One scandal, one rookie replacement—and by episode four we were screaming at our screens. This isn’t just another drama. This is the one you have to watch.
(Poster of Bon appétit, Your Majesty)
I’ll be honest, the casting news had me worried from the start. Sure, I trusted the project because Yoona (Im Yoon-ah) chose it—her picks always come with a certain guarantee of quality. But when Park was first announced, it didn’t sit right with me. The image didn’t match, and the idea of him playing Yeonhui-gun—a character modeled after Yeonsan-gun, the infamous tyrant of Joseon, though renamed in the drama—not just as a tyrant, but as one shaped for a romantic comedy, acting opposite Yoona, felt especially off. Then the scandal hit, he was out, and honestly, that part felt like a relief.
(Yoona)
But then came the real gamble: the replacement. Rookie actor Lee Chaemin. Dropped into the role barely ten days before shooting. And if you’d seen his previous modern dramas like I had, you’d have doubted too—could he really stand next to Yoona and carry a character?
(Lee Chaemin)
Turns out, all those worries were useless. Bon appétit, Your Majesty(폭군의 셰프) didn’t just survive—it soared.
His delivery, his tone, his expressions—everything was locked in. The scenes where he loses control, eyes blazing with rage, didn’t look like a rookie fumbling his first sageuk. They looked like an actor who had already lived through several of them. And then, in the very next beat, through Ji-young’s eyes, he transforms into this ridiculous younger man—clingy, needy, someone you have to spoon-feed just to keep him going. That swing between “terrifying tyrant” and “baby brother who can’t eat without you” is so smooth it’s insane. Honestly, the fact that he’d only done modern dramas before might have made this transformation hit even harder. And of course, there’s the secret weapon: director Jang Tae-yoo’s razor-sharp direction. You can feel his hand in how quickly Chaemin’s sageuk tone stabilized. (He’s Jang Tae-yoo, king of historical dramas… what did we expect?)
.png "Lee Chaemin shifts seamlessly between terrifying tyrant and needy baby brother")
.png "Lee Chaemin shifts seamlessly between terrifying tyrant and needy baby brother")
(Lee Chaemin shifts seamlessly between terrifying tyrant and needy baby brother)
But let’s be clear: he didn’t pull this off alone. The anchor is Yoona. Ji-young is pure fantasy—a French chef who time-slips into Joseon and ends up cooking for a tyrant with an absolute palate—but Yoona makes every part of it believable. Her steadiness gives Chaemin room to fly, turning their “older chef × younger tyrant” chemistry into something irresistible. Yoona’s drama track record? Unstoppable for a reason.
.png "Yoona’s presence anchors the story, turning fantasy into something believable")
.png "Yoona’s presence anchors the story, turning fantasy into something believable")
(Yoona’s presence anchors the story, turning fantasy into something believable)
And then there’s the visual kicker: the real-life age gap of ten years, paired with a full 20cm height difference. Yoona herself is already tall for a Korean actress at around 170cm, yet next to Chaemin’s 190cm frame, the contrast becomes a built-in device for the drama. It’s a literal embodiment of “younger tyrant” made real. It even lines up perfectly with history—Yeonsan-gun ascended the throne at eighteen. Which is why those scenes of him drinking, crying for his mother don’t read as pathetic middle-aged angst; they land as raw, boyish heartbreak. If the original casting had stayed, would we have gotten this level of emotional pull? No way.
.png "Together on screen, their chemistry makes even fantasy feel convincing")
.png "Together on screen, their chemistry makes even fantasy feel convincing")
.png "Together on screen, their chemistry makes even fantasy feel convincing")
(Together on screen, their chemistry makes even fantasy feel convincing)
And the Korean audience agrees. Nationwide ratings jumped from 4.8% in episode one to 11% by episode four, and domestic reactions have been just as loud: people are calling it a casting miracle, praising Yoona for anchoring the drama with unbeatable consistency, and screaming the truth outright—“Replacing the actor was a god-tier move,” “No way it would’ve worked with the original.”
.png "Chaemin holds his own, blending seamlessly with veteran actors")
.png "Chaemin holds his own, blending seamlessly with veteran actors")
(Chaemin holds his own, blending seamlessly with veteran actors)
Bottom line? Bon appétit, Your Majesty became what it is because a daring rookie performance met an unshakable veteran core. A miracle of a drama, born from a casting twist no one saw coming.
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Want to watch it yourself?
- Watch on Netflix
- Watch on TVING
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*Last updated: 2025.09.05
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