A love story that starts out fluffy and full of chemistry and ends in an underwhelming hurrah with a completely irrelevant tangent that ruins the characterisation of the leads. To sum up, I’m felt so underwhelmed coming out of this drama, because I came in expecting something great but was severely disappointed, to the point where I wanted to drop the drama going into episode 20ish. I applaud the acting and two lead’s chemistry despite the age gap, but the characterisation of them and tonal shift really let the whole story down.

STORY
The story started off well (really well) and then went downhill, fast. I enjoyed our two leads, Gu Sheng Nan and Lu Jin's meet cute moments, loved their banter and encounters and also the cooking aspect (which was why I picked up this show, love all things food). It felt very light hearted, humorous and playful the first 10 or so episodes and I liked seeing the two grow closer and feel something more for each other. I liked the main lead’s intense devotion, love and care for our female lead.
Then things I didn't like started to come one by one
I didn’t like how the love rivals popped in for a few episodes and then completely disappeared when they got rejected. Didn’t flow that nicely, and felt they were there for props rather than being smoothly integrated into the storyline.
I didn't like how whenever Gu Sheng Nan met trouble, Lu Jin would come to the rescue playing the white knight and flout money and power to resolve the problem. Rather than work through problems together, they both liked to do things solo and keep the other in the dark.
And then come episode 20 and onwards, the introduction of a whole new character (don't want to spoil who) was completely irrelevant and unexpected and to be honest, added no value and shifted the whole thing away from cooking, food and the kitchen. It turned into a business drama, super serious and with a revenge plot that felt so out of place. The tonal shift was too extreme, and by the time they tried to bring it to an end, I was so done with our two main leads. Lu Jin came off as possessive, completely at the mercy of Gu Sheng Nan, and literally felt he would jump off a cliff for her. And Gu Sheng Nan came off as super immature, naïve, annoying and completely oblivious to how her actions were hurting Lu Jin.

ACTING/CAST
Our two leads were great, good chemistry. Our male lead was a tad better at showing his care, concern and love in general and was good with verbally expressing his feelings.

The side couple was completely unnecessary, felt so cliché and typical. I was disinterested and skipped through their bits. Xu Zhao Di felt shallow and superficial as a character and I didn’t see her growth enough and couldn’t figure out why Meng Xin Jie liked her. Their relationship progressed so quickly I didn’t feel any romance at all, it felt really contrived.

MUSIC
Nothing all that special, the intro song is nice.

REWATCH VALUE
I’d rewatch the first few episodes of the cooking and seeing them get together, but then I'd have to drop the last half of the drama.

Overall, didn’t love this, which is a real shame because it started off really well. So if you want to give this a go, just beware the second half of the drama. Keen to hear your thoughts as always xx