For the Love of FOOD..
Nov. 3rd, 2015 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spsnI watched Burnt because, well, everybody was raving on the food porn, which was really a food porn. Maybe it's just me, but the way Western portrays food looks flat to me. It's like you're looking at the glossy magazine pictures, only it's moving, because it's a movie. The food, though beautiful, it looks cold to me, and that saddens me. Maybe I'm just so used to watching SMAPxSMAP or other Japanese varieties whereby they shoot food when they're still puffing hot and with the soft lighting that it doesn't look 'cold,' and I'm always left feeling hungry (if I watch the show empty stomach) afterwards. So, really, maybe it's just me. And to heal myself, I'm digging back my food themed drama stash because Japan has tons of them, and I'm sure I only watched a fraction of it as I always keep my other requirement for my drama watching, everything must look pretty, not just the food.
Rebound (2011) - Theme: pretty cakes. It's an adorable romcom and honestly stuck in my head and this drama definitely will come out on the list when it comes to food drama, I mean, look at those cakes. Even the simple strawberry shortcake looks nice (and accompany with the storyline, it'll give you another meaning).
Japan is like another different planet when it comes to rows and rows of pretty portioned dessert. You can eat it in the shop where they will plate for you and *for most of the shops, no extra charges* or pack for you to takeaway, and when I say pack, I really mean pack with the assurance that your cake will still look the same as the moment you choose that particular cake. The standard doesn't stop there, you basically just don't see any chipped, blotches, uneven or 'defective' desserts on the display. So, what you see in the drama is not exactly an exaggeration and with that in mind, have fun watching the cute female lead (Aibu Saki) devoured all those cakes and basically balooned up, shrunk back and 'rebound'ed back, and the cycle continues. Off course to add the prettiness of Mokomichi for our eye candy. I did the long review of this drama here.
Rows, rows and rows of pretty cakes.
The lighting here makes you feel nostalgic, well, it's aligned with the storyline :).
Hungry (2012) - Theme: French cuisine. You'll be pushing it if you're saying this drama is a romcom. Well, they tried and failed. The center of this drama is on how they survive as a team to keep the little restaurant running. I like the restaurant setting here. It's originally an old warehouse/small factory renovated into a restaurant with a rustic feels. And more importantly, the food! They have lots of scenes in the kitchen where they're actually zoom in on how the food is made. Most of food theme J-drama has this habit, and at the same time, it'd mean that the actors really have to train in order to look very convincing that they're professional cooks. For me who like cooking, this is fun because I get to watch how they do meatrolls, searing ducks etc closed up and pretty, and the result is also pretty (this is drama, unless storyline says it's not nice, then the food will look good and people in the drama will say it's nice, ha!). Oh, one more thing, if you're expecting a superb drama and storyline don't set too high of expectation here because overall, the story is rather bland, a mediocore drama at best, there's not much direction on it, but on the very bright side, the food really looks so good that even Mukai had his own cookbook/photobook *cough*. Longer review here.
The food looks warm when it needs to be and looks cold when it has to be, and presentation is PRETTY.
Dinner (2013) - Theme: Italian cuisine. Again, most of the action happened in the kitchen, and the setting this time is a 3 michellin star restaurant. I marathoned this drama and rewatch it again every now and then. The dynamic of the kitchen crew is interesting though there are lots of annoying people in the team, including the otaku chef (well, he's annoying but he can cook in the drama). They brought up couple of interesting poke in the food industry, such as the ideal of having the warmth hospitality of food versus formulatic recipe to produce the best taste. The drama even pokes on the food critic ethiquettes.
The amuzing fact is that Japan has lots of really good Italian restaurant and lots of them come with affordable price. They take care of the taste and authenticity. You can ascertain that you'll always have your pasta cooked right (aldente, never too soft or too hard).
More snippet of this drama here.
Tons of kitchen experiment and plated serving shots, and they all look very warm and appetizing. The feels!
