Have anyone read the Webtoon?

What happens in the webtoon? How does it end? I don't mind spoilers as Kdramas seldom follow the webtoon.

so the last page is what FL studies it while going to korea in EP 1;  like it goes sentences like " my dearest beloved, if you were to read this someday may you come back to my side" ? after that she time travels to Joseon Dynasty to meet ML right who would have wrote it for FL right?

 Xiang83:

If you want to read the ending of the novel as per what someone translated into English:

https://www.novelupdatesforum.com/threads/surviving-as-a-chef-of-yeonsang-the-tyrants-chef-kdrama.186999/

Click on the above link, scroll down to the comment by user CUEBEE5566, and click on the two spoiler tags to expand.

Wow, that ending feels very similar to Faith's (the doctor) storyline, where the last finale scene, they spent hours staring  without hugging or kissing. It's such an anti-romantic ending, and honestly, it's unsatisfactory too, especially since there’s no explanation for how he ended up in modern times. Thanks for that; now I'm prepared and won’t jump out of my chair!

 Xiang83:

Hm, there is space for minor changes, such as:

What could be more and less rewarding yet teasing, by including an embrace followed by an implied kiss that gets cut off as the camera pans towards something else in the last two seconds? It would probably simultaneously result in smiles followed by people wanting to chuck objects at the screen, but at least it's better than that novel ending, right? XD 

Yes. 😆 

I was really disappointed in Faith. The characters just stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, and a single tear rolled down. There was no hugging, no kissing, and that marked the end of the scene. I noticed that during the behind-the-scenes footage, it seemed the kissing was problematic because she wore a hat—what a silly choice! The male lead also had issues with his costume and kept adjusting it in front of him, which was actually hilarious when I watched it a few times. I wanted to check if he cried at all since I didn't see much reaction from him. Then I noticed the “what a messy ending” it was. Don’t get me wrong; I rated Faith quite highly, but as I explained in my profile, it’s my drama weakness.

Given that the production chose to romanticize the villain, I expect the ending to show him using the page to escape death and finding the female lead in the modern era, leading to a happy conclusion. As long as the female lead ends up with the same male lead and not a substitute in the modern era, I can accept that outcome.

 Exe:

That would totally be sad that it ends with them just staring longingly to each other, but how did the King know where his Chef is? Well, it explains further in the side stories of the novel on how he got find her and his conditions just to meet her, it will end great if they add the side stories ;( rather than a scene with a prolong stare from the leads which the series ends there. 

I suggested a slightly different ending from the novel (in terms of adding very quickly to it, in a reply to another user, before your comment).

Thing is, there are only 12 episodes of this drama. Unless the screenwriters found a good basis and managed to incorporate anything from the side stories without spoiling the ending from a viewer perspective where the FL gets surprised by ML, then the ending will be whatever they decided to adapt and alter as per the novel.   

I have watched many time travel dramas that feature similar endings, all wrapped up in 5-10 minutes. In these stories, the female lead (FL) gets hurt, or there is a full moon or eclipse. She dies in ancient times and then wakes up again in modern times. There are a few moments of deep nostalgia and doubts about whether it was all a dream. To add a twist, she crosses paths with the exact physical twin of her lost love and runs into his arms.

Typically, there are two alternate endings:

1. He does not remember her because he is not the same person, and we assume fate will bring them together while her lover remains in the past.
2. He finds a way to follow her to the future.

Extremely rarely does the female lead remain in the past or return there.

Because of the missing page, and the fact that the scriptwriter made sure the audience knew it was an important piece of the drama, I assume that the king will use it to time travel to modern times during another eclipse. That’s how I expect the ending to unfold. Additionally, since it is rated PG-15, there will likely be minimal kissing in this drama, with a lot of hugging and resting heads on shoulders—very similar to “Faith” drama where we only saw one kiss that was forced and public, justified by the plot but ultimately not romantic.

