I will dispel your father's curse. You haven't realized who you are yet.

SHISON JUN as Kai Asakura Fermat's Cuisine (2023)

You told me to master what I love. But I failed.

TAKAHASHI FUMIYA as KITADA GAKU

FERMAT'S CUISINE (2023) | 1.09

Just your normal amount of jealousy between boyfriends

Fumiya Takahashi and Rihito Itagaki as Gaku Kitada and Inui Magoroku in FERMAT'S CUISINE [EP05 | EP07] (2023)

chef kai, what is this behavior?

I checked how high I could cook them without breaking the fibers. I found it was 52 degrees. I couldn't grill them with that. But, I could fry them!

FERMAT NO RYŌRI FERMAT’S CUISINE

posting the clip of Kai imitating Gaku because I needed easy access to it for like science or whatever

Fermat's Cuisine is an Intergenerational Trauma Narrative

When @troubled-mind pitched Fermat's Cuisine to me, I knew I'd be watching it soon, and I went in expecting it to be a kind of classic high stakes restaurant drama with a twist, about a math prodigy slash newbie chef learning the ropes from an intense mentor, figuring out how to translate his special skill and function as part of a well-oiled cooperative team, and taking the restaurant world by storm.

And it was that, partly (until it wasn't). But the core narrative in this drama is not really about food or math or a classic success through adversity arc at all. Instead, it's about the intergenerational trauma passed down through a lineage of abusive haute cuisine chefs, the deep psychological damage they do to each other, and the way our protagonist and his mentor ultimately come together to break the cycle. Obviously, because I am me, this revelation was a goddamn delight and a very welcome surprise. I'm going to dig in on how this theme defined the narrative, so spoilers ahead, folks!

There are many dramas that touch on how extremely high stress restaurant environments are as workplaces and how rampant abuse can get in kitchens. It's quite a common theme explored in most stories about professional chefs. But this drama didn't simply nod to these elements or include them as an added tension point, it doubled down on them and built in an additional layer by centering its story on a lineage of chefs (Shibuya->Kai->Gaku) who explicitly took their protégés into their homes as parent figures.

Shibuya found Kai when he was an unhoused and orphaned child and raised him, bringing him home to live with him and providing him with shelter and material support and a chosen career path. And then he proceeded to mentor him in such an emotionally abusive way that it's kind of a miracle Kai still had any humanity left in him by the time he found Gaku and began to repeat the cycle. Shibuya taught Kai that his entire worth as a human being was dependent on his ability to cook, not just well, but at a level that few in the world can ever hope to achieve. He raised him to strive to "surpass God" with his food and to feel worthless if he couldn't continually top himself. And he raised him to think there was only glory in this achievement if he did it alone, without relying on bonds with other people to support him.

This is deeply fucked up stuff, and it predictably fucked Kai up, especially once he developed an illness that impacted his ability to taste, and therefore, his ability to cook. He found Gaku and repeated the patterns he learned in his childhood to try to quickly mold him into the same kind of chef he feared he could no longer be, and then abandoned him alone with all the same impossible expectations he was raised with, turning him quickly from a sweet kid with a genuine love for learning how to master his job into an abusive tyrant in his own right. Gaku was just a kid, however, no matter how talented, and he couldn't sustain these responsibilities Kai put on him, so it all came crashing down rather quickly, pushing Gaku to go in search of his wayward mentor and pulling them back together in their shared failure. And ultimately, they decided that their only option left was to try working together to achieve their dream in defiance of Shibuya's teachings.

Which led to one of the best scenes in the drama and the one that clinched this story for me, when after cooking a meal for him together, Gaku directly confronted Shibuya on Kai's behalf and demanded that he acknowledge Kai in the way he deserves, giving Kai the catharsis he has been desperately needing for years. Did Shibuya suddenly change his perspective and apologize for his wrongs? Of course not. But the drama showed us how wrong he was by bringing Gaku and Kai together, with the support of their colleagues, to defy his teachings and make beautiful food together their way. And Shibuya was forced to relinquish his hold on Kai, finally giving him the approval he was so desperate for and releasing him from his expectations. Kai broke the cycle with Gaku's help, and thus began to heal. And in helping Kai, Gaku saved himself, as well.

Now, can I claim the execution of this arc in the show was perfect? No, I definitely cannot. This drama is extremely watchable, has a great cast, and was built around a fantastic main idea, but it also has some pretty significant flaws in how it all came together. There were serious pacing problems in this story--some character information was withheld for too long, some narrative beats were rushed to the point that they barely landed, and some character turns were simply not well grounded enough to feel believable. I have a whole reef of notes about how to rearrange the story elements to make it all work on a higher level. But the core of this story is solid and the ending rings true, despite some bumps on the journey to get there.

I highly recommend y'all check this drama out for something a little different and very refreshing. And hey, it's not often that Japan puts their content on major western streaming services and gives us all easy access to enjoy their work, so we should encourage the practice.

Itagaki Rihito as Inui Magoroku Fermat no Ryori (2023)

Fermat no Ryori | S01E05

Japanese Drama - 2023, 10 Episodes

Episodes | Viki | YouTube | iQIYI | WeTV | Tencent | Netflix | Catalogue

Well done.

Fermat's Cuisine (2023) 1.02

We found the perfect answer together. We are not alone.

FERMAT'S CUISINE (2023) | 1.10

Fumiya Takahashi and Rihito Itagaki

ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ʷᵉʳᵉ ᵛᵒᵈᵏᵃ, ⁱ'ᵈ ᵇᵉ ˢᵒ ᵈʳᵘⁿᵏ ʳⁱᵍʰᵗ ⁿᵒʷ

If n=1 is true, and assuming n=k is true, which proves n=k+1 to be also true, the following must also be true.

FERMAT NO RYŌRI FERMAT’S CUISINE

If someone doesn't run to eat your food like that, are they even worth cooking for?

Also he's so damn pretty.