For K-drama fans who love romance, history, and food, Netflix’s latest offering Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is a perfectly curated 12-course menu with numerous plotlines to thrill. The drama is engaging, making for an addictively easy watch; but beyond the courtside intrigue and romance, one thing has viewers hooked — the food. We take a look at every dish and recipes featured on Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, from a bibimbap worthy of a monarch’s tears to a pajeon that rekindles the taste of home.
If there’s one genre that can pull an audience like no other, it’s food — and even more when it’s food but packaged in a neat little rom-com storyline with a sprinkle of time travelling and royal court intrigue. And while 2025 has been an incredible year for Korean entertainment, from the global phenomenon of KPop Demon Hunters to the series finale of Squid Game, Studio Dragon’s Bon Appétit, Your Majesty has quickly amassed a fanbase of its own.
Adapted from Park Kook-jae’s web novel Surviving as Yeonsan-gun’s Chef, Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, is a 12-episode series directed by Jang Tae-yoo, written by fGRD, planned by Studio Dragon, and produced by Film Grida and Jung University. The series stars Im Yoon-ah as Yeon Ji-young, a talented modern-day South Korean chef with traditional French culinary training. When she has an accident with an antique book during an eclipse, Ji-young finds herself transported back into the Joseon era. Here, she meets Yi Heon (portrayed by Lee Chae-min), a young monarch inspired by the real-life Joseon king Yeonsangun, who was said to be a tyrant, as well as a gourmand.
Despite being forced to face a series of trials and tribulations, the pair begin to bond over their shared passion for cuisine. Yi Heon finds himself increasingly captivated by Ji-young, whose warmth and open nature reminds him of his deposed mother, the former queen, whilst her food leaves an unmistakable mark upon his palate — and heart.
However, danger lurks around every corner, and Ji-young must battle her way through the schemes of concubine Kang Mok-joo (portrayed by Kang Han-na) and Prince Jesan (portrayed by Choi Gwi-hwa), who has designs to overthrow Yi Heon to usurp the throne. Using her modern sensibilities, knowledge of global cuisine, and top chef’s understanding of ingredients, Ji-young eventually manages to suppress her opponents and impress the court with her innovative brand of cooking.
The series debuted on tvN on August 23, 2025, and is available for streaming on Netflix.
Behind the recipes of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty
What do you get when you transplant an haute cuisine chef with Michelin-star training into a Joseon-era court? A plot device that is as entertaining to behold as it is nourishing for the food-loving soul. Bon Appétit, Your Majesty serves the drama (and food) with flair, and it’s all thanks to the Studio Dragon team, whose appetites for historical research fuelled the authenticity of the show’s many culinary triumphs.
For the series, the showrunners worked with Chef Shin Jong-cheol, executive chef of Ambassador Seoul Pullman hotel. While Chef Shin helped to bridge Korean culinary traditions and ingredients with the polish of a modern-day Michelin-starred kitchen, royal court cuisine and ancient cookbook researcher Professor Lee Jung-min helped to verify the accuracy of the food, leveraging his expertise on life in the Joseon court.
Chef Shin, who led the overall menu development, also overlooked the creation of Ji-young’s most memorable dishes. Among others, his Midas touch extended across the Beef Tartare, Deonjang Pasta, Snowflake Schnitzel, Clear Dried Pollock Consommé, and Black Sesame Macarons. Through his creative input, Ji-young’s plates were elevated beyond merely ‘delicious’, with each exuding a modern refinement that, while inherently not-of-its-time, still appeared perfectly at home in ancient Joseon.
Speaking to Forbes on his menu and recipe development process, Chef Shin shared, “Each menu went through a development process that included a minimum of five cooking experiments and demonstrations, with over 15 hours — and sometimes even several days — of work for a single dish. The biggest challenge was expressing Yeon Ji-young’s modern sensibility as a French chef using the limited ingredients available during the Joseon era.”
The resultant dishes were more than just nourishment for the characters on screen. They were exemplary spectacles that allowed the audience to feast their eyes, once again bringing Korean food to the forefront of international cuisine. In celebration of that, we deep-dive into every dish featured on the show.
Every dish featured on Bon Appétit, Your Majesty
Hünkârbeğendi
The first dish to receive its spotlight in Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, Hünkârbeğendi is a Turkish dish with a name that literally translates to, “The Sultan liked it.” It is composed of grilled, puréed, and seasoned eggplant with bechamel sauce, topped with grilled meat. In the series, it was cooked by one of Ji-young’s opponents at La Poele D’or, Cihan Meric of Turkey.
