REVIEW: Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6

Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 pulls back on the rapid pace it’s been speedrunning up until Episode 4. After focusing on the restaurant’s struggles and Han Beom-woo’s (Kang Ha-neul) shenanigans, writer Jung Soo-yeon shifts the focus to the mysterious Mo Yeon-joo (Go Min-si). Until now, the series has yet to dive deep into the cooking genius’s origins. With this latest batch of episodes, we get to learn a little bit more, but it still reads like we’re just scratching the surface of who Yeon-joo is.

Episode 5 starts immediately after where things left off. After a steamy confession, Jin Myeong-sook (Kim Shin-rok) and Shin Chun-seung (Yoo Su-bin) discover the two lovebirds. Of course, because this quartet has no chill, the next day is rife with awkward interactions between all four characters. After a time, a clear gender divide occurs between the four, as each segment goes off to deal with the fallout.

Yeon-joo avoids the question of her feelings and what actually happened, while Myeong-sook tries to unearth the truth from her boss in a not-so-subtle fashion. Meanwhile, the two men go off alone, with Chun-seung giving peak creepy energy, hoping to get some gossip. The gossip isn’t super forthcoming, but a looming threat to the budding relationship is rapidly approaching in the form of Jeon Min (Yoo Yeon-seok). He becomes a major factor across Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6.

Before his arrival, more clues to Yeon-joo’s background pop up. The arrival of a French/Korean couple in the restaurant offers an opportunity to demonstrate Beom-woo’s French linguistic skills. As he translates what was said back to Myeong-sook and Chun-seung, Yeon-joo points out what he’s omitting – that the couple’s parents are particular about their food and the couple themselves. The hidden language skills of French and Japanese arise in Tastefully Yours Episode 5-6, further belying her educational background.

Jeon Min’s appearance in Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 shakes things up.

Not long after the team discovers her degree from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), something referenced as a form of cooking pedigree by Beom-woo at the beginning of the series, a blast from Yeon-joo’s past arrives. Flashbacks across Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 show their previous working relationship, but most importantly, their chemistry. Actor Yoo Yeon-seok’s projects Jeon Min’s wants transparently in his performance. Jeon-Min’s persistent visits to Yeon-joo’s restaurant break down her resolve in the end.

The timing isn’t great for Beom-woo. Yeon-joo is still figuring out the true extent of her feelings for the broke, partially disinherited heir, and he knows it. An adorable, DIY date at the end of Episode 5 makes it seem like everything may be alright despite Jeon Min’s sudden arrival. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Jeon Min successfully rattles Yeon-joo’s resolve. It only took until Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 for that to finally happen.

As it turns out, Jeon Min’s appearance isn’t a matter of just unresolved feelings. Through Beom-woo’s storyline in Episode 6, a rapidly emerging connection between Jeon Min and Beom-woo’s family business appears in a possible merger between Jeon Min’s restaurant and Hansang. With Beom-woo already spitting mad with jealousy over Yeon-joo’s disappearance, this new information revealed in Episode 6 prompts him to fly out to Sapporo to prevent Yeon-joo from making any mistakes.

Yeon-joo’s past manifests in flashbacks across Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6. As shown in both episodes, Yeon-joo’s departure from Jeon Min’s workplace was due to a mistake. At first, it looks like Yeon-joo mistakenly prepared pufferfish, leading to her boss losing the prized Michelin star status. However, with each new visit to the past, it’s shown that she covered for Jeon Min’s incompetence, paving the way for him to eventually become head chef and leaving her with a ruined reputation.

Yeon-joo tackles the memories of her past, but does it help or make things even more complicated? 

The thing is, Yeon-joo knows her stuff. She knows how to cook and deliver an experience with her cooking. Every character who comes across her path has acknowledged this, and Jeon Min does so, too, in their heart-to-heart conversations. In the process, he reveals part of his motivation. Their former boss is declining due to dementia and refuses to eat. Jeon Min believes only Yeon-joo knows the way to their former boss’s heart and stomach.

As things wind down to a trickle, Beom-woo arrives, piercing the serenity the snow-covered setting provides. Where Jeon Min has her in a stasis, Beom-woo almost serves as a wrecking ball here. With his arrival, sure-fire action is likely coming full speed ahead. However, this may not be a positive depending on how he approaches the situation.

Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 dial down the pacing, focusing instead on its quiet moments over rambunctious high-energy action. Yeon-joo’s internal conflicts rule these episodes. First, it was her waffling feelings over Beom-woo. However, once confronted with the past, she’s left waffling with her memories and relationship with Jeon Min. With Jeon Min hoping Yeon-joo will return to him in some fashion, whether professionally or romantically, the stakes are set for a potentially explosive future development.

That said, there aren’t that many episodes left. These episodes took things slower, and with only a handful remaining, it begs the question of how much things will speed up to reach the series’ end. And while we got some answers to Yeon-joo’s past, it almost seems we’re just scratching the surface with so much more left to explore. Tastefully Yours Episodes 5-6 add more depth to Yeon-joo and leave us wanting more than the writing may be able to give us due to time. Whether or not this makes or breaks the rest of the series remains to be seen.

Tastefully Yours Episodes 1-6 are now streaming exclusively on Netflix, with new episodes releasing every Monday and Tuesday.

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