El remplazo del chef Chico

What a lovely series!!! A great story which will warm your heart. The food is beautiful and tantalizing, as the chefs prepare a selection of appetizing dishes which compliment this series. Well acted and presented, lovely scenarios of the customers who frequent the restaurant. The scenes are vibrant, yielding superb food and entertaining miniature stories centred around the restaurant and Chef Ella. I love it!!! Praying for another series of happy ever afters.

Thank you to cast, producers and directors. To the colourful wardrobe and professional makeup.

A brilliant, delightful show, thank you to all.

Typically, Filipino TV shows/Movies always had the same plot. Third parties, sexual nature, mediocre storylines and many more.

THIS, however, is such a refreshing sight! The female lead is realistic, not too glamorous looking for a Chef role as it should.

You can feel the emotions from the characters involved. Soundtrack was beautiful. Cinematography felt high class, not your typical Filipino low budget films.

I hope this paves the way for BETTER Filipino movies.

I just wish Netflix could translate some phrases better.

Other than that, this show will take you on a ride. You may tear/sob, or laugh + drool with the showcase of Filipino cuisine!!

Alright, let's talk about Alessandra De Rossi and this weird series. De Rossi rose to leading-lady status after the success of "Kita Kita", a film that dominated the local box office. So following its triumph, she seemed to develop a sense of entitlement, assuming she'd be inundated with similar role offers afterwards, sadly none of it happened to her. To make matters worse, a tensions arose between her and Arci Muñoz after ABS-CBN allegedly reneged on its promise to cast her as a leading lady for a TV show. She was so mad to that. So to ease her frustration, she pivoted to producing her own films, with dashing leading men and narratives seemingly tailored to make her feel desirable that she also written. Lol.

Anyway, we decided to binge this Filipino series that was blatantly trying to emulate the Golden-Globe Winning Series "Bear". Sadly instead the series delving into the intricacies of meals, the show veered into an indulgent exploration of De Rossi's character personal struggles. As if that weren't bad enough, some characters are spewing overly theatrical Tagalog monologues too explaining the menu in some scenes, an absurdity that would never occur in a legitimate fine dining restaurants lol. It was soooo cringeworthy.

And then, of course, there was this preposterous love triangle tension involving Sam Milby and Piolo Pascual's character, pffft! De Rossi as the romantic focal point?! Hilarious! First, the pairing was physically unconvincing. Second, her character oscillated between grating and insufferable. And let's be honest, the concept, along with several key elements, was shamelessly ripped-off from the series "Bear"!

Overall I think it's a missed opportunity to be something better. I like the focus on the customers and how it shows why Hain is special and not just a restaurant serving good food and fine dining. The perspective is really nice, a nice back and forth focus between the kitchen and the customers, but the delivery was pretty cringey. The love stories and the conversations were sometimes just too long and unnecessary. The constant background music was also pretty annoying. This is a typical kind of Filipino telenovela/drama which is not something necessarily negative, but I have my doubts it will be popular for the good characteristics in the west.

This show gives empowerment to women and people of LGBTQ community. It's shows being in a kitchen is no easy feat and having the right competency to cook. I feel this show dedicates to the pinoy men & women in service and food industry. The characters are well selected to bring out the dialogue to life. It's great start of being the first of many shows to come out of the Philippines to Netflix. I must point out that there were some cringy scenes here and there though. I had really hope they had emphasize more on the cooking aspect instead of the love story aspect. Overall it's a good show to binge on a Sunday! It was a good attempt to take on the "The Bear". Hoping for more shows like this from The Philippines.