Polvo à Lagareiro or Polvo Guisado
While it is not explicitly named in the series, Chef Deyvid Soroldoni’s dish for La Poele D’or appears to be either Polvo à Lagareiro or Polvo Guisado, both dishes with Portuguese origins. The former is traditionally made with boiled or braised octopus that is seasoned with herbs and garlic, topped with a generous drizzle of spicy olive oil. The latter is a traditional stew from the Azores islands, made by cooking octopus in a rich tomato and red wine-based sauce. The flavours are further emphasised with the generous use of spices, which can include Pimenta de terra, allspice, paprika, cinnamon, and chilli flakes.
Turkey roulade
Purportedly beloved by Queen Marie Antoinette of France — though there is no proof of this being true — this turkey roulade was made by Chef Cherbe Dimitri of France for the finals of La Poele D’or. The dish — turkey with a beef brisket centre stuffed in a Savoy cabbage skin — receives mostly-positive reviews from the judges but ultimately falls short of the victory.
Venison chateaubriand
The first of Ji-young’s dishes to be featured on screen, this venison chateaubriand tells us everything we need to know about the main character. It says: Here is a fearless woman possessing a talent for cooking fine cuisine, who leverages creativity to complete a dish no matter what, and whose sharp wit, quick mind, and personable nature are all as endearing as her food is sublime.
Through her venison chateaubriand, Ji-young shows that she is unafraid of breaking the rules, as she uses rice straw and an ancient reverse-searing method to brown her tenderloin, thus imparting it with a rich, deep, and smoky flavour that ultimately wins her the championship. She pairs it with a sauce made of red ginseng and Korean blackberry, soybean puree, and a tuile made of misutgaru, a Korean grain powder.
In-flight meal
While en route back to South Korea, Ji-young is served an in-flight meal composed of a bread roll, butter, macarons, and a creamy porridge dish with prawns, which she livens up with gochujang from a tube.
Gochujang butter bibimbap
This is a dish that launched a centuries-long love affair, so good it brings tears to would-be tyrant and gourmand, King Yi Heon’s eyes. Trapped in the Salgoji forest where she meets Gil-geum, a young girl who lives in seclusion to escape the chaehong (palace consort selections), Ji-young creates this masterpiece: an elevated bibimbap made with local vegetables, mushrooms, and egg. She completes the dish with her trusty gochujang and browned butter, both flavours that, while uncommon in ancient Joseon, are mainstays in Korean cuisine today.
Sous vide beef tenderloin
With her life on the line, Ji-young enlists the help of her fellow chaehong captives to turn a tough piece of beef into a mouth-watering dish. Using her sharp wits, she engineers an ancient sous-vide, slow cooking tough beef wrapped in seaweed and paper to break down the enzymes. The result? Butter-soft beef medallions that she pairs with an umami-packed homemade MSG powder made of crushed mushrooms from Mount Nogo, anchovies from Deokjeok Island, and dried shrimp from Mapo Port.
Haute cuisine
Among Ji-young’s earliest dishes for Yi Heon, this multi-course haute cuisine includes steak tartare — a popular French dish often served as an hors d’oeuvre. Ji-young tops her iteration with various vegetables and a raw egg yolk, then serves it with kelp chips, a nod to the popular East Asian culinary ingredient. The second course is a creamy milk and pea potage, followed by a ‘viande’ (main course) of charcoal-grilled deer tongue.
Yeonpo-tang
During episode 4’s three-way battle for the position of Chief Royal Cook, Cook Eom lays his hopes on Yeonpo-tang, a clear broth traditionally made with beef, radish, tofu, and kelp stock. Cook Eom’s version features a jeolmi doenjang (soybean paste) broth, with main elements including Pyogo mushrooms, caterpillar fungus, chicken, and griddle-fried tofu stuffed with minced chicken and garnished with water parsley for added flavour.
Eo-mandu
Cook Maeng’s dish was first created during the Joseon dynasty, making it a time-appropriate choice that, while enthralling, ultimately failed to win top honours. Frequently seen on the high tables of the Korean royal court and its nobles, Eo-mandu is a steamed dumpling dish which uses a half-moon-shaped fillet of white fish instead of flour for a wrapper. Popular fillings include beef, vegetables, and mushrooms. Made of grey mullet fillets sliced thinly enough to let light through, Cook Maeng’s Eo-mandu is moist and tender, featuring a filling of finely minced beef, stir-fried cucumber, mung bean sprouts, and tofu. He serves it with a dipping sauce made of doenjang with vinegar and honey.
