Bon Appétit, Your Majesty episode 4 review: Course N° 4 **** and Spinach Doenjang Soup, tears, palace schemes, and a drunken kiss

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty delivers its most layered episode so far. In its fourth course, the drama unites the intensity of a royal cooking competition, the weight of political schemes and the fragile beginnings of a romance that dares to take root inside a hostile palace.

Food isn’t a backdrop here but the pulse of the story, moving characters into tears, forcing decisions that alter lives and offering solace where words fall short.

The challenge of filial piety

The competition organized by Dowager Queen In-ju in the previous episode of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, takes place now and sets filial piety as its theme, demanding dishes prepared with tofu and doenjang. While her rivals secure the best ingredients, Ji-young is left with broken tofu and an inferior paste until her attention shifts to the unusual sight of fresh spinach, a rarity in Joseon.

Eunuch Yoon, who sees her struggle, recalls the dowager queen’s mother and the soup she once cherished before leaving home for palace life. His story changes the course of Ji-young’s plan, and she decides to recreate that soup rather than pursue her original dish.

What follows isn’t a straightforward homage but an act of invention born of desperation, with Ji-young enriching the broth with clams and folding the spinach into her recipe, thus creating a dish that initially draws suspicion but soon reveals its power.

When Dowager Queen In-ju tastes the soup, the recognition overwhelms her and she weeps, carried back to the memory of her mother’s table. Ji-young wins the competition, but more than that, she proves that food can awaken grief, longing, and love all at once.

Mercy at the royal table

The victory comes at a terrible cost, for King Yi-heon had promised to punish the losers by cutting off their arms. His command is swift, but Ji-young can’t stand silent while lives are broken in front of her. She falls to her knees and argues that taking a cook’s arm isn’t discipline but destruction, stripping away the very core of their existence.

Ji-young's plea resonates, and when the dowager queen supports her words, Yi-heon relents. The chefs are spared, and in that moment mercy becomes as essential to the palace as any dish.

Shadows and conspiracies around Yi-heon

Even with Ji-young’s presence softening the mood, Yi-heon remains surrounded by plots. The exile of Governor Hong, the rumors about Ji-young’s arrival and the unanswered questions about his mother’s death tighten the net around him.

Kang denies involvement, but suspicion lingers, and the king finds himself more isolated than ever. The fourth episode of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty paints him not as a cruel ruler but as a man caught between the weight of authority and the loneliness of distrust, a figure marked less by tyranny than by grief.

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty and the taste of longing

The closing act of Bon Appétit, Your Majesty shifts from the public stage to an intimate space. Yi-heon, heavy with alcohol and despair, receives food from Ji-young. She offers not only nourishment but also presence, staying when he asks, quiet beside him while the palace sleeps.

In his vulnerability, Yi-heon reaches for what has been simmering between them since the start. He pulls her close and kisses her, not as a monarch demanding loyalty but as a man desperate for connection.

Trending

It’s a moment steeped in contradiction, where duty collides with desire and longing briefly triumphs over caution. That Bon Appétit, Your Majesty allows such a development only four episodes in speaks to its confidence. The drama understands that intimacy, like food, doesn’t need to wait for the perfect occasion. It arrives hot, unexpected, and unforgettable.

Rating with a touch of flair: 5 out of 5 simmering soups carrying memory, mercy, and forbidden desire.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback