Cover The K-drama Bon Appétit, Your Majesty tells the story of a modern-day chef is transported to the Joseon Dynasty, where she must cook for a tyrannical king with an exquisite palate (Photo: tvN)
The K-drama Bon Appétit, Your Majesty tells the story of a modern-day chef is transported to the Joseon Dynasty, where she must cook for a tyrannical king with an exquisite palate (Photo: tvN)
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Chef Shin Jong-cheol, the culinary architect of Netflix’s hit K-drama ‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty’, brings the show’s royal cuisine to life in an exclusive dining experience in Seoul, South Korea, running until December 30
K-dramas have long mastered the art of turning food into fantasy, but few have done it with the cinematic precision of the smash hit Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, which premiered on Netflix in August. Behind the slow-poured broths, intricate knife work and glistening royal dishes was a chef who ensured every frame tasted as good as it looked. Now, chef Shin Jong-cheol—the culinary mind behind the drama’s most memorable food moments—is bringing that universe to life at The Ambassador Seoul in South Korea, where he serves as executive chef and director of food and beverage operations.
From now until December 30, Shin distills the K-drama’s royal table into a trio of curated lunch and dinner menus inspired by the key dishes from the series, allowing diners to experience the same flavours that shaped the storytelling. These include wheat pancake wrap, yukhoe and gamtae (Korean beef tartare with seaweed), ogolgye samgyetang (black chicken ginseng soup) and sea snail mussel soya bean paste pasta. It marks the first time the dishes have been recreated in full, faithful to how they were conceived for the screen, yet elevated with modern technique and fine-dining precision.
For Shin, this experience is a full-circle journey, the culmination of more than 30 years honouring his homeland’s culinary traditions while pushing its cuisine forward. “Cooking is not merely about serving food, it’s a narrative where time, memory and culture converge. That philosophy has been the driving force behind who I am today as a chef,” he shares.
Read more: The true story about the fictional king in ‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty’
Above Chef Shin Jong-cheol, the culinary architect behind the K-drama, Bon Appetit, Your Majesty (Photo: jong_cheol_shin/instagram)
Chef Shin Jong-cheol, the culinary architect behind the K-drama, Bon Appetit, Your Majesty (Photo: jong_cheol_shin/instagram)
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The stars have, indeed, aligned with Shin’s involvement in the K-drama, though he shares that it was unexpected. Im Yoon-ah, who played Col. Yeon Ji-young, approached him for real culinary training to embody the role of a royal chef. What started as lessons in posture, knife work and discipline quickly expanded into a full-fledged collaboration with the production team.
Shin became the drama’s culinary architect, overseeing everything from menu research and historical accuracy to recipe development, on-set supervision and actor training. “The producers wanted the food to be a narrative language,” he says. “Not just something beautiful on screen, but something that connected the characters and the story.”
He designed each dish to reflect the K-drama’s layered world, spanning Joseon-era royal cuisine, French techniques, Chinese influences and modern reinterpretations. For a character who moves between eras, this hybrid approach became her signature. It was also one of Shin’s quiet missions: to reintroduce forgotten Korean ingredients and remind viewers of the depth of their culinary heritage.
Filming Bon Appétit, Your Majesty was nothing short of a marathon. Shin and his team worked through seasons, constantly moving between the hotel kitchen and the set. For eating scenes alone, the same dishes often had to be cooked dozens of times—continuously fresh, consistently perfect.
Read more: Bon Appétit, Your Majesty: how real royals have changed the way we eat
Above Shin brings the royal cuisine featured in the K-drama to life, with special menus at The Ambassador Seoul
Above Inspired by the K-drama, the menus will be available from now until December 31
Shin brings the royal cuisine featured in the K-drama to life, with special menus at The Ambassador Seoul
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Above The K-drama featured lavish feasts for royalty, which is what diners can expect from Shin’s menus
Above Working on the K-drama meant researching historical recipes, which come alive in the special menus
The K-drama featured lavish feasts for royalty, which is what diners can expect from Shin’s menus
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Some scenes remain vivid in his memory. The doenjang pasta moment in Buan, where he stepped into the chef’s jacket and demonstrated the cooking sequence himself. The physically taxing preparation of more than 60 ducks for the Peking duck roulade. The overnight shoot for the final episode that ran straight into another broadcast commitment. And the now-famous crispy rice dome for the black-boned chicken samgyetang—a dish so technically demanding that even the director joined in to fry the domes himself.
“These experiences went beyond cooking for the camera,” he says. “They were about collaboration, resilience and a shared purpose.”
The final episode—where Yeon Ji-young returns to the present day to create the “Daeryeong Suksu” menu at Restaurant Enfant—was filmed at The Ambassador Seoul. Watching the fictional chef sketch, taste and plate her dishes mirrored his own creative process so closely that the moment felt like a tribute to his career.
“It wasn’t just consulting,” he says. “It was an artistic collaboration expressed through food.”
Looking ahead, Shin hopes to continue elevating his hotel into one of South Korea’s leading culinary destinations. He envisions future international collaborations, Korean food promotions abroad and eventually a book, ‘101 Stories of My Cuisine’, a collection of memories, lessons and reflections accumulated over three decades in the kitchen.
If Bon Appétit, Your Majesty showcased anything, it’s that food becomes most powerful when it’s woven into narrative. And for Shin, that narrative is still unfolding—on screen, on the plate and now, in real life.
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Dudi Aureus is the senior dining and travel editor at Tatler Singapore, covering the city’s most exciting restaurants, global travel trends, and the personalities shaping the culinary and lifestyle scenes. She also serves as co-jury chair for the Tatler Best awards in Singapore, celebrating the very best in hospitality. When she’s off duty, she can often be found at a favourite hole-in-the-wall Thai spot, savouring a perfectly balanced pad thai.
