by: Raine

—

The next episodes may come out slower. I have lost my ability to screencap quickly. (My PC died.) *le sob* But I will try to find a solution as fast as possible. If anyone knows of a great screencapping software for Mac, lemme know! Now I present to you another adorable episode of Pasta.

“Will“ – M To M (from the Pasta OST)

episode 16 recap

After the Chef declares his love for Yoo-kyung, he quits, surprising everyone. He goes to pack his things in the Chef’s office where San and Sae-young try to convince him to stay. But he remains steadfast.

As the dining hall staff watched, Hyun-wook asks a gloating Seol for an espresso and they have a pissing contest. Hyun-wook tells Seol he’ll see him again. San and Sae-young watch woefully. When Hyun-wook leaves, Yoo-kyung stares after him, utterly disheartened. He promises to talk to her after dinner.

Team Italy stops him as he’s leaving, shocked that he’s actually going. They don’t care what he said before. Chef warns them not to quit or to give Oh Sae-young chef a hard time and leaves without turning back.

Team Korea is ecstatic, save for the sous chef who looks strangely pensive.

In San’s office, Sae-young is throwing a pity party, saying she ultimately pushed Hyun-wook out. San replies that she brought him here. She decides that she will take responsibility for the kitchen. Um, you invaded the kitchen. Of course you should take responsibility. This girl has seriously backwards logic.

Team Korea (save the sous chef) is having a grinning field day in the kitchen. Ho-nam keeps ragging on Yoo-kyung and saying the kitchen is now so peaceful. Chef Oh tells them that the customers don’t know what’s going on in the kitchen – they still expect good food and good service.

Yoo-kyung messes up a dish and Min Seung-jae of Team Korea gets scolded for neglecting to teach Yoo-kyung. Chef Oh politely orders him to do it properly and he’s grinning from ear to ear. “Yae chef! If I get scolded in this way, I’d be glad to get scolded a hundred times.”

Team Italy lays into them, saying that they must be scolded properly to learn properly and that teaching is different than just trying to get along (taking a jab at Chef Oh’s peacemaking.) A fight starts up that is quickly stopped by Chef Oh. The sous chef looks as troubled as Yoo-kyung.

In a moment of longing, Yoo-kyung imagines the Chef yelling and teaching while she grins like an idiot. When the vision dissipates, she looks forlorn.

In the locker room, Yoo-kyung sits in his locker as she did in the second episode, missing him.

Back at the apartment, Hyun-wook waits for her and is surprised when she stalks past him. She is angry because she loves to work with him in the kitchen and he threw everything away for her. Did you think I would praise you? she asks to which he replies in the affirmative, not caring to walk on eggshells anymore. He should’ve been more patient. He just threw a tantrum, creating a mess without a care for the consequences.

Team Italy (plus Eun-soo) quits, shocking San and Sae-young, refusing to return until Choi Hyun-wook chef does.

Hyun-wook and Yoo-kyung continue their argument in the elevator. When he suggests that she quit, too, she points out that she doesn’t have the skills to follow him. Jealous, he spits, “Just stay there where you have everything good. The boss likes you. You must be happy.”

They take their argument into the hallway. If they go to another kitchen together, it will be awkward for him because of her – because of their relationship and her skills. La Sfera is the only place where they can share a kitchen. She apologizes for how it’s turned out and she’ll do anything he says – anything but quit.

“Come back, chep.”

He stalks into his apartment.

Yoo-kyung’s brother tells her father that there is a famous female chef. Her father is even more sure than he wants Yoo-kyung to work hard to be the best or she won’t grow.

Later, stubborn Yoo-kyung rings the Chef’s doorbell. Although he repeatedly tells her to quit, she remains steadfast. It’s going to be hard, he says. You’re going to take the heat for both of us and you can’t handle that alone. Sexist bastard. Predictably, she leaves.

In the locker room, Yoo-kyung finds a photo of a flowering cactus plant on her door. San comes in and tells her that he’d rather have her there, with the Chef, than leave to follow him. That prompts her to kindly (and cruelly) tell him that the more she gets to know him, the more she likes him.

