JTBC’s new weekend drama Final Table premiered on October 24th with a nationwide rating of 1.9%.
The series stars Ahn Hyo Seop as a gifted chef and Hong Hwa Yeon as a restaurant owner struggling to save her family’s business.
The first episode introduced Kang Han (played by Ahn Hyo Seop) and Choi Song Yi (Hong Hwa Yeon), whose relationship gets off to a rocky start with a heated confrontation. It also introduced “The Table: K-Chef 2026”, a cooking competition that brings together chefs with different backgrounds and ambitions.
According to Nielsen Korea, the premiere earned a nationwide rating of 1.9%. The drama faced stiff competition from SBS’s Doctor X: Mafia in White and tvN’s 100 Days of Deception, both of which had already gained momentum with viewers. Final Table also failed to rank among Disney Plus’s Top 10 TV shows on FlixPatrol as of October 25th.
Kang Han spent years training abroad before abruptly returning to Korea two years ago and withdrawing from public life. He had only one goal: to prepare the ultimate feast for his late father. After finally fulfilling that wish with a carefully prepared ancestral rite, he planned to return to the United States.
Before boarding his flight, Kang Han stopped by Familia, hoping to taste the food he had shared with his father as a child. However, the once-bustling restaurant was eerily quiet, and the dishes fell far short of his memories. Furious that the restaurant had failed to live up to his expectations, he stormed into the kitchen and accused the staff of having “ruined Familia’s name.”
His harsh words devastated Choi Song Yi, who had been struggling to keep the restaurant afloat on her own. Her father, Choi Seung Hyo, founded Familia and served as its head chef before dying by suicide after being framed for standing up to the powerful Pyeongyeon Group. Song Yi was left to carry on his legacy, but she refused to give up on the restaurant he had built.
Kang Han’s harsh criticism pushed Song Yi to tears. The situation grew even more chaotic when a fire extinguisher mounted on the kitchen ceiling suddenly burst. Their disastrous first encounter, fueled by grief, anger and a major misunderstanding, set the stage for a tense and complicated relationship.
Meanwhile, Pyeongyeon Group faced intense public backlash over the chef’s death. The corporation launched a high-stakes culinary survival show in an attempt to repair its public image. Executive producer Seon Jeong Won (Jung Eugene) recruited world-famous chef Henri Bernier (Sean Richard) as a judge and began selecting contestants. The premiere set the stage for a cutthroat competition as ambitious chefs with complicated pasts joined “The Table: K-Chef 2026”.
The premiere of Final Table served up several storylines, including Kang Han and Song Yi’s intertwined pasts, Familia’s decline and the power struggles surrounding Pyeongyeon Group. Kang Han’s opening narration about the life of a chef, paired with mouthwatering cooking sequences, gave the drama a stylish and distinctive tone.
However, the first episode introduced so many characters and subplots that the drama’s success will depend on how well it develops these storylines and brings them together as the series progresses.
>> ‘Final Table’ Gives First Look at Ahn Hyo Seop as an Elite Chef
In the meantime, watch trending K-dramas for free on Amasian TV.
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