This work is based on a light novel while the webtoon(manhwa) has just started serialization this September. After reading some comments (mainly about the ending and Da Vinci!) I started looking up spoilers for the light novel. Things seem to occur in a similar manner in the drama. I used google translate on the wiki and blogs so somethings may be wrong :-

Sources:-  [Wiki] [2] [3] [Author's interview]

Differences

• Content warning:- Those chillies were not discovered in the greenhouse but grew from her(and possibly her dad's) poop which had seeds

Characters

Majority of the names have been changed into fictional ones in the drama including the names and dates of some incidents with a few exceptions for some characters and the fictional ones:-

Yeon Ji Yeong (FL) 

• Age: 27 (dob 4th July, 1999)

She comes up with solutions in the Joseon era too as she recalls what was written in the Magunrok

• She makes a deal with Secretary Im to cooperate if he finds that world's Magunrok for her (she knows from her father's research that it was written in this exact time period but has no idea of the author) since the final torn page had something about returning to the world written on it and she thinks it is the key as she keeps getting deja vu of the Magunrok 

1. FL time travelled due to a car accident while driving to the Paris airport and not during a plane turbulence during an eclipse due to reading the Magunrok for the first time
   • She got the position of sous chef at the 3-star Michelin restaurant
   • It wasn't the king who first encountered this time travelling Gwinyeo who came from nowhere but a bunch of Joseon villagers
   • She directly ends up prisoner in the official's place who was trying to keep his teen granddaughter from being taken for Chaehong by secretary Im and is locked up with a bunch of criminals
   • She cooks with these criminals and not a whole gang of Chaehong women
   • Instead of being rescued by the ML it is the crafty Secretary Im who gets a light bulb moment and takes her to the palace instead of the granddaughter because Kang Mok-ju is going wild and he wants to use FL to the King
   • The head chef position was hereditary and she beat the grandson of Korea's first cookbook author in the head chef contest
     • Dish: Eo-mandu vs. quenelle nantua
     • It is only fter this that she meets Gil-geum properly

Yeon Seung-woo (FL's dad)

In the light novel FL's dad had a strained and minimum relation with her after she became a cook instead of going into academics. She was rushing back to Korea after getting word that he was in a coma whereas in the drama the two have a great relation and he was shown to be a loving and supportive single dad, not buried in books all the time.

1. The dad worked on translating the Magunrok as a historian 
2. FL first found it when she was a kid and started making recipes from it and was inspired to become a cook
3. Her dad fell into a coma because he was trying to time travel to see her mom again

Since the name of the ML's mom ex-queen is like FL's surname and she reminds ML of her there is a fan theory her dad is related to the queen. 

Lee Heon / Yeonhui-gun (ML)

• aka "Jeonha" ('Your Majesty')
• Age: 28 (ep 12, dob 17th Jan 1476; dod May 1504)
• Novel version: Lee Yung / Yeonsan-gun (based on the real-life tyrant)

ML is said to be more a true tyrant in personality than in the drama apparently and changes due to FL.  The timeline has  "historic" tyrant actions he has done 

• Drama: 
• LN:  

He does show signs of being open-minded with a more modern mindset than conservative (similar to Nobunaga in Nobunaga no Chef). He often uses the principle of what FL said when he first questioned where she was from- look beyond rank and status at the worth of a person and their skill. He starts to change after meeting and going on adventures with the FL. He interacts with the commoners, sees the effects of his pettiness first-hand and he saves the day sometimes. Often. He comes to rescue FL on a white horse once. His image as king started to improve and some of the commoners came to his aid at the end during the rebellion.

Lim Song-jae

The Kings's brother-in-law, (based on the irl Lim Sung-jae) husband to Princess Hwisuk. He has a lot more roles in the story and became a friend and ally to FL. 

Grand Prince (Uncle) Jesan

 Based on the real grand prince Je-an the previous king (ML's father)'s cousin. Jesan's own father was the king but he was a kid when he died and after his elder brother had died his cousin had been adopted as the next in line and succeeded the throne. Many believe he played the eccentric fool for self-preservation by showing he was unqualified and uninterested in the throne which could have been his. The consort Kang was one of his slaves who the nephew took a liking to and took as consort. Mostly he was trying to use the kid as a figurehead for the rebellion too not himself.

Grand Prince Jin-myeong 

• Novel version: Lee Yeok / Jin-seong (future king Jujuong)

ML's much younger half-brother (equivalent of the real historical figure who actually replaces the tyrant king) has appeared as a kid at the start but not been significant in the drama till now. 

• Jesan sent herbal medicine that interacts with the ginseng soup FL made for the prince and makes him sicker but her further recovery cooking makes him get better and he grows real fond of her. 
• I think he is a small kid in the LN as well even though this is a year before the historical tyrant was dethroned and the real person was 18. 