The next little scene made me cackle with glee: Seol freaking out over the loss of four chefs in a busy kitchen. He calls the Waste-of-Space trio to beg them to come help him out, but they refuse because they’re busy with their new pasta shop.

Team Italy go to Hyun-wook’s apartment to inform him that they’ve quit and get smacked upside their heads. “The person I tell to quiet, doesn’t, and the ones I tell not to quit, do.” He makes them leave via the stairs. Ha!

Chef Choi Hyun-wook is not the only sexist bastard in the show. Ho-nam starts in on Yoo-kyung but gets interrupted by Chef Oh, Seol and Ne Mo. Sae-young delegates duties: Ho-nam and Yoo-kyung on the pasta line with her; Ne Mo as the assistant; Seol at the chef’s table.

At the end of a long, exhausting day a man comes in and orders ginseng pasta, surprising Seol who replies that they don’t have anything with ginseng. The man then reserves the dish for the day after tomorrow. “Please tell the chef. She won’t refuse.”

Sae-young seems to know who it is and looks quite nervous while the words “ginseng pasta” strike a memory in Yoo-kyung who hurriedly looks up the recipe in Hyun-wook’s book of failed recipes. She calls Hyun-wook for help but he tells her that it’s her job to figure it out and to learn.

After work, Sae-young and Hyun-wook separately show up to visit the man who ordered the ginseng pasta – he is their teacher. Hyun-wook and Teach start bantering like he and Yoo-kyung often do. Then we find out Sae-young was invited to judge the New Chef competition and Hyun-wook wasn’t. But Teach asks her if she has the right to judge other food – BURN.

Hyun-wook explains that he dug himself into a hole in the kitchen. But what Teach really wants is for both of them to make him ginseng pasta again. Hyun-wook pouts, “We already graduated and you score badly.” HAHAHA!

Sae-young leaves for work and Hyun-wook and Teach argue. Teach thinks that Hyun-wook didn’t learn anything from him but how to have a short temper. He also scolds Hyun-wook for dating in the kitchen even though he was badly burned before. Then Teach beckons Hyun-wook over for a flick…and gives him several! KARMA!

Chef Paolo from Italy wants Hyun-wook back. His skills are being recognized there and everyone knows about what Sae-young did. Teach participated in New Chef competition to fetch Hyun-wook back to Italy. He whines about his forehead hurting.

The sous chef tells Team Korea that there are rumors that Oh Sae-young chef sabotaged her rival, Choi Hyun-wook chef, to with the competition. SHOCK!

Yoo-kyung presents Hyun-wook with his recipe for ginseng pasta and gets a forehead flick – it’s bitter. He told her that all those recipes were failures and that she should find the solution herself. They talk about their days: he met with his chef; she RAN on pins and needles in the busy kitchen.

Quit, he orders.

Come back, she pleads.

Rinse and repeat.

Guess how this one ends? You got it – she leaves.

At La Sfera, Sae-young is the center of gossip because everyone has learned about her sabotage of Hyun-wook. When she approaches Team Korea about the competition, they look decidedly awkward.

In a man-to-man/employer-to-employee meeting, San asks the Chef to come back. He can do whatever he wants in the kitchen: love, tear it to bits, wage war. Just come back. San is worried about Teach’s dish and doesn’t want it to be a failure – please, help Sae-young.

In another adorable scene, San comes into the kitchen while Yoo-kyung is practicing the ginseng pasta, trying to find the secret to neutralizing the bitter taste of the ginseng. San helps Yoo-kyung and fetches more milk from the freezer when they use the bottom of the carton on one pot.

When they taste the ginseng sauces, one is decidedly sweeter. Yoo-kyung figures out that it’s the lukewarm temperature of the milk that takes away the bitterness. They are pleased to have discovered a secret.

An excited Yoo-kyung brings her pasta to the chef who says he is going to be busy starting tomorrow. She suggests going somewhere. Eun-soo’s? (Girl, when you gonna realize that a date does NOT include another man-boy?)