Mayonaka no Panya-san (2013) - Theme: Bread. Watching this drama will definitely make you go hungry and at the same time dream of having your own bread shop. I mean, the setting is a small cozy and homey breadshop with the kitchen big enough for 2 person to work but enough to have 1 full set of stacked commercial oven (anybody who loves baking would kill to have this in their own home!), You get to see fresh puffing lovely breads from the moment they go to the oven, puffing inside the oven and coming out from the oven steaming hot! The storyline itself, mmm, it's interesting the first few episode but the plot went astray from the middle to the end. But not to worry, the bread and pastries make up for it, really. Summary of episode 1 here.
Oven POV shots and off course the breads... yum...
Shitsuren Chocolatier (2014) - Theme: Chocolate (as the title suggests). Based on the manga, which I like, they made this drama with all the pretty faces. Totally no complain in this department, I mean, Matsujun was glowing and buffed up for your eyes to enjoy. The chocolates, the main attraction here, they're so lovely and glossy. What I appreciate about this show that they also did lots of kitchen shoots and off course Matsujun worked on tempering and look cool while doing it as well. And the thing is, he's doing it correctly, not half-baked. Having the background of chocolate shop and lots of settings where they're preparing the chocolates will make you wanting sweets afterwards. Off course, the story itself is not your usual Getsuku romcom drama, and not everybody's cup of tea as well (saw lots of fans not happy on this drama, ha!). Why? Simple, the girl is a bitch (they try to downplay a bit from the manga, though), and the guy is not 100% angelic either, to me he's more of an asshole himself LOL. The drama is very faithful to the manga up to epi 4, but it went downhill afterwards as they're creating their own story, which is always a no no when you do live action adaptation.
Chocolates, chocolates, and chocolates...
Plated dessert from different angles, all the prettiness is what you can expect from this drama, really.
Tenno No Ryouriban (2015) - Theme: Old days French cuisine. Now, this is the drama that I totally recommend to watch. The food is pretty, the shots are pretty and more importantly, the story is good, AND the acting is damn good (not only Sato Takeru, but the rest of the casts as well). It's based on the real life story of Tokuzo Akiyama. The story begins from a country bumpkin Tokuzo up until the head chef Tokuzo serving the emperor. It's heartwarming series and be sure to have tissue box next to you because you'll need it, especially from episode 7 onwards. As this is to be considered a period drama, the French cuisine that we're talking about is the old school with the the food presentation back in the days. If you compare it with today's modern French food such as what you see in Hungry!, it'll look like a totally different cuisine. However, TBS is very good in zooming the food, and all food looks warm and inviting (the lighting!!!).
Zoom in! Close up! and still puffing! On the kitchen table.
And now the presentation to the guests, OMG, I'm going hungry.
Mondai no Aru Restaurant (2015) - Theme: French cuisine. Not much eye candy here, because the leads are all ladies, with all their problems, strengths and weaknesses. You can call this drama a pro-feminist drama tackling all those tough issues from sexism and sexual harrashment (the main issue), power harrashment to hikimori and family problems. And oh, all males in this drama are assholes. If Hungry!'s restaurant setting gives you rustic feels, the setting here will give you fuzzy and warm atmosphere whereby everybody just eat, enjoy the food and be merry. Food presentation is also different here.
See? It's more of home cooking.
Bambino (2007) - Theme: Italian cuisine. Another manga live action adaptation. The setting is more on the high end Italian restaurant, however, unlike Dinner, which takes on a homey restaurant setting, Bambino takes on the luxury atmosphere, so we're not really going to see food with homey feels. Again, more kitchen action, but with lots and tons of eye candies. Not really particularly fond of this drama because the dynamic of the kitchen crew is just bullying the newcomer and being disgruntled of the newcomer's background, and the excessive use of italian, the language.
Pretty food, as always.
Osen (2008) - Theme: Washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine). We're talking about the high end one here, whereby the restaurant goes by reservation. The story is more on the comedy side where we have the over the top apprentice and the airhead & most of the time drunk okami, but very reliable when she needs to be. In particular for this drama, what I like is in some of the episode they're talking about a specific ingredients eg. katsuo or miso and tracing back on where they originally come from, and how to make yummy food out of it.