Seo Gil-geum

1. Novel version: Seo Jang-geum
2. Seo Gil-geum is the historical Seo Jang-geum (first woman Royal Physician of Joseon)
3. Her character is a nod to the protagonist of "Jewel in The Palace". Some of her story is loosely similar to that drama but some doesn't match (would her father's story have something to do with the King's mother death?)

Gong-gil

Gong-gil is the King's Jester of many secrets

• This will probably play out the same - consort Kang's right hand woman was an acupuncture expert who'd torture and kill any rival beautiful girls who came new in the harem 
• He has a 'reason' for why he seems two-faced
  • Gong-gil has one more identity- Hong Gil-dong(the Joseon Robin Hood) and FL's dad was Gong-gil's priest master (a nod to the Hong Gil-dong movie or drama) - a mysterious man known for knowing the future and who told Gong-gil to look after a certain woman from another world in case she shows up for him
• He supposedly dies in the final battle

Shin Soo-hyeok

• The royal guard Shin Soo-hyeok is the Queen's elder brother
  • He passes on a message to FL and Gil-geum when they were in the market out-of-uniform
    • This message telling them of the Queen's flour allergy saves from charges of treason 
  • 
    
  • The author posits Soo-hyuk as a fictional fourth elder brother to the Queen (all 3 of her brothers were executed after the King and Queen's exile)
    • However he seems based on the historical Shin Soo-geum who was executed for his loyalty to his brother-in-law the tyrant Yeonsan-gun
    • In real-life he was a middle-aged high ranking minister and the father-in-law to the half-brother prince 
    • One version states that asked to choose his loyalty between his sister and nephew(the crown prince) or his daughter (the half-brother's wife) he chose to stay on his sister (and hence the tyrant's side) due to which even his daughter was forcefully divorced and exiled when the half-brother ascended the throne
  • He supposedly dies in the final battle protecting Queen Shin

 Queen Shin

• Story Arc: Ch 18-23

The King's main wife, the virtuous Queen Shin, is omitted in the drama. She is based on the real-life Queen Shin. 

• Kang Mok-ju may have the King twisted around her little finger but the Queen was still the official Queen and mother to the Crown Prince
• The royal guard Shin Soo-hyuk is her elder brother
  • While the author note mentions him as a fictional fourth elder brother to the Queen, the other historical brothers do not seem to appear in the light novel 
• With his help she tries to help FL from Kang Mok-ju's plot to make FL guilty of treason against herself the Queen and they catch consort Kang in her own trap and have her banished from court
• Dish: Tiramisu (the Queen was allergic to flour but Shin informed FL beforehand and Queen fakes it till reveal time) 
• 
  
• Her existence was weird anyway since she and the king had a good relation in real history and in the novel she is heavily pregnant

Governor Hong Gyeong Dal and his son Hong Eon Uk 

LN version: 

Lee Jang-gon

• Story Arc: Ch 
• Drama version:
• LN version: 
  • His mysterious disappearance causes
  • 
    
  • He and Shin Soo-hyuk are old friends who would spar together and are
  • He is good at combat
  • He and come to fight on behalf of ML and FL in the final battle against Jesan's forces

Jang (Eunuch)

• Based on the real-life 
• The 

Park Won Jun (Left Minister)

• LN: 

is based on the real-life Park Won-, the real leader of the . 

Other Characters

1. Jo Kwang-jo: on Fl's side(?)
2. Tasha: a Jurchen leader

Other Light Novel Arcs

(All aprroximate chapters numbers are based on chapter title translations)

International Cooking Showdowns

It seems each contest was overseen by the main envoy and the King as the prime judges except for the few.  

