Royal Feast
尚食
A 40-episode Ming-dynasty palace drama on Mango TV about a young cook who enters the imperial food bureau, built around cooking, rivalry and a slow-burning romance with a prince.
Save- Premiere
- Feb 22, 2022
- Episodes
- 40
- Where to watch
- Mango TV
- Also known as
- Shang Shi · 丐户 · Императорская кухня · Imperial Cuisine
About the drama
Palace dramas usually run on rivalry between consorts. Royal Feast (尚食, Shang Shi, "palace food bureau") moves the contest into the kitchen: the prize is the top post in the imperial food service, and the weapons are knives, fire and technique. Food is the subject of the whole series, not a side detail.
The production team largely reunites the people behind Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略), including chief producer Yu Zheng (于正) and the two leads, Xu Kai (许凯) and Wu Jinyan (吴谨言). China Daily reported that the crew hired a professional food team to research and design the dishes and cooked them on set. One example it gave: six carvers spent seven days carving the Tang-dynasty painter Wang Wei's Wangchuan Map (辋川图) into a cold platter.
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In the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty, a young woman named Yao Zijin (姚子衿, played by Wu Jinyan) enters the palace and is selected as a cook in the Shangshi Bureau (尚食局), the palace food bureau. She holds to the craft, learns it seriously, makes friends, and meets Zhu Zhanji (朱瞻基, Xu Kai), grandson of the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di (朱棣, Yu Rongguang 于荣光). Their relationship has several turns.
The kitchen has its own hierarchy. Su Yuehua (苏月华, Wang Churan 王楚然) is a gifted cook who wants the highest standard of cuisine. Yin Ziping (殷紫萍, He Ruixian 何瑞贤) comes from a "beggar household" (丐户, gaihu), refuses to accept a lowly position, and competes for the top post to change her fate. Chief Meng (孟尚食, Wang Yan 王艳) is among the best cooks in the palace and wants power as much as good food. Zhu Di himself is the series' hidden gourmet.
The series is set in the early Ming dynasty. It is set in the Yongle era and follows three emperors, using the palace food bureau to show their reigns and family life.
It was meant for Hunan Satellite TV, but when that slot did not come through it streamed exclusively on Mango TV, starting February 22, 2022. Jiemian News reported that six episodes passed 70 million plays on the platform within 24 hours of launch, which it called short of what a lead title needs. The same outlet noted that the muted color palette, much admired in Story of Yanxi Palace, was now criticized as gloomy, and that the Ming-or-Korean costume debate became a social media topic.
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