Yep, we're talking about pretty food and this is basically definition of pretty & elegant food, and again it looks warm when it needs too and sashimi looks cold.
And, damn, even miso soup looks good here!
I think it's just the matter of preference what kind of presentation style that you like, for me, it just happens that I find the way J-drama presents the food and the story is more compelling :).
PS: I didn't include Kodoku no Gurume because I've never watched it and it's on season 5 already!
It's puffing hot and appetizing... yum!
Rebound (2011) - Theme: pretty cakes. It's an adorable romcom and honestly stuck in my head and this drama definitely will come out on the list when it comes to food drama, I mean, look at those cakes. Even the simple strawberry shortcake looks nice (and accompany with the storyline, it'll give you another meaning).
Japan is like another different planet when it comes to rows and rows of pretty portioned dessert. You can eat it in the shop where they will plate for you and *for most of the shops, no extra charges* or pack for you to takeaway, and when I say pack, I really mean pack with the assurance that your cake will still look the same as the moment you choose that particular cake. The standard doesn't stop there, you basically just don't see any chipped, blotches, uneven or 'defective' desserts on the display. So, what you see in the drama is not exactly an exaggeration and with that in mind, have fun watching the cute female lead (Aibu Saki) devoured all those cakes and basically balooned up, shrunk back and 'rebound'ed back, and the cycle continues. Off course to add the prettiness of Mokomichi for our eye candy. I did the long review of this drama here.
Rows, rows and rows of pretty cakes.
The lighting here makes you feel nostalgic, well, it's aligned with the storyline :).
Hungry (2012) - Theme: French cuisine. You'll be pushing it if you're saying this drama is a romcom. Well, they tried and failed. The center of this drama is on how they survive as a team to keep the little restaurant running. I like the restaurant setting here. It's originally an old warehouse/small factory renovated into a restaurant with a rustic feels. And more importantly, the food! They have lots of scenes in the kitchen where they're actually zoom in on how the food is made. Most of food theme J-drama has this habit, and at the same time, it'd mean that the actors really have to train in order to look very convincing that they're professional cooks. For me who like cooking, this is fun because I get to watch how they do meatrolls, searing ducks etc closed up and pretty, and the result is also pretty (this is drama, unless storyline says it's not nice, then the food will look good and people in the drama will say it's nice, ha!). Oh, one more thing, if you're expecting a superb drama and storyline don't set too high of expectation here because overall, the story is rather bland, a mediocore drama at best, there's not much direction on it, but on the very bright side, the food really looks so good that even Mukai had his own cookbook
The food looks warm when it needs to be and looks cold when it has to be, and presentation is PRETTY.
Dinner (2013) - Theme: Italian cuisine. Again, most of the action happened in the kitchen, and the setting this time is a 3 michellin star restaurant. I marathoned this drama and rewatch it again every now and then. The dynamic of the kitchen crew is interesting though there are lots of annoying people in the team, including the otaku chef (well, he's annoying but he can cook in the drama). They brought up couple of interesting poke in the food industry, such as the ideal of having the warmth hospitality of food versus formulatic recipe to produce the best taste. The drama even pokes on the food critic ethiquettes.
The amuzing fact is that Japan has lots of really good Italian restaurant and lots of them come with affordable price. They take care of the taste and authenticity. You can ascertain that you'll always have your pasta cooked right (aldente, never too soft or too hard).
More snippet of this drama here.
Tons of kitchen experiment and plated serving shots, and they all look very warm and appetizing. The feels!
Mayonaka no Panya-san (2013) - Theme: Bread. Watching this drama will definitely make you go hungry and at the same time dream of having your own bread shop. I mean, the setting is a small cozy and homey breadshop with the kitchen big enough for 2 person to work but enough to have 1 full set of stacked commercial oven (anybody who loves baking would kill to have this in their own home!), You get to see fresh puffing lovely breads from the moment they go to the oven, puffing inside the oven and coming out from the oven steaming hot! The storyline itself, mmm, it's interesting the first few episode but the plot went astray from the middle to the end. But not to worry, the bread and pastries make up for it, really. Summary of episode 1 here.
