2022 - Jan 30

Cupid’s Kitchen (Chinese: 舌尖上的心跳; pinyin: Shéjiān shàng de xīntiào) is a 2022 inspirational youth urban emotional Chinese drama based on Jiao Tang Dong Gua’s novel of the same name, directed by Li Jun and starring Ethan Juan, Song Zu’er, Liu Dongqin, Wang Zhuocheng, Wang Ruizi, Xu Jiawen, and Liu Linger. It tells the story of Lin Kesong, a girl with an amazing sense of taste, who happens to meet Jiang Qianfan, a chef in the Chinese gourmet world, and they start a story of food and love together. The drama will be broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV from January 13, 2022, and will be broadcast simultaneously on Tencent Video, iQiyi, and Youku Video.

Lin Ke-Song (played by Song Zu-Er), a girl with the gift of taste, has a secret crush on her classmate Song Yi-Ran (played by Liu Dong-Qin). While working at a hotel in Hangzhou, she accidentally meets Jiang Qian-Fan (played by Ruan Jing-Tian), a famous Michelin-starred chef who has lost his sense of taste. Song Yi-Ran invites Lin Ke-Song to dinner. She is mistaken as a participant in a taste-testing group in a private room at a restaurant where Jiang Qian-Fan cooks a dish for the group to provide feedback on. Lin Ke-Song realizes she is at the wrong place, sneaks out of the room & joins Song Yi-Ran at the right table where he receives a call from his current girlfriend.

Jiang Qian-Fan reviews all of the feedbacks from the taste-test, but rejects all 14 of them. He finds out there was 15 feedbacks, but one was thrown out, because it said there was a double grassy taste & there was no name. He, urgently, urges his staff to find the girl with the rare gift of taste. He has a chance meeting with her at a restaurant where she is crying, eating & upset because she was fired from her hotel job. He hires her for 3 days to take him to all the best places to eat in Hangzhou. Along the way, he tests her ability of taste & realizes her gift of taste is genuine.

Lin Ke-Song finds out at a party Song Yi-Ran is leaving for Shanghai to live with his new girlfriend & his older brother can provide a position for him there. She decides to follow him there, staying at her uncle’s place. Her cousin, Lin Xiao-Yu (played by Liu Ling-Er), enters a culinary contest, Future Culinary Star, & takes Lin Ke-Song with her as company, but is not allowed in unless she is a registered contestant. During the preliminary competition, Lin Ke-Song makes the worst dish & is dubbed “Evil Dragon Princess” by the film crew covering the competition.