Bhavna

I really enjoyed this episode. It’s very mysterious and has all this wonderful aesthetic. It’s beautiful to look at and interesting to watch. So this guy Chef Tonio from Italy lands in Japan and mysteriously opens up this one table restaurant with no menu. Rohan and his side kick Izumi (is that her name?) show up and they have an experience of a lifetime. Tonio studies their hands and finds the exact ailments in their body and spirit. Then he prepares just the right dish for each of them. Then they start to experience .. things. Healing things! Izumi’s eyes explode with tears as she drinks the amazingly tasty water- turns out her eyes are healing from the lack of sleep. That scene almost reminded me of Alice in Wonderland where Alice starts crying and flooding the place. Then her old cavity tooth is discarded and a new one grows in in the spot! At first it’s hard to tell if this Chef Tonio guy was an evil mastermind or just an altruistic soul trying to help people. Turns out it’s the latter. But his handsomeness and mannerisms make him seem fishy. I’m surprised Rohan didn’t do a Heaven’s Door on him, but instead joins him in a poaching exercise after Chef talks about how his partner is dying with a grapefruit size turbot in her head and needs the healing powers of the Abalone, in the same way he uses poison from other plants and animals to heal them through his cuisine. Rohan believes in him so they both go for a poaching trip and almost get poached themselves. Why Chef Tonio insists on wearing his ridiculous chef hat while on the poaching mission where they’re supposed to be invisible, is beyond me. But since he’s handsome and his Japanese and acting is decent compared to the other white foreigners in J dramas, I’ll give him a pass. So back to poaching. While they’re both getting devoured and killed by Abalones, Rohan does the most badass Heaven’s Door on an Octopus and tells it to devour the Abalones that are about to kill him and Chef Tonio. So they repay the octopus the favor and use it in their next dish (which happens to have plenty of abalone healing properties after eating so much of it).

I found this episode interesting because it’s about food but more specifically, a magical healing power behind food and the love that comes through it all. Bravo!