Korean Food in Bon Appétit Your Majesty

Netflix’s popular Korean drama ‘Bon Appétit Your Majesty'(폭군의 셰프) combines royal fantasy, romance, and fusion Korean food. Chef Yeon Ji-young, a Michelin-starred chef from the future, travels back 500 years to the Joseon dynasty. Using traditional Korean ingredients, she creates innovative Korean-French fusion dishes. Many recipes are surprisingly simple and can be recreated at home. Let’s explore the most iconic dishes featured in the drama.

The Story Behind Korean Drama ‘Bon Appétit Your Majesty‘

The Netflix Korean drama tells the story of King Yeonhee, a tyrant with a refined palate, and chef Yeon Ji-young, who introduces him to the true meaning of taste. Their encounters highlight how food transcends time, politics, and even love. At its heart, the series emphasizes that cooking is not only nourishment but also a powerful form of connection.

This Korean drama is not only fun to watch for its variety of Korean food with Korean-French fusion dishes, but also educational as it introduces cooking techniques, while the light romance adds extra charm.

Korean Food from Bon Appétit Your Majesty

Butter Gochujang Bibimbap 버터 고추장 비빔밥

This gochujang butter bibimbap uses hazelnut brown butter instead of sesame oil, topped with mountain vegetables that capture the flavors of spring. Back in the Joseon era, gochujang didn’t exist yet, and most dishes were mild. That’s why King Yeonhee and Yeon Ji-young’s friend Seo Gil-geum were shocked at first by its spiciness. But the nutty, rich flavor of brown butter softens the heat of gochujang and elevates its depth, creating a French-inspired fusion bibimbap. It’s so delicious that both the King and Seo Gil-geum can’t stop eating.

Recipe of Gochujang Butter Bibimbap

This butter gochujang bibimbap is an easy Korean food to recreate at home. While fernbrake (gosari) and mountain greens are hard to find outside Korea, you can use common bibimbap vegetables like spinach, bean sprouts, carrots, and mushrooms.

Add hazelnut brown butter, gochujang, and a soft-fried egg or
poached egg on top. Since butter replaces sesame oil, don’t add both—otherwise, the flavors will clash. This dish shows that butter can be a perfect substitute if you don’t have Korean sesame oil at home.

Sous Vide Steak 수비드 스테이크

Yeon Ji-young discovers beef that’s fresh but extremely tough. Unlike Koreans today who love juicy, marbled beef like Wagyu, this cut needed to be tenderized. She chose the sous vide method to transform it into a melt-in-your-mouth steak.

Recipe of Sous Vide Steak

Cook the steak at 49–55°C using sous vide. She also prepares a seasoning powder with anchovies, salted shrimp, and mushrooms—a Joseon-era version of what we now know as MSG, bursting with umami. The King calls it cheon-ha il-mi (meaning “the best taste under heaven”), falling even more in love with the dish.

Korean French Haute Cuisine 코리안 프렌치 오뜨 퀴진

Rooted in the grandeur of Versailles, Chef Yeon presents authentic French haute cuisine with a Korean twist.

Recipe of Korean French Haute Cuisine

• Starter (Hors d’oeuvre): Yukhoe is originally a Korean beef tartare, but in this case, she made it using venison instead of beef, mixed with vegetables like pear, scallions, and sprouts, topped with egg yolk. And it’s served on crispy fried kelp chips.

• Soup (Potage): A thick pea soup.

• Main (Viande): Grilled venison tongue, cooked lightly over charcoal Korean BBQ style to enhance texture and flavor.

A funny moment happens when the King, unfamiliar with French, mimics the presentation in his own Korean way.

Trendy Yukhoe Recipe

This is a trendy Korean yukhoe recipe. At fusion Korean food bars, it’s often served with crispy fried rice paper, alongside the yukhoe (Korean raw beef tartare), for a modern, playful presentation.

Jaecheop Doenjang Soup Set Meal 재첩 된장국 반상

In a royal cooking contest, other chefs prepare elaborate court dishes like eomandu (dumplings wrapped in thin fish slices) and yeonpotang (clear tofu soup). But Yeon Ji-young surprises everyone with a humble meal: rice, spinach doenjang soup, fried tofu, and seasoned spinach.

Recipe of Jaecheop Doenjang Soup

Her special twist is adding freshwater clams (jaecheop) to the soup, making it refreshing and deeply flavorful. The Queen Mother is moved to tears, recalling her mother feeding her rice with doenjang soup before entering the palace.