Oven POV shots and off course the breads... yum...
Shitsuren Chocolatier (2014) - Theme: Chocolate (as the title suggests). Based on the manga, which I like, they made this drama with all the pretty faces. Totally no complain in this department, I mean, Matsujun was glowing and buffed up for your eyes to enjoy. The chocolates, the main attraction here, they're so lovely and glossy. What I appreciate about this show that they also did lots of kitchen shoots and off course Matsujun worked on tempering and look cool while doing it as well. And the thing is, he's doing it correctly, not half-baked. Having the background of chocolate shop and lots of settings where they're preparing the chocolates will make you wanting sweets afterwards. Off course, the story itself is not your usual Getsuku romcom drama, and not everybody's cup of tea as well (saw lots of fans not happy on this drama, ha!). Why? Simple, the girl is a bitch (they try to downplay a bit from the manga, though), and the guy is not 100% angelic either, to me he's more of an asshole himself LOL. The drama is very faithful to the manga up to epi 4, but it went downhill afterwards as they're creating their own story, which is always a no no when you do live action adaptation.
Chocolates, chocolates, and chocolates...
Plated dessert from different angles, all the prettiness is what you can expect from this drama, really.
Tenno No Ryouriban (2015) - Theme: Old days French cuisine. Now, this is the drama that I totally recommend to watch. The food is pretty, the shots are pretty and more importantly, the story is good, AND the acting is damn good (not only Sato Takeru, but the rest of the casts as well). It's based on the real life story of Tokuzo Akiyama. The story begins from a country bumpkin Tokuzo up until the head chef Tokuzo serving the emperor. It's heartwarming series and be sure to have tissue box next to you because you'll need it, especially from episode 7 onwards. As this is to be considered a period drama, the French cuisine that we're talking about is the old school with the the food presentation back in the days. If you compare it with today's modern French food such as what you see in Hungry!, it'll look like a totally different cuisine. However, TBS is very good in zooming the food, and all food looks warm and inviting (the lighting!!!).
Zoom in! Close up! and still puffing! On the kitchen table.
And now the presentation to the guests, OMG, I'm going hungry.
Mondai no Aru Restaurant (2015) - Theme: French cuisine. Not much eye candy here, because the leads are all ladies, with all their problems, strengths and weaknesses. You can call this drama a pro-feminist drama tackling all those tough issues from sexism and sexual harrashment (the main issue), power harrashment to hikimori and family problems. And oh, all males in this drama are assholes. If Hungry!'s restaurant setting gives you rustic feels, the setting here will give you fuzzy and warm atmosphere whereby everybody just eat, enjoy the food and be merry. Food presentation is also different here.
See? It's more of home cooking.
Bambino (2007) - Theme: Italian cuisine. Another manga live action adaptation. The setting is more on the high end Italian restaurant, however, unlike Dinner, which takes on a homey restaurant setting, Bambino takes on the luxury atmosphere, so we're not really going to see food with homey feels. Again, more kitchen action, but with lots and tons of eye candies. Not really particularly fond of this drama because the dynamic of the kitchen crew is just bullying the newcomer and being disgruntled of the newcomer's background, and the excessive use of italian, the language.
Pretty food, as always.
Osen (2008) - Theme: Washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine). We're talking about the high end one here, whereby the restaurant goes by reservation. The story is more on the comedy side where we have the over the top apprentice and the airhead & most of the time drunk okami, but very reliable when she needs to be. In particular for this drama, what I like is in some of the episode they're talking about a specific ingredients eg. katsuo or miso and tracing back on where they originally come from, and how to make yummy food out of it.
Yep, we're talking about pretty food and this is basically definition of pretty & elegant food, and again it looks warm when it needs too and sashimi looks cold.
And, damn, even miso soup looks good here!
I think it's just the matter of preference what kind of presentation style that you like, for me, it just happens that I find the way J-drama presents the food and the story is more compelling :).
PS: I didn't include Kodoku no Gurume because I've never watched it and it's on season 5 already!
