‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’ Director Reflects on Global Success and Bids Farewell to Viewers
Oct 03, 2025
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Director Jang Tae-yu, who directed tvN's Saturday-Sunday drama ‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’(directed by Jang Tae-yu), which ended amid global popularity, continues to linger with various events. The question-and-answer interview, which contains all the affectionate praise for the actors who have been making the work together, the production method, and the behind-the-scenes of tvN ‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’, draws attention.
- Even before the first broadcast,‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’ has finally come to an end. How do you feel about the successful completion.
▶I'm just grateful. I am so happy and rewarded that this drama, which started with the heart of trying to make a full-fledged Korean cooking historical drama, has received a lot of love until the end. It's also nice to be compared to Dae Jang Geum.
- From the romance between a chef and a tyrant, to various delicious foods, to the struggle of power in the palace, it was loved hotly. Did you expect a response to the "tyrant's chef".
▶I prepared it thinking it was a popular story, but I didn't know it would be loved so much. Isn't it because a mild taste and a familiar taste drama came out? In particular, as I carefully filmed the cooking and eating scenes, I think the viewers paid attention and affection to the fun of watching an eating show. The royal burial mound is originally a popular material. It seems that the court martial arts in the familiar but new perspective 'tyrant's Chef' was popular with the public because it was adapted easily for young people or those who were not familiar with history.
- The response from abroad was also explosive. Not only was it the first tvN drama to top the Netflix non-English TV show for two consecutive weeks, but it also attracted attention from foreign media as a drama that sheds light on K-food once again after 'Daejanggeum'. What did you think was the factor that captivated overseas viewers, and if there was a particularly memorable reaction from viewers.
▶Food is a universal subject that can be easily sympathized with even if the language and culture are different, so it seems that overseas viewers were able to immerse themselves relatively easily, following the position of French chef Yeon Ji-young (Im Yoona), who won the cooking competition, and naturally became interested in the process of creating new dishes by mixing French dishes with court dishes. I remember the SNS posts of overseas viewers recreating the dishes in the drama. I'm glad that the barriers to entry to K-food have been lowered even further through the 'Chef of the Tyrants'.
- Before the first broadcast, he/she said he/she wanted viewers to feel hungry while watching the drama, but during the actual broadcast, many said they were hungry while watching the menus in the play. Do you have any special directing points in the food or cooking competition to stimulate viewers' desire for late-night snacks.
▶At some point, I kept thinking about what food and how to eat it to look the most delicious. The first episode of Gochujang Butter Bibimbap is the simplest and most ordinary food in the drama, where the main character Yeon Ji-young meets Lee Hun (Lee Chae-min) right after time slip and shares it together in a messy mess after going through all kinds of hardships. As it is a food that viewers know well, I tried to arouse curiosity by carefully filming scenes of obtaining ingredients in the past, and I tried to stimulate hunger from the taste of knowing by mixing red pepper paste and butter, or making and popping poached eggs with a special shot.
In the cooking competition scene, I paid a lot of attention to the recipe and the final plating. Yeon Ji-young uses the recipe 'flambé' a lot, and if she presents it alone in the fourth episode, she presents it as if she competes with the master of the Ming Dynasty, Abisu (Moon Seung-yu). It is a scene to raise expectations for such a completed dish along with snowflakes.
I thought Yeon Ji-young's cooking was like the superpower of the main character in Hero Water. It had to be a beautiful and delicious dish at a glance, so until the final plating came out, Yeon Ji-young's lethal move was completed through numerous meetings and demonstrations with advisory chefs. The plating of the nuns competing with Yeon Ji-young is also important, so the royal cuisine Eomandu and Yeonpotang, which appear in the 4th episode, also stand out with colorful colors and different arrangements. Also, the plating point of Ming's masters was 'cabing (sculpture)'. They added splendor to the dishes, such as the flower ornament made from the carving of cucumbers and the dragon made from the carving of radishes.
- In addition to the cooking scene, the unique CG effect and pleasant background music that come out after eating food caused viewers to laugh. Some of the viewers even said "I'm going to watch CG" and cited "The Tyrant's Chef" as a unique point to watch. How did you come up with this CG? If there is an episode on the set.
▶ While preparing for the cooking drama, I realized that the act of eating is as important as the act of cooking. Lee Hun and other figures from 500 years ago decided to add a fun CG effect after thinking about how to convey the impressions of Ji-young's shocking texture after tasting her modern fine dining dish for the first time.