By including spinach, Yeon softens the flavor and adds natural sweetness. She also explains that spinach is good for bones and anemia, emphasizing the Korean concept of sik-yak dong-won—food as medicine. This is the clam spinach doenjang soup recipe featured in the drama. Now, let’s try making K-drama dishes at home!

Recipe of Spinach Muchim

Spinach banchan, served alongside spinach doenjang soup, is a traditional Korean side dish seasoned with salt, sesame oil, and fish sauce.

Doenjang Pasta 된장 파스타

Of course, pasta didn’t exist in Joseon. So Yeon Ji-young makes pasta noodles from buckwheat instead.

Recipe of Doenjang Pasta

She makes buckwheat pasta noodles first and creates a savory sauce with stir-fried doenjang, clams for umami, and tops it with spinach and garlic for sweetness.

The King slurps it down in delight, twirling buckweat noodles with chopsticks and a spoon since forks didn’t exist at the time—a scene that adds a playful touch.

Creamy Doenjang Pasta

Korean doenjang has a stronger aroma and saltier taste than Japanese miso, so the doenjang pasta from the drama might feel intense if you’re not used to it. But with a touch of cream, it turns rich and cheese-like—perfect for a fusion creamy doenjang pasta. Add some doenjang-seasoned Korean BBQ on top, and you’ve got a dish worthy of a Michelin restaurant.

Although this isn’t one of the fusion Korean dishes from the drama, it’s a fusion Korean pasta made with doenjang, similar to the one in the show. By adding cream, it becomes a smooth, creamy doenjang pasta. The savory umami of the doenjang blends with the cream, creating a rich, cheese-like flavor.

Dried Pollack Consommé 북어 콩소메

A French-style consommé inspired by Korea’s Bugeo-guk (dried pollack soup). In Korea, Bugeo-guk is one of the hangover foods traditionally eaten after a night of heavy drinking.

Recipe of Dried Pollack Consommé

Normally, large strips of dried pollack are added directly to the soup. In the drama, however, the pollack is finely shredded and used only to flavor the broth, creating a clear, soup-like consommé. Thin egg crepe flowers are placed on top as garnish, and the finely shredded pollack is sprinkled over the egg petals.

Joseon style Schnitzel 독일 가정식 슈니첼

Schnitzel is probably a dish you’re familiar with. In the drama, Yeon Ji-young made a German-style schnitzel in the style of Korean donkatsu.

Recipe of Joseon Schnitzel

The meat is pounded thin to tenderize it. A light batter is dropped into hot oil to create a snowflake-like crispy coating, replacing traditional breadcrumbs. The thinly pounded beef is coated in flour and egg wash, then covered with breadcrumbs and fried, creating a Joseon-style schnitzel. Burdock root is served as a garnish, cut into sticks and coated in batter before frying. The dish is accompanied by tartar sauce paired with sweet and tangy raspberry jam.

Burdock, a naturally bitter root, helps balance the richness of the fried meat. Yeon Ji-young explains that she serves it as a metaphor, expressing concern that people may judge by outward appearances and miss what lies within, warning about ambitious ministers and deceitful courtiers.

Korean Donkatsu

In Korea, a dish similar to schnitzel is donkatsu (pork cutlet). Although donkatsu originally comes from Japan, there’s a difference in preparation: Japanese donkatsu uses slightly thicker cuts of meat, while in Korea, the meat is pounded thin and fried, much like a schnitzel. This recipe also includes a special donkatsu sauce made in Korean restaurants, so you can enjoy it just like in Korea.

Joseon-style Macarons 조선 마카롱

This time, Yeon Ji-young in Bon Appétit Your Majesty created Joseon-style macarons.

Recipe of Joseon Macaroons

The shells are made from black sesame seeds, almonds, butter, egg whites, and sugar, steamed in a traditional cauldron instead of baked in an oven.

The filling is made by mixing butter, sugar, and black sesame seeds. Five traditional Korean flavors—black sesame, mugwort, jujube, gardenia, and rice—are used to create a unique taste that captivated the palates of Chinese envoys.

Dongrae Pajeon 동래 파전

In Bon Appétit Your Majesty, Chef Yeonjiyong needed a pressure rice cooker and heard that one person could make it. His name is Jang Chunsaeng. At first, he denied making it, but the chef convinced him by preparing his hometown food. The dish is called Dongrae Pajeon.

