Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Prem, Dynamite, and Samsi are best friends and culinary students aiming to participate in a cooking competition that could change their fortunes. However, Prem lacks the confidence to join, but gets an ego boost when he meets Ten, a medical student who falls in love with Prem’s Tom Kha Gai soup and persistently asks for personal cooking classes. Initially reluctant, Prem agrees to teach Ten for the money, and they gradually develop feelings for each other.
Directed by Golf Sakon Wongsinwiset (Club Friday/ Enchante), the 12-episode Thai series “Cooking Crush” (อาหารเป็นยังไงครับหมอ) is based on a novel titled “Love Course! Suea Gown Rak Suea Cook Rap”. Actor Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat plays the lead role of Prem, a sweet aspiring chef helping his grandmother run a quaint riverside restaurant, but he is insecure about his culinary skills. Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn plays Ten, a wealthy medical student who lost his mother as a child and has a strained relationship with his father. How these two young college students forge a bond and encourage each other is crux of the show.
The friendship between Prem, Dynamite (Aungpao Ochiris Suwanacheep), and Samsi (Dome Jaruwat Cheawaram) outshines the primary romance in “Cooking Crush.” The three friends religiously watch their favorite cooking show “Super Monster Chef” together while wearing fan t-shirts. They are huge fans of celebrity chef Changma (Victor Chatchawit Techarukpong), whom they eventually meet in person. There’s a running joke about Dome Jaruwat Cheawaram looking too old to be a college student, as his character is an older student who has dropped out of multiple courses. The trio is often bullied at college for being clumsy in the kitchen, but they turn out to be underdogs in the long run. The cooking competition storyline is clichéd, with overly dramatic tension that doesn’t blend well with the otherwise fluffy tone of “Cooking Crush”.
Last seen together in the gritty college-based thriller “Not Me,” Gun Atthaphan Phunsawat and Off Jumpol Adulkittiporn’s chemistry in “Cooking Crush” is surprisingly lukewarm, despite several cute romantic scenes. Although their interactions while they cook together is quite sweet, and it’s nice how each episode has a dish as its central theme. The writers introduce a “love rival” subplot to create tension, but it feels contrived. The rival angle wasn’t necessary, as Ten’s father’s issues with Prem had enough potential to generate twists in the plot but is under-explored. Its love, friendship and culinary dreams that takes center-stage in this romantic-comedy and if there’s one theme it does right – it’s to show how support and appreciation from friends and family can make a huge difference in a person’s life. Ten’s admiration for Prem’s recipes and the power of home-cooked meals is the show’s biggest takeaway.
An amusing subplot involves Dynamite romantically pursuing medical student Fire (Neo Trai Nimtawat), with their story providing plenty of laughs. Dynamite is very straightforward about his feelings for Fire, and both Aungpao Ochiris Suwanacheep and Neo Trai Nimtawat are entertainingly cute. Neo, who played a confident, self-centered serial dater in “Only Friends,” is a complete mommy’s boy with zero experience in love in “Cooking Crush.”
The cinematography, like most GMMTV romance shows, is colorful, bright, and screams romantic comedy. More scenes of Prem and his friends cooking authentic Thai dishes would have been nicer. Overall, “Cooking Crush” is a simple, cute college romance that is predictable and might be too bland for viewers seeking something fresh and intriguing. The story could have been wrapped up in ten episodes or even less. And every time I watch a BL romance by GMMTV that feels prolonged, I can’t help but complain about how “Moonlight Chicken,” another of their food-based romances, deserved to be longer than eight episodes.
Rating: 6 on 10. You can watch “Cooking Crush” on YouTube.
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