Then, Hyun-wook drops the Italy bomb and adds that he wants to take her. She understandably balks: she has family, no money, no knowledge of Italian and she’s scared. She just wants to learn from him at La Sfera. He petulantly says he’s going.

After a moment, he moves to sit beside her, but they are both stuck in their own beliefs about how the relationship should go. He expects her to follow him. She expects him to stay.

“Because you’re scared you won’t be able to get anywhere,” he tells her and she leaves. (Third time this episode. Girl, can’t you stay and talk anything out?) When she leaves, he tries the ginseng pasta. Surprised at the taste, he takes a second bite. YAY!

Sae-young gets a message from the New Chef Competition that disqualifies her as a judge.

La Sfera prepares for Teach who is unhappy that only Sae-young has prepared a dish. Where is Hyun-wook? He drops the dish on the ground, demanding both dishes be brought out at the same time. WHOA there, Nelly. Calm down.

Sae-young jumps on the phone to Hyun-wook who refuses to come – he doesn’t ever want to make ginseng pasta in the same kitchen with her again. Instead, have Yoo-kyung do it. Sae-young is skeptical but asks Yoo-kyung to make it.

As they cook, Sae-young inconspicuously watches Yoo-kyung work. When the Barolo wine comes out (the wine she tampered with in the competition), Sae-young looks all angsty. Woe is you, you cheater!

They both present their dishes and Yoo-kyung says she’s wanted to meet Chef’s chef. He responds with, “You’re the one who’s dating him?” Heehee.

Then he tastes both pastas. He approves of Sae-young’s dish and eyes Yoo-kyung suspiciously after tasting Hyun-wook’s recipe. She tells Teach that she changed one thing and explains her process. Teach let’s her have it (in a holler that is strangely familiar), but not in the way she expects – he says to always question and explore.

Throughout this interaction, Sae-young realizes that she would’ve won the competition even if she hadn’t tampered with the wine – the key was the milk, not the wine. She runs out, tail between her legs. Again, KARMA!

Hyun-wook meets Yoo-kyung outside of their apartment and she tells him that they are exactly alike. He replies that he is better. When she wonders why he didn’t come and make the ginseng pasta, Hyun-wook says that the pasta is hers not his. It is her pasta, and in that one thing, she, the student, is just a bit better than him.

Hyun-wook: Are you happy?

Yoo-kyung: Yes.

She leans her head on his shoulder.

 Comments:

(Barolo: the wine that Sae-young tampered with, that Hyun-wook broods over, that Yoo-kyung wonders how to use.)

Sorry for how long this episode took to come out. I blame it on the holidays that were busier than real life. Friends from abroad, from all over the States and from right around here kept me busy. I had a fantastic, fantastic break! I hope you did, too.

So we have another quiet ending, but that is this show’s charm. When writing recaps and analyzing, you really want something to happen. I knew going into this that this wasn’t plot heavy – this show is about the feel good. However, I’m glad that there is an underlying problem that will carry us into the next episode even if the ending of this one was not tense. It was ridiculously cute.

Personally, I’d like to see Yoo-kyung stop leeching off La Sfera and go to Italy with Hyun-wook. She seems to pin everything on this one place. I do understand her unwillingness to quit – that’s just dumb. But when someone asks you to go study in a place that can help you realize your dream to the fullest, you don’t just outright say NO. *headdesk* Fear is normal, but Chef is right. She can’t let that guide her. (I know she JUST found out. But it has been her modus operandi to stick with La Sfera no matter what. I’m assuming that’s what she’ll do in the future.)

Oh yeah. Yoo-kyung, stop walking out mid-conversation.

I’m glad Hyun-wook got called TWICE on his temper and how it puts him into some pretty serious binds. Self-control, dude. Self-control.

Onto episode 17!

Here are the recaps of episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 on best k-drama recapping site ever, dramabeans.com.

Recaps for episodes 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20

Character introductions.

Pasta Episode 16 Screencaps.