1. China- The Ming Dynsasty (approx. ch 39-55): Yu Gun and the fallen Sichuan family's expert chef Tang Bai Long 
   • (Sichuan Tang family- a mythical clan who are experts of poisons, herbs, blades and various martial arts)
   • They lose but Yu Geun tries to take Ji-yeong as a tribute woman and ML hits him leading to a tense standoff
   • Granny queen saves the day
   • After losing, Bai Long is fired and assassins sent to silence him but he takes them down
   • He stays in Joseon as a royal chef 
   • Dishes: 
     • Bai Long - Mala Xiang Guo, Tantanmen, and ginseng-flavored slow cooked soup
     • FL - Beef bourguignon, buckwheat pasta with sesame oil, and Samgyetang with black ginseng truffle 
2. Japan- Muromachi Shogunate (approx. ch 74-92): Ōchi Yoshioki and Yoshimori Sō and royal chef Sumire 
   • Sumire was born Korean but adopted by a Japanese swordsman after being saved from pirates 
   • FL gets jealous when ML shows interest in Sumire's sashimi chef skills but they bond over similar family tales of opposition to becoming chefs
   • Sumire chooses to join FL as a chef in Joseon at the end
   • The Japanese delegation lose and don't get the fishing rights they wanted
   • Yoshimori attempts to assassinate Ōchi due to reasons but the ML was there to eat and takes him down 
   • ML and secretary Im manage to secure the mining rights of the Iwami Silver mine from Ōchi and various other deals (a tad anachronistic but the silver extraction method that was used in this mine was invented during this Joseon king's reign)
   • Dishes: tuna sashimi, osechi ryori
3. Thailand- Ayutthaya Kingdom:  Prince Athittayawong
   • Disguised in women's clothes the Prince makes a proposal for royal marriage ties with Joseon
   • Dishes: Tom Yum Kung. FL- a crab dish that was almost sabotaged by Kang Mok-ju's orders to delay her ingredient getting 
4. Portugal+Italy- The Eastern Expedition: Alburquerque and Ferdinand Magellan - Portugese explorers & Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci (they were aquainted irl)
   • They sailed after hearing of rumours of culinary treasures in Joseon 
     • Machiavelli joined as a neutral judge alonsgide the two main judges- the ML and Alburquerque
     • Da Vinci was main chef and Magellan the assistant chef in charge of fish
       • Da Vinci was intrigued to see FL was fluent in French
       • FL causes Da Vinci to get nostalgic over his mom and he will paint the Mona Lisa due to this
     • Dishes: 
       • Da Vinci: Pigs feet arrabbiata pasta(won), dried cod dish(lost), a peacock dish(lost)  
       • FL: Gulbi(won), Peking duck(won)
     • Magellan is also highly impressed by FL's food - reminding him of his childhood(similar as in Nobunaga's chef) but joins in the betrayal
     • When they lose the third round, Alburquerque shoots ML and takes FL hostage (Machiavellian machinations realising ML's feelings) for ransom
       • Da Vinci saves ML's life by extracting an inoperable bullet because he has developed extreme dexterity from dissecting a lot of bodies
       • Jang Chun-saeng (pressure cooker armourer) saves the day coming in a turtle ship and shooting an arrow canon  
       • Alburquerque dies while Magellan and Machiavelli end up marooned on a deserted island
     • Da Vinci stays on in Joseon working under ML's patronage
5. Turkey- The Ottoman Empire: 
   • Prince Selim and Hafsa
   • Selim was chasing Alburquerque for his crimes but finds he is already dead
     • He needed a political win over his older brother so he could be king and not executed
   • He jumps at the idea of a cooking challenge since Hafsa is a prodigy chef
     • ML gets jealous when Selim asks FL if she would join his royal harem
   • Dishes: 
     • Hafsa - ice cream made with potassium nitrate, döner kebab, çiğ köfte, and çorba soup (FL thinks her techniques are too futuristic for this time) 
     • FL - Ramyeon and espresso (machine courtesy of kitchen armourer Jang Chun-saeng)
   • But...! Hafsa turns out to be another time traveller Amelia Simmons (author of American Cookery) who landed in this century by accident while working as a maid for Benjamin Franklin and getting caught in some experiment of his by accident
   • She is in a love with Selim and happy to never go back 
   • She informs FL there will be a catch if one chooses to time skip
   • Magellan and Machiavelli who were taken in as slaves by them after being found from the island mount a mutiny when they see ML but are soundly defeated

