Putting Aside Nationalistic Bias, It’s Really Delicious

rob z says:

Very quick review:

MC is reincarnted in a novel world in a fantasy setting. He regains his memory at 18 just when he is joining the imperial knights – which is apparently a cushy job, like a well respected civil servant without any real fighting. Only problem – he is serving the princess who in the novel becomes empress and throws the empire into chaos (lot’s of unnecessary killings, rebellions, all that stuff – typical villainess story). So MC wants to get the heck out as soon as he can.

While in the imperial knights, he becomes the head chef / cook, and his cooking skills are seen as amazing, out of this world, etc – all the stuff he cooks is just basic Korean food, but for them it’s incredible (this is a common theme in Korean novels. I like Korean food and all, but guys, it’s not all that amazing as you portray in your novels). He even cooks for the princess, who is obsessed with his food (kimchi jjigae).

After 7 years, his term is up, and he retires. The higher ups try to keep him and make him re-inlist, but he is adamant he wants to return to his hometown. They eventually give in. However, he lied about where he is going because he does not want to be found. He instead goes to some backwoods fiefdom where he knows it will be safe from the upcoming wars and chaos, uses a bunch of his savings, and opens a restaurant, called the “Knight’s Restaurant”. And again, of course, everyone is obsessed with how amazing his food is.

However, there is very little real plot here. Each chapter is about 75% food, cooking, and eating, and the rest is only a little plot. In running his restaurant, he does encounter a cast of random characters – the steward of the region, a local knight, a mermaid princess who he basically forces to eat he flatfish friend named Sebastian (Little Mermaid reference), a meat eating elf, etc.

But nothing ever really happens. Its just a slow life cooking novel. The “obsession” is really only about the women being obsessed with MC’s cooking and wanting to monopolize him. SO a very niche kind of novel – not quite to my taste (pun intended).