Le Grand Chef (식객, Shikgaek) is a Korean movie based on Huh Young-man’s popular comic book. The film was directed by Jeon Yun-su and starred Kim Kang-woo, Lee Hana and Im Won-hui etc.
Le Grand Chef synopsis
Sung-chan (Kim Kang-woo) and Bong-ju (Lim Won-hie) were apprentices at a renowned Korean restaurant; Sung-chan was seen as the best candidate to take over the restaurant, but suffered a setback when his blowfish dish poisoned some customers and almost killed them.
Sung-chan retired from cooking since then and became a farmer in the countryside; while Bong-ju took charge of the restaurant and became a powerful and famous chef.
A few years later, a nationwide cooking competition was started to find the rightful heir for a symbolic knife that once belongs to the last Korean royal chef who cut his arm to show his loyalty to the king following the Japanese invasion which ended the Chosun Dynasty in early 20th century.
The rivalry between Sung-chan and Bong-ju was ignited again, as both their grandfathers were students of the last royal chef.
Sung-chan didn’t plan to compete in the competition initially, but changed his mind after some persistent persuasion by an energetic reporter Jin-su (Lee Hana). Bong-ju, knowing how strong an opponent Sung-chan could be, started using all the dirty tricks to defeat Sung-chan…
Le Grand Chef was a huge hit in Korea. The storyline is quite simple and direct; I think the main attractive point of the movie is the cooking and settings. Even if the story didn’t appeal to the audiences, they would be charmed by all the traditional Korean dishes that were shown in the movie.
A drama version of the comic – starring Kim Rae-won and Nam Sang-mi etc. – is currently airing on SBS channel in Korea.