Prelude to the Conclusion

• I didn't understand the part about her dad fully but he was also time travelling while he had fallen into a coma and they probably didn't meet in the past directly (and its also unknown if he saw his wife he had time travelled to see again)
  • FL and Gong-gil go to the merry men's base but her dad is not there(?) but 
  • He had the future's Magunrok) and FL finally finds it - except it is now blank (which is why her dad can't return even should he chose to)
  • The realization finally stuck her as she was thinking back that the only one who could have written the Magunrok was the ML all along but by then as she was returning the final conflict was starting out
• The second purge was prevented, even though the embers were stoked when he is given his mother's robe with the blood on it, due to the FL
  • She either made him some dish or there was a flower (of persimmon) that brought his mother to mind as it was her favourite and helps him emotionally to regain reason with some lecture though he is still angry at first and banishes her
  • Both FL and Gong-gil had separately tried everything to keep ML from finding it to prevent the purge from happening

The Tyrant's Dethronement 

• To complete the power overthrow, Jesan tries to show everyone the ML is indeed mad by completing history and killing the granny queen in disguise and pinning it on the king's fit
• Consort Kang realizes a bit late in the day that she does in fact love the ML 
  • She betrays Jesan, informing ML of the treason and saves FL from the kidnap plan to make ML angry and look like a mad rampager 
  • Then she tries to kill herself and Jesan but only she dies while he comes out alive and starts the rebellion in earnest
• FL tells ML that in history she knows he is doomed but he choses to fight even knowing he'll be dethroned and exiled
• In their fight Jesan takes FL captive and the ML lets himself be fatally injured...twice-ish
  • First time he was stabbed the sword got stuck in the Magunrok
  • the second time Jesan shoots at her and he shields her getting a bullet through the heart
• FL too finally realizes she loves ML and confesses as he is dying in her arms
• Jesan is literally struck down by the heavens(death by lightning strike)
• The lightning activates the Magunrok's time travel powers and sends her back to her time where it turns out she had been in a coma after the car accident in Paris
• The last recipe in the Magunrok was a recipe ML wrote that he wished to make for FL

Return to the Future 

• When she wakes up back she finds her entire world has changed 
  • Due to how things went with the Ming and the death of some rebels and certain others, the future Byeongja War with Qing never took place
  • They have ties to the Ayutthaya Kingdom
  • Due to the trade and other negotiations with Japan, their ties are different and the Imjin War never took place and Japan never colonizes Korea later
  • Improved global trade from Joseon era itself advances Korea from a lot earlier towards self-reliance
  • From pressure cooker to spam to butter- all the culinary advances she introduced to that time, as well as all the global exchange, changed Korea’s culinary landscape
  • No Korean War, no divided North and South Korea
• Unfortunately after all that her beloved tyrant is still down in the history books as the worst tyrant ruler of Joseon but only this time it is said he had a disney villain death and it is said his body was never found 
  • His stepmother (who was held hostage by Jesan) returns safely and becomes the regnant for his kid half-bro  
  • After one rebellious minister dies the other drinks poison and this ends their command and alters the Korean history they had impacted 
• She opens a restaurant Mon Roi (french, "My King") and it gets Michelin stars and becomes highly popular
• Turns out since he "paid a price to the universe" with his self-sacrifice and was clutching the torn last page of the Magunrok he ended up in her timeline as well and landed in the same mountains as where her mom had
  • So, apparently FL's mom was a court lady from the Joseon era and on the day her mistress (who was the ML's mom) died, she disappeared too while in the mountain and ended up in modern day Korea where she met a young history research student (the dad) though she dies young
  • FL's dad was time travelling to try to see her again and presumably stayed behind (if he did return he'd have to relearn world history all over again)
• Presumably- ML is found by a chaebol (doppelganger to the good queen Shin) after he lands in the present day mountains
  • He wakes up in a hospital where he causes a fuss and is diagnosed as having a pathology of thinking he is king
•  She finds his refined palate interesting and he agrees to be their taste consultant and model (ironic since FL's first impression of ML had been that this psychopath is as handsome as a modern day celeb) if they find the woman named Yeon Ji-young  
• Once he reunites with FL he gets out of his contract and joins her in her restaurant and it gets even more famous due to this celeb
• There is some cooking reality TV contest somewhere in this too and they encounter the various descendants of the past characters

 ROYROYROYROY:

WOW. Thank you so so much. I really appreciate it. It is really entertaining. I tried to read it but couldn't. Thank you for such detailed summary. 

Just in case most of the spoilers I've put are in the first two namu wiki links. The spoiler higlighting vs. the text styles, links nd lists messed with my formatting and I gave up😅. I'd saved the first draft original in word file (screenshots- https://postimg.cc/gallery/Kj0DH7s)