One of the most elaborate scenes was that when Lee Heon ate sous vide for the first time at the scene, he thought it would be good to surprise him about the taste of MSG with a burst of joy with fireworks, so he put Lee Heon in a moving car and changed the lighting while moving back and forth with the camera, making him feel like he moved to another space.
In addition, when Lee Heon, who tasted Haute Quizin for the first time, ate 'Deer Meat Bien', he went to a field in Jeollanam-do to see a deer running in the field and filmed it. The point was a giant deer. To give it a surreal feel, we introduced a deer the size of an elephant, which is bigger than the real thing. That's how much the impact on the taste is.
- Yeon Ji-young and Lee Heon's romance scene was also well received for its beautiful visual beauty. In particular, the confession scene in Yoo Eun-jeong received a lot of love, and since Yeon Ji-young and Lee Heon shared their feelings for the first time after confirming their feelings, if there is a point where they agonized in directing to maximize the romance tension between Yeon Ji-young and Lee Heon.
▶Yeon Ji-young, who tried to return to the modern world in search of my mangunrok, realized her heart for the first time and kissed Lee Heon, and set it as the same operation as the ending of the 4th episode when Lee Heon kissed the alcohol. I thought that setting it in the same space could better show the change in the weight and depth of emotion matured. And since this kiss was the perfect kiss made by the heart of each other, cherry blossoms fly like a blessing from the whole world. It's like a festival.
- Interest in Im Yoon-ah and Lee Chae-min, who led the center of the play, is also hot. If there's anything you'd like to say to the two actors who have been making gourmet fantasy romantic comedies together.
▶Cooking and historical drama must be too much to digest, but from the cold winter to the hot summer, cooking, historical drama, comedy, and romance, he followed me brilliantly. Now, I can't imagine Yeon Ji-young and Lee Heon, not Im Yoon-ah and Lee Chae-min. I want to say thank you for doing so well.
- In addition to actors Lim Yoon-ah and Lee Chae-min, there are also many reactions that actors with a strong presence, such as Suragan Su-su, Lee Heon's people, and their nemesis, showed brilliant acting chemistry. How was your relationship with them.
As ▶ Suragan is Yeon Ji-young's main space, I thought a lot about the role and character of the nuns and the chemistry between Yeon Ji-young and the nuns from the planning stage. Due to the nature of historical dramas, most of them are filmed in the provinces, and the cooking competition used to take more than a week once it was shot. As a result, it seems that the strong affection between the actors has also been buried in the relationship between Yeon Ji-young and Suragan Su-su.
Su-hyuk (Park Young-woon), Chang-seon (Janggwang), and Choi Sang-gung (Park Joon-myeon) are those who silently stand by the tyrant Lee Heon. Even without the lines, there are many emotions in each expression of looking at Lee Heon. In particular, the moment when Choi Sang-gung gives a hint of Yeon Ji-young's cooking is very comical, but it creates a warm atmosphere like a family. I'm glad that the viewers understood how I felt
Prince Jesan (Choi Gui-hwa) is a character who pretends to be a fool all the time and explodes his desire to become a king only in the latter half of the drama, and Kang Mok-joo (Kang Han-na) does not betray Prince Jesan and comes to a tragic end. The tone is very different in the second half, when the 5th schnitzel scene and antipathy began, but Choi Gui-hwa as JeSandaegun and Kang Han-na as Kang Mok-joo balanced the situation very well.
- What kind of drama did "Chef of the Tyrant" remain and what kind of drama do you want the viewers to remember.
▶ It was the fifth historical drama, but it was hard and hard work as if it were the first historical drama. I think food drama is a completely new genre apart from historical drama modern drama. It was a drama that was satisfactory enough to achieve the popularity and viewership achieved by the new challenge, but it also reflected a lot on what was lacking as a director.
I would like to thank the viewers once again for loving our drama, which opened with red pepper paste butter bibimbap and introduced an intense first bite. The drama is over, but I hope it will remain a pleasant ending for a long time, with laughter leaking out when I suddenly think of a scene from ‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’.
- Lastly, greetings to those who watched ‘Bon Appetit, Your Majesty’.
▶I made a drama with the heart of raising the surasang every time. Thanks to the viewers who enjoyed the drama, I am spending every day with a happy heart. Once again, thank you deeply for bowing down, and I hope you eat well tonight because you are a master.
lunamoon@sportschosun.com