Clam and spinach doenjang soup
Evoking the childhood tastes familiar to the Queen Dowager Jahyeon, Ji-young’s clam and spinach doenjang soup incorporates the briny sweetness of clams from the Seomjin river. She further fortifies her doenjang soup with boiled spinach, an addition that is made after noting that the aging queen is lacking in strength and balance. Ji-young also serves blanched and seasoned spinach as a banchan, making for a well-balanced meal that ultimately improves her standing in court, proving her worth as a chef of high calibre.
Doenjang pasta with fermented soybean sauce
While originally intended as a dish for the three-way battle for Chief Royal Cook, Ji-young’s doenjang pasta eventually makes its way to Yi Heon’s table as a seoksura (evening meal). Plated with modern-day Michelin-level sensibilities, this dish features buckwheat noodles cooked in a soybean sauce, bolstered with sautéed spinach, sesame, and clams for added savouriness.
And just like that, Yi Heon discovers what many of us have learnt over the years: Pasta is an eternal comfort food beloved by all, worth every calorie it incurs. Pulled from the clutches of a foul temper, Yi Heon finishes the entire plate and earns a story from Ji-young, who shares that her father had made it for her every time she was upset.
Chicken soup
Burdened by his mystery-shrouded past, Yi Heon begins to skip his meals. To entice him to eat whilst ensuring he is properly nourished, Ji-young makes him a simple chicken soup garnished with gingko nuts. She describes her soup as a ‘rice gruel flavoured with chicken broth’ that is gentle on the stomach, and pairs it with dongchimi, a Korean variety of kimchi customarily made with Korean radish, napa cabbage, scallions, pickled green chilli, ginger, and Korean pear in a watery brine.
Baekmaja-tang and hwangjagye hondo-tang
Incensed by being sidelined in favour of Ji-young, Consort Kang insists on serving the king’s, and Prince Jesan’s natgeotsang (lunch) following the former’s routine health check. Her dish is made by Cook Maeng: Baekmaja-tang, a cold chicken soup made using a young hen and finished with shredded chicken and ground sesame seeds.
For Prince Jesan, Consort Kang serves a hwangjagye hondo-tang, a soup made from simmering the bones of a yellow-feathered hen with chicken dumplings.
Snowflake schnitzel
Among the top dishes featured in Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, Ji-young’s snowflake schnitzel is a Joseon-era take on the Viennese culinary icon. With breadcrumbs not yet in existence, Ji-young makes ‘snowflakes’ from deep-fried loose batter. Beef, pounded flat, is then coated in flour, egg, and these snowflakes, imparting a deeply satisfying and crispy texture when it is eaten.
Serving her schnitzel alongside Consort Kang’s pair of chicken soups, Ji-young’s dish earns the high praise of being eaten in its entirety, leaving nothing remaining on the plates. She pairs her schnitzel with a sweet and sour berry jam, tartar sauce, and burdock fries on the side.
Sesame macarons
To welcome a group of domineering Ming delegates to Joseon, Ji-young serves an iconic French dessert: Macarons, flavoured with sesame. Crisp, sweet, and utterly delicious, the macarons quickly spark talks of a cooking competition, leading to an epic battle of Ming versus Joseon.
Dongnae pajeon
In her mission to devise an ancient pressure cooker, Ji-young sets out to recruit an out-of-favour inventor, Jang Chun-saeng. Jang is initially unwilling, but changes his stance when Ji-young makes Dongnae pajeon, a Korean pancake dish made with wheat flour and scallions that reminds him of his childhood in Busan.
Wild grape rice wine beouf bourguignon
An ancient Joseon version of an iconic French classic, this dish is Ji-young’s answer to having her gochujang and gochugaru stolen right before the Ming versus Joseon battle. Made with beef ribs slow-simmered in Korean wild grape rice wine, the ‘Joseon-style galbijjim’ is well-received with meat that falls off the bone, flambéed to seal in flavour and augmented with crispy puffed rice. Ji-young completes the dish with pureed pumpkin.