In Busan, the spring onion Korean pancake originated, often made with seafood and green onions because Busan is located in the southern part of Korea, right next to the ocean. However, in this drama, it was hard to get seafood, so the chef made it with just pancake mix, eggs, and green onions. This is the seafood pancake that many people are familiar with. Koreans often eat it on rainy days with makgeolli (a traditional Korean rice wine) like in the Korean drama ‘Bon Appétit Your Majesty. Koreans always eat anju while drinking. Anju is a Korean bar food.

Recipe of Dongrae Pajeon

Mix flour, salt, and water to make the Korean pancake batter. On the pan, place long green onions first, then pour the pancake mix over them. Pour in the beaten egg. Fry both sides until golden.

Korean Seafood Pancake

If you add seafood to the green onion pancake, it becomes even tastier! Here’s the recipe for the seafood green onion pancake. And don’t forget to drink makgeolli with it!

Rice Moru Wine Beef Bourguignon 쌀 머루주 비프 브루기뇽

In Bon Appétit Your Majesty, a cooking competition takes place with Chinese envoys. Chef Yeon, who specializes in Korean food, had to create a dish that had never existed before.

The chef’s original plan was to blanch beef short ribs and then cook them in a pressure cooker with chili powder to make a Korean-style braised short rib dish. However, when the chili powder ran out, the chef decided to change the plan and instead make a Joseon-style Beef Bourguignon.

Recipe of Moru Beef Bourguignon

After blanching the beef short ribs, sear them in a pan to create the Maillard reaction. This step helps prevent the loss of juices. Then, in a pressure cooker, add the short ribs along with vegetables like carrots and mushrooms, and pour in a generous amount of moru wine to cook it like a French Beef Bourguignon. Since it’s cooked in a pressure cooker, the meat becomes even more tender. Afterward, add more moru wine and sear it in the pan to give it a smoky flavor.

Top the bourguignon with crispy rice for a crunchy texture. For garnish, make a puree of old pumpkin (pumpkin) and prepare some young leafy vegetables.

Boneless Galbi Jjim

Want to make Korean Galbi Jjim the easy way? Here’s a boneless galbi jjim recipe that you can make abroad. You don’t need short ribs with bones. If you cook with bone-in short ribs, you’ll need to blanch them to remove the blood and extra boil them. But if you use boneless meat, you don’t need to blanch or boil them extra.

Peking Duck Roll 북경오리 롤

Chef Yeon Ji-young intended to prepare a Peking duck, but due to interference from Kang Mok-joo, she failed to slice the duck properly. So during the competition, she switched to another dish, presenting a more creative menu.

Recipe of Peking Duck Roll

First, the duck is roasted in a clay oven, then given a hot oil shower to make the skin crispy.

On top of the Peking duck skin, chewy glutinous rice is placed and rolled up. For plating, a nutty sesame sauce (majang sauce) is served on the side, and the duck skin is arranged in a flower shape to add a playful presentation.

Wild Ginseng Black Chicken Samgyetang 산삼 오골계 삼계탕

In Korean food, there is a dish called Samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup). It is made by simmering a chicken with medicinal herbs for a long time so the meat becomes tender, the odor is removed, and the herbal aroma blends smoothly. Here in the drama ‘Bon Appetit Your Majesty’, Chef Yeon Ji-young uses Ogolgye (a silky black chicken with black meat and bones) to create her own version of Samgyetang.

Recipe of Wild Ginseng Black Chicken Samgyetang

Chef Yeon used a pressure cooker to make the Ogolgye (black chicken) tender and simmered it with medicinal herbs to enhance the aroma, just like Samgyetang. Then, she made a glutinous rice wrapper using the Ogolgye skin and filled it with finely chopped tender Ogolgye meat. These dumplings were lightly blanched in broth. Over the dumplings, she poured broth infused with wild ginseng, and on top, she placed a dome-shaped crispy scorched rice (nurungji). When the nurungji is cracked open, the Ogolgye dumplings are revealed, surprising the diners.

The dumplings have an incredibly soft texture, and each spoonful of broth carries the deep harmony of wild ginseng and fruity notes, making it a dish full of rich flavors.

Whole Ogolgye Chicken 오골계 통닭

In Bon Appétit Your Majesty, Yeonhui-gun’s half-brother wanted to taste Chef Yeon’s food after hearing about her dishes. So she recreated and slightly modified the recipes she had presented during her competition with Chinese envoys. On the table appeared Korean pickled radish (commonly served with fried chicken), a whole roasted Ogolgye chicken and mustard sauce.

