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Bon Appetit Your Majesty: Episodes 5-6 » Dramabeans

singabuzz September 9, 2025

Bon Appetit Your Majesty: Episodes 5-6

by Unit

Our tyrant has started catching feelings, but his oblivious chef is too busy trying to survive in his kitchen. She has barely recovered from MasterChef Joseon when she’s suddenly faced with another mission that puts herself and the entire country at risk. Who knew cooking could have diplomatic consequences? Definitely not our 21st century heroine.

EPISODES 5-6

After last week’s drunken kiss, Ji-young stays up all night in disbelief/annoyance, and she gets luxury eye bags to replace her missing handbag. Lol. To worsen matters, Heon doesn’t even remember the kiss! Still, Ji-young makes it clear that he’s not her type, and he reiterates that he doesn’t see her as a woman either. But this is a K-drama, so we know he shall eat those words real soon. I mean, the man is already scandalized when the head eunuch tells him that he “laid his lips” upon Ji-young’s lips. Loool.

Heon goes from scandalized to depressed when he’s reminded about his mother’s death, and he insists he wants to be alone. He also refuses to eat for a few days until hunger makes him think about Ji-young. Or was it the thought of her that made him hungry? Either way, dinner is served, and our chef and her tyrant are happy to see each other again. (But I suspect the happiest person in the room is the king’s food taster. Heh.) One thing about Heon is that he eats in a way that feels delightful and satisfying, and Ji-young finds his enjoyment of her food rewarding. She has a skip in her step as she leaves, and he has a skip in his heart as he peeks at her. “Why does my heart race so fast when I see you?” He wonders. It’s because you have a crush on her.

Mok-ju is upset that Heon broke his hunger strike with Ji-young’s meal (as opposed to starving to death?) and she decides to cook for him. After Heon’s monthly physical examination (helmed by Prince Jesan), Mok-ju serves them her food — or more accurately, the meal she instructed a senior chef to prepare. But Ji-young dazzles Heon and Prince Jesan with the sight of her schnitzel, and sends them to gastronomy heaven with the taste. Mok-ju 0:1 Ji-young. It’s Prince Jesan’s first time seeing Ji-young in person, and he’s impressed by the “great beauty who speaks without fear.” He even suggests the king rewards Ji-young for the satisfying meal. But all our chef wants is her handbag — which she’d rather not mention in the presence of Jesan and Mok-ju — so she says she’ll be fine with fresh ingredients for cooking.

Cue: Heon inviting Ji-young to the royal greenhouse ~~for a date~~ where she can get all the fresh ingredients she wants. Ji-young is delighted to find a patch of chili peppers — which is hilariously labelled as poisonous because the spice level killed a few Joseon folks. Her delight bubbles over when Heon returns her handbag, and she’s surprised when he apologizes for the drunken kiss. Who are you, sir, and what have you done with my tyrant?

Ji-young realizes Heon’s gestures are aimed at making her feel better, and she asks why. “It’s because I have begun to see you as a woman,” Heon admits to himself, and this realization rocks his entire world. Cue: a flustered Heon, and a panicked Ji-young (when she doesn’t find the mangunrok in her bag). Heon promises to send his troops to search for the book. But two mangunroks cannot exist in the same timeline, so good luck searching for Ji-young’s already disappeared copy.

A Ming envoy, YU KUN (Kim Hyung-mook), arrives in Joseon and makes a fuss about not being able to eat Joseon food. The worried ministers debate on meal alternatives, but as far as Heon is concerned, “Let him starve.” Whoop! That’s my tyrant, y’all! But starve, the envoy will not, because he brought three first-class cooks with him from Ming. The Ming cooks (who also double as martial artists) competed with — and won against — Joseon cooks in all the regions they passed through before reaching the palace, and Yu Kun is quite smug about their skills. Heon feels the same way about his royal cook, and Ji-young lives up to his confidence in her by attacking everyone’s tastebuds with the sweetness of her Joseon-styled macarons.

