Pasta (Korean Drama)

Pasta (Korean TV Drama Series) tells the story of Seo Yoo Kyung (Kong Hyo-jin), a young kitchen assistant who dreams of becoming a successful first-class chef. La Sfera, the restaurant she works in, decides to hire a big-shot chef who went to culinary school in Italy, Choi Hyun-wook (Lee Sun Gyun) under whom she struggles for validation but eventually falls in love with.

I loved watching every tasty episode of this Kdrama series. The storyline is good, dialog and camera work are excellent, and the chemistry between lead actors Kong Hyo-jin and Lee Sun Gyun is spectacular - I can watch them banter all day! If this capsule review doesn't convince you, maybe the scrumptious food shots will?

Pasta was aired by MBC in South Korea from January 4 - March 9, 2010. If you want to learn more about the K-drama, please read on.

Image is the cover of the Pasta DVD, available from YesAsia.

The Korean drama Pasta is a joy to watch. It has a good plot, the characters are appealing, the dialog and pacing are excellent, and the cinematography is gorgeous. I was particularly impressed with the lead actors great chemistry - Kong Hyo-jin and Lee Sun Gyun were perfectly cast to play kitchen assistant/junior cook Seo Yoo Kyung and head chef Choi Hyun-wook respectively. Watch the trailer below and get a taste of Pasta, a delicious K-drama.

Their story begins with a pair of goldfish that Hyo-jin drops while crossing the street...

Seo Yoo Kyung (Kong Hyo-jin) has been working as a kitchen assistant at Gangnam district's La Sfera Restaurant for three years but her ultimate dream is to be a top Italian cuisine chef someday. On the day she's supposed to advance and finally become a cook, the restaurant management hires a new chef, the stuck-up Choi Hyun-wook (Lee Seon Gyeon) who went to culinary school in Italy.

Upon his arrival, all the female chefs are fired and due to perseverance, Yoo Kyung finds herself the lone female cook. Hyun-wook also brings in three of his former chefs in Italy which of course threatens the restaurant's existing male cooks who never got the chance to study abroad themselves.

Because of Hyun-wook's militaristic rule, sales begin to drop and so to boost La Sfera's business, restaurant owner Kim San (Alex Chu) finds a way to hire celebrity chef Oh Sae Young (Lee Ha-nui a.k.a. Honey Lee) to head the cooks side-by-side with Hyun Wook. Hyun-wook strongly opposes this development because it turns out that he and Sae-young were lovers back in Italy but they broke up because she destroyed one of his important ingredients for a culinary competition in order to win the prize herself.

Hyun-wook and Sae Young end up going head to head in the kitchen, leaving all the cooks - especially Yoo Kyung who happens to be the most junior - caught in the awkward middle. Things become even more complex when Yoo Kyung develops feelings for Hyun-wook and he begins to reciprocate.

Seo Yoo-Kyung, played by Kong Hyo-jin

The daughter of a Chinese noodle restaurant owner, she dreams of becoming a top female chef just like her idol celebrity chef Oh Sae Young. She works as a kitchen assistant for 3 years at La Sfera and finally gets promoted to chef by the former management, but after a new head chef - Choi Hyun-wook - is hired, she is on the verge of losing her job. She manages to keep her job, thanks to restaurant manager Kim San who's always been watching over her (and secretly loves her). Yoo-Kyung still has a long way to go before she earns chef Hyun-wook's respect. She makes an effort to learn as much as she can from him and he, in turn, starts to grow fond of her.

Choi Hyun-wook, played by Lee Sun Gyun

A chef who rose to the top of his profession after starting at the bottom in an Italian restaurant in Sicily. He becomes head of La Sfera restaurant after he is offered a hefty salary and housing by management. He does not tolerate kitchen romances and strongly declares that there will be no women in his kitchen. Things go awry when he ends up with two female chefs in La Sfera, his ex-girlfriend Oh Sae Young and the junior cook Yoo-kyung whom he eventually falls in love with.

Oh Sae-young, played by Lee Ha-nui

Sae Young is Yoo-kyung's idol who, in a surprising turn of events, ends up being her roommate. Sae-young has her own cooking show and is the most celebrated female chef in Korea. She and Hyun-wook dated when they were in culinary school in Italy but they broke up because she ruined one of his recipe's ingredients so she can win the Grand Prize at a culinary competition.

Kim San, played by Alex (Clazziquai Project)

Kim San is the actual owner of the La Sfera restaurant, but he hides this fact and poses as a regular restaurant patron for 3 years. One day, he takes a peek at Yoo-Kyung's notes and develops an interest in her. Nobody pays much attention to Yoo-Kyung, who is a kitchen assistant, but Kim San watches her closely and leaves pictures of cactuses in bloom and little notes on her locker door. He helps Yoo-Kyung from behind the scenes as he secretly develops feelings for her.

Friction in the kitchen begins when Head Chef Choi Hyun-Wook decides to bring over his team of chefs from Italy into La Sfera Restaurant. Naturally, the Korean-trained chefs - especially Sous Chef Seok-ho Keum who was expecting a promotion to Head Chef from management - was not happy with the decision. Here's the rest of the cast.

La Sfera Restaurant's Korea-trained Chefs

Miffed that Chef Hyun-wook favors the boys from Italy, Sous Chef Keum Seok-ho (Lee Hyeong-Cheol) gathers the other Korea-trained cooks Ho-nam Jeong (Jo Sang-Ki), Seung-jae Min (Baek Bong-Ki), and Sang-sik Han (Heo Tae-Hee) and arranges for them to join a culinary competition behind the head chef and restaurant management's back so they can prove themselves worthy.

La Sfera Restaurant's Italy-trained Chefs (imported by Head Chef Choi Hyun Wook)

Meanwhile, Choi Hyun-wook's boys from Italy Woo-deok Seon (Kim Tae-Ho), Phillip (No Min-Woo), and Ji-hoon Lee (Hyun Woo) are given the coveted pasta chef designations, to the local chefs' dismay. They have an advantage, considering that they trained in top Italian culinary schools, not to mention that they are all very good-looking.

Photo credits: local chefs / Italy chefs

Chu Hun Gon or "Alex" is one of the members of South Korean experimental band Clazziquai Project*. They are known for combining several genres including electronic music, acid jazz and house. Naturally, Clazziquai has a track on Pasta's OST titled "Part Time Lover".

Watch him perform along with the rest of Clazziquai in the video for "Loverboy", a song off their 2007 album "Love Child of the Century" below.

*Learn more about Clazziquai Project on my Korean Indie Music page.

No Minwoo and Hyeon Woo (who play Italy-trained chefs Philip and Ji-hoon respectively) are members of the K-Pop project group 24/7. Watch their music video for "That Guy's Girl".

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