JAPANESE DRAMA DATABASE: Oishi Kankei

OISHI KANKEI (YUMMY RELATIONSHIP)

The show starts with a scene from five years ago. Momoe (Nakayama Miho) is eating at a French restaurant with her father, a well known food critic. Her father presents her with a platinum( or silver) band as a sign of affection. While eating their consomme (sp?) soup, Momoe comments on it being a certain style Cheriz (sp?) and savors each sip. After a moment her father has a stroke and collapses on the restaurant floor. In the kitchen, Oda (Karasawa Toshiaki) the guy who prepared the cheriz soup is being harrassed by the head chef. The reason is that

cheriz isn't the soup the chef uses and so he fires Oda on the spot. He packs up and leaves. While Momoe's father is being rushed to the hospital, she drops her band on the road. Oda picks it up and gives it to her. Five years pass. Momoe's father has just died from complications and now she has nowhere to live. At her current job she plans to continue her fathers work as a critic but is let go. Apparently her father had a lot of clout while he was alive and now since he's gone Momoe's future at the company was gone too. She walks into a part of town and sees the sign Petit Lapin and checks it out. There she meets Mori (Morimoto Leo) the owner, his daughter Yumi (who's pregnant) the waitress, and sees Imamura (Iijima Naoko) another customer. She proceeds to order omeraisu, and some other dishes, commenting on the food as she eats. Everyone including the chef Oda is surprised and begins to wonder who the hell is that woman? Later , Oda's rival Takahashi (Takuma Shin) comes in to sample Oda's food. Takahashi and Oda both studied together in France. Takahashi is opening a new high class French restaurant in the same area called ÉAÉÄÅ[Éa which will compete directly with Petit Lapin. At this time Imamura introduces herself as a food producer (more like a restaurant interior decorator) and tells Mori that the reason why she's visited his restaurant is to sample the competition. She works for Takahashi. Mori is enraged and almost fights with Imamura. After the fracass (sp?) Takahashi proceeds to pay for the bill with his credit card. He finds out that they only accept cash. Momoe realizes that she doesn't haveenough cash to pay and starts to panic. Mori takes Momoe into the back room because he thinks Momoe ate too much food and should rest. While Mori and Oda are talking with Takahashi, Momoe escapes to try and find a bank machine. Oda, Mori, and Kimura (Kusanagi Tsuyoshi) track her down and think that she tried to run away without paying for her food. At the restaurant Momoe breaks down into tears and says that she thought the restaurant would accept credit cards and that she just had her father's funeral today. Mori takes pity on her tells her to go. Momoe has a boyfriend named Sakamoto too. Sakamoto calls her to meet him on a Monday. He tells her that he has to stop seeing her because he will marry the bank manager's daughter. Momoe, having no home, having no boyfriend, walks around during the night in disgust. It begins to rain. Takahashi sees Momoe, approaches her, and they both walk into Petit Lapin. There they sample the consomme soup. At this point, Momoe realizes that this is the same soup she tasted five years ago. She asks Mori to let her work at Petit Lapin. Mori says he has no positions available. Oda proposes that Momoe cook something for them and then they will decide if she can work at the restaurant. She makes yaki ringo which comes out horribly. Looks like her chances are really slim. Takahashi eats all of his serving and leaves. Later after everyone has left, Momoe walks back into the restaurant. She decides to make the yaki ringo again for Oda. She pleads with Oda to let her stay at the restaurant because she has no place to go. He tells her to leave. She drops her band on the floor. Oda picks it up, looks at it and thinks for a few seconds. He remembers giving it to her five years ago. He hands it back to Momoe telling her to take care of the band her dear father left for her. (How could he have known that her father gave her the band?). Momoe tells Oda that they did meet five years ago but Oda denies it. He later tries her yaki ringo, eats all of it , but doesn'T tell her its delicious. It looks like Momoe can stay at the restaurant.

STARRING: Nakayama Miho, Karasawa Toshiaki, Iijima Naoko, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Morimoto Leo, Takuma Shin, Yamaguchi Sayaka, Harada Mieko, Nakahara Hitomi, Kitamura Soichiro, Tayama Ryosei
NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: October through December 1996
THEME: "Mirai no Present" by Nakayama Miho with Mayo
REVIEWS:

Actually, a pretty fun drama to watch. Especially if you like a romance that revolves around food.