The Joseon-Ming tribute negotiations reach a deadlock because Heon refuses to give in to Yu Kun’s greedy demands. Yu Kun then suggests a Joseon vs. Ming cooking competition where the winning side gets to determine the terms of the tribute, and Heon agrees despite knowing that the competition is an excuse to extort Joseon. I mean, this is exactly why Yu Kun brought his cooks in the first place. Ji-young protests in private because she’s not sure how to compete with the diversity of Chinese cuisine. Besides, the king cannot suddenly tell her to bear the weight of the country’s future! What if she loses? “You will, of course, be charged with treason,” Heon replies. Ha! It’s also treasonous if Ji-young refuses to compete, so she has to win Culinary Nation Wars by all means.

Meanwhile, the Joseon ministers are not as confident as their king to stake the country’s future on Ji-young’s cooking. The queen dowager also feels the same way, and she dispatches a letter to the Ming emperor since she has a relationship with the Ming royal family. But Prince Jesan is all for the competition because he wants Heon to be humiliated by Joseon’s loss. Not you betting against your own country! Joseon’s loss will lead to Ming getting the rights to harvest all Joseon’s ginseng — and this in turn gives Prince Jesan’s Coup Squad the justification they need to replace the king.

The Right State Councilor — on behalf of the Coup Squad — secretly meets Yu Kun to inform him about the replacement plan. He promises to ensure Ming’s win in the cooking competition, and tells the greedy envoy to double the tribute demands to Heon. Smh. How can anyone tag sending 100 tribute women to Ming as a “small sacrifice” to protect their nation? The tribute women don’t deserve protection or what? Heon might be a tyrant, but the Coup Squad’s disgusting asses aren’t any better. If anything, Heon is a better leader for refusing to handover the commonwealth of Joseon to Ming without a fight. Even if said fight is a cooking competition.

Gong-gil informs Heon that the councilor met with Yu Kun. But I don’t think he has any information about what was discussed because he had to leave when one of the Ming chefs sensed his presence in the vicinity. Speaking of Gong-gil, there’s more to him than being the king’s jester and secret agent. I thought he dealt with the Heon’s assassin after the king told him to secretly look into the case. But now it seems he’s actually the masked assassin! Gong-gil learns the minister who hired him is connected to Prince Jesan — and since the attempted assassination was the minister’s solo action, Jesan wants the assassin eliminated to prevent Heon from finding him first and discovering the existence of the Coup Squad in the process.

As for Gong-gil’s motives, we learn that his older sister was a chaehong participant and she died in the palace. Gong-gil is looking into her death, and his only lead is a hairpin that was in her hand. He has traced the hairpin to the court lady who almost sabotaged Gil-geum’s effort to get clams for Ji-young during last week’s cooking contest. But he hasn’t gone as far as finding out that the court lady works for Mok-ju. Meanwhile, since Gong-gil thwarted the sabotage, Mok-ju assumes he has a thing for Ji-young — which will get in the way of her plans to further sabotage our chef. So she instructs the court lady to find out everything there is to know about Gong-gil.

Ji-young leaves the palace to grind dried chili peppers at the local mill, and Heon insists on coming along because the chili is a seasoning for the competition — which is a part of national affairs. Dude, just say you want to hang out with her! We get the Joseon version of the chaebol CEO date trope: Heon gives Ji-young a makeover, and flexes his Joseon black card to buy her everything she needs and more. He also purchases an ornament she admired because of its similarity to the one attached to her mangunrok. But their time-looped selves have no idea that it’s the same ornament! In return, Ji-young gives Heon iris flowers because they’re good for soothing the mind, and he’s touched by the gesture.

The week ends with a decision on the menu for Culinary Nation Wars. Round 1) a meat dish that has never been seen before; round 2) the Joseon cooks will prepare a Ming dish and vice versa; round 3) a soup dish containing ginseng — which is advantageous for Ming because they are known for their soups. To even the numbers, the two senior cooks will join Ji-young to face the three Ming cooks, and both sides are given five days to purchase their ingredients. “Brace yourselves, envoys. I’ll give you a blazing hot taste,” Ji-young vows. I’m rooting for you, sis!

Our show is done with its first half, and I’m impressed that it hasn’t dropped the ball. I love how Show knows we’re here for the food, and ensures that all major plot events are anchored around cooking. It’s nice to have a palace drama where political schemes aren’t overshadowing the fun, and my prayer is for the show to continue in this direction and not pull a switcheroo on us in the second half.