Recipe of Whole Ogolgye Chicken

To infuse herbal flavors, the Ogolgye was stuffed with glutinous rice, jujubes, chestnuts, and astragalus root, then coated with butter on the outside. It was roasted in the same clay oven used earlier for the Peking duck, creating a traditional-style Korean chicken—this time with Ogolgye (Korean black chicken). As a dipping sauce, she ground mustard seeds and mixed them with salt, vinegar, and honey to serve a sweet honey mustard sauce alongside the chicken.

Nurungji Chicken Tongdak

This is a recipe for Nurungji Chicken Tongdak. In Korea, a whole roasted chicken is called Tongdak, and it’s considered the original style of Korean fried chicken. Recently in Korea, a trendy way to serve it is by placing crispy nurungji (scorched rice) on the bottom, melting mozzarella cheese on top, and then setting the roasted whole chicken over it. The light, less-greasy chicken pairs perfectly with the nutty flavor of the cheese.

Mandu Soup 만둣국

In Korean drama, ‘Bon Appétit Your Majesty’, the king’s half-brother fell ill after eating Yeon Ji-young’s chicken, leading to a misunderstanding that brought her much hardship. However, once the misunderstanding was cleared, she was released. The first breakfast she shared with King Yeonhui afterward featured a special soup—Mandu Soup.

In Korea, it is quite common to eat mandu soup in the morning. Even today, many enjoy it as a breakfast dish because it warms the body and can be prepared in just 5 minutes by simply boiling frozen dumplings in broth. It’s a quick and highly nutritious recipe.

Recipe of Mandu Soup

Traditionally, Korean mandu soup is made with seafood broth or beef bone broth, to which dumplings are added. Seasonings such as soy sauce for soup (guk-ganjang) and Korean fish sauce are used. Frozen dumplings are preferred because their wrappers hold up better and don’t tear easily while boiling.

Egg Mandu Soup

This is a Korean-style egg mandu soup recipe that can be made in just 5 minutes. As long as you have eggs and dumplings, you can whip it up with ease. The savory flavor of the dumplings combined with the warm broth makes it a highly nutritious breakfast that warms the body and starts the day right.

Joseon-Style Restaurer 조선 레스토레

When Prince Jinmyeong, the king’s half-brother, fell ill, Chef Yeon Ji-young prepared a restorative dish for him. The word restaurer in French means “to restore,” and the dish was created to help him regain his strength.

This Korean food includes tteok (Korean rice cakes) and sujebi (hand-pulled wheat dough flakes), both of which have a high glycemic index. While this could make it a fattening dish for ordinary people, it was the perfect energy-boosting restorative for the weakened prince. Remarkably, after just one bite, his convulsions began to subside.

Recipe of Joseon Restaurer

A nourishing broth is made by simmering beef shank, deer antlers, angelica root (danggui), and various traditional medicinal herbs. Then, a velouté sauce is created by mixing roux with the broth to give it a creamy texture. Into this base, small cylinder-shaped rice cakes and sujebi are added and simmered together to complete the dish.

Soy Meat Gujeolpan 콩고기 구절판

For the Grand Queen Dowager, who could not eat meat, Gujeolpan was made using soy meat, a plant-based alternative. Gujeolpan is a traditional royal Korean food served in a plate divided into nine sections, filled with various ingredients, and accompanied by thin wheat pancakes.

These pancakes are wrapped around different fillings and eaten by dipping them into soy sauce or other condiments. A distinctive feature of Gujeolpan is its colorful presentation, reflecting the five traditional Korean colors, called Obangsaek—blue, red, yellow, white, and black. Typically, beef or chicken, cucumber, carrot, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and egg garnish are included.

Recipe of Soy Meat Gujeolpan

In Bon Appetit Your Majesty, the Gujeolpan replaced meat with soy-based vegan meat. The ingredients placed in the Gujeolpan included thin wheat pancakes, soy meat, yellow egg garnish, white egg garnish, cucumber, zucchini, radish, shiitake mushroom, and water parsley.

Eggplant Pie 가지 파이

For dessert, Eggplant Pie was served. This pie was also vegan, made without meat or butter.

Recipe of Eggplant Pie

Chef Yeon created a vegan version of the pie as well. She used eggplant, gluten (flour), soaked beans, walnuts, sesame, ginger flower, almonds, and walnuts, paired with a soy sauce dressing, to make a Joseon-style vegan eggplant pie.

Green Tea Licorice Chocolate 녹차 감초 초콜릿

The snack that Chef Yeon gave to the King’s grandmother was green tea licorice chocolate. It was something he secretly made to give to the King.

FAQs About Bon Appétit, Your Majesty and Korean Food