Gyejeong
Cooked by the Ming delegate chef Ya Fei Xiu using illegally obtained gochugaru, this ancient version of Kung Pao chicken combines the spiciness of chilli peppers with Szechuan peppercorns for a startlingly addictive bite. In the show, Ya Fei Xiu is shown cooking it with chicken and cashews and is shown flambéing her dish to spectacular effect.
Joseon temple food
Prepared by lead Ming Chef Tang Bai Long in round two of the Ming versus Joseon arc, this temple food spread highlights the refreshing simplicity of traditional Eastern ingredients. The star of the show is a dish often served at Chinese banquets: A golden lotus leaf-wrapped rice steamed with gingko, peas, grains, and pumpkin. To complete the dish, Bai Long serves a vinegar-pickled lotus root filled with Omija (Schisandra berry), gardenia, mulberry leaves, soy sauce, and vinegar.
Peking duck rolls
Roasted hung over live coals, Peking duck is renowned for its crispy skin and tender flesh, engineered by peeling the former from the latter before cooking. To ensure optimum crispness, the ducks are bathed in boiling oil immediately after cooking, giving the skin its iconic glossy and golden appearance. Ji-young takes the famed Chinese dish to the next level, however; her Peking duck is deconstructed, with the skin carefully cut from the flesh and used as a ‘wrap’ with fillings of sticky glutinous rice, sliced cucumber, and green onion. She finishes her dish with taro mousse and a thick, caramelly majiang (sesame) sauce.
Fo tiao qiang
Literally translated to ‘Buddha Jumps Over The Wall’, Fo tiao qiang is a high-intensity and high-labour Chinese soup dish made up of luxurious ingredients that are stewed together for hours to ensure a harmonious blend of flavours. Originating from the Fujian province, this delicacy traditionally includes ingredients like shark’s fin, abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw, scallops, chicken, ginseng, pork tendon, Jinjua ham, bamboo shoots, quail eggs, and mushrooms, whilst the stock base often incorporates Huangjiu (yellow wine) for added flavour.
The Ming delegates’ Fo tiao qiang incorporates key ingredients like lion’s mane mushroom and deer tendon, adding an extra layer of indulgence to a dish that has long been considered the pinnacle of Chinese cuisine.
Ginseng-infused ogolgye samgye-tang
Using the pressure cooker devised by inventor Jang, the Joseon royal cooks present a pressure cooked ogye-tang made with silkie hen and wild-harvested ginseng. Modern-day Samgye-tang is renowned for being a health-preserving soup, made with whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, jujubes, garlic, and ginseng.
In the show, Ji-young elevates her ogye-tang by adding dumplings made using silkie hen skin, and morel mushrooms stuffed with minced chicken and nurungji (scorched rice). She finishes her dish with a cracker made of nurungji, which adds an extra layer of surprise as it is cracked with a spoon to reveal the surprise dumpling within.
Roasted silkie hen stuffed with rice
Following the Joseon royal cooks’ victory at the Ming versus Joseon competition, Ji-young serves a natgeotsang to Yi Heon and his half-brother, Prince Jinmyeong. On the menu: Roasted whole ogolgye stuffed with glutinous rice, jujube, chestnuts, ginseng, and milkvetch root, rubbed with butter and roasted like Peking duck. Ji-young completes her dish with a Korean-style mustard sauce and a generous serving of macarons.
Dumplings in soup
Following her release from prison for the suspected poisoning of Prince Jinmyeong, Ji-young serves Yi Heon a light lunch composed of dumplings in clear broth with an assortment of banchan. They end up sharing the meal together as equals, highlighting the depth of their relationship and how far it has blossomed.
Joseon restaurant
With Prince Jinmyeong unable to stomach the antidote to nullify the poison in his body, Ji-young serves him a Joseon-style restaurant with gourd-shaped rice cakes and sujebi (hand-torn noodles). She further enhances the nutrition-dense meal with broth made from ox feet, velvet antler, and cheongung root, improving the nourishing and restorative qualities of the dish.
Soy meat gujeolpan and eggplant pie
To celebrate the birthday of Queen Dowager Jahyeon, who has stopped eating meat, Ji-young makes a soy meat gujeolpan, a platter of nine delicacies arranged on a wooden plate surrounding a stack of jeon (Korean-style pancakes), which can be used to wrap the various meats and vegetable fillings. She also serves an eggplant pie on the side.
(Main and featured images: Netflix)
This story first appeared here.
Note : The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.