change. Most of this came from left field so what started as a light and breezy rom-com got darker and darker until you thought you were watching a different genre.

The OTP is an odd couple but when all the romantic ducklings are lined up, they can be quite sweet and engaging. You can't deny there is chemistry between them. Towards the end, there are truly swoon worthy moments. It would be tempting fate if this was the only game in town. We are confronted with the typical Chinese rom-com problème du jour, what I'd like to term Too Many Cooks Syndrome. On top of the OTP, there are 5 other CP’s! (Is that a record?) Most of the pairings are contrived and does little for the show other than padding out the runtime and force a change of scenery. This is particularly jarring when the show got darker and more intense. We’d suddenly flip to a CP and watch them do the mating dance or deal with some trivial matter.

All these extraneous stuffs would just be fluff if the show didn’t do a 180 on itself at the 7/8 mark. Every antagonist was reformed. Every problem (except the one concerning the ML) is swept aside. It made a mockery of all the angst and misdeeds that was dished out over the last 30 odd episodes. Some were explained away as historical misunderstanding, but more was left unanswered and frankly, baffling. This was quite strange as the bulk of the show was rooted in reality (cooking is about as real as it can get). When the ML was challenged by reporters as to how he can still be a master chef when he can’t even taste his own food, the writer finessed a clever and logical solution. It only served to highlight the inconsistency later on.

Around that 7/8 mark, we also have an attack of the unicorns as well. We are talking a herd of them. The last few episodes were all about tying every loose end up with pink bows. Happy endings were served to everyone, whether they deserved it or not. This was topped by a Deus Ex Machina solution straight out of a wuxia/xianxia drama. It is as if the writer has abandoned reality, just went all in and damn the consequences. The piece de resistance was the ending. It needs a health warning for diabetics. It was sugar overload. I won’t spoil it, just one hint, Bollywood.

Acting is generally solid but some were exaggerated stereotypes, especially concerning foreigners. Younger actors have room to improve but they show a lot of commitment even when it was an unrewarding role.

OST and production values were good. It would have scored better if the writer stays focused and kept its message clear. Make it sweet and bubbly or dark and crazy but what we ended up is a rollercoaster ride that looped back on itself and make us feel cheated and confused. Individual scenes can be well executed and acted but the whole is, regrettably, less than the sum of the parts.