The Emperor's Cook
Plot. Tokuzō Akiyama is a good-for-nothing young man living in the countryside, who gets easily absorbed in activities he finds interesting, but quickly loses interest and moves on, creating trouble for his family. He is married off to a merchant household to teach him discipline, and his wife gradually grows to love his personality. Tokuzō, however, falls in love again: this time with cooking. As he delivers goods to the army kitchen, the army chef introduces him to cutlet, which prompts Tokuzō to learn the craft. On a whim, he decides to leave his  wife to study cooking in Tokyo. Amid hardship and humiliation, the young man who never felt compelled to stick to a job, keeps his dream to become the emperor's cook at only 25 years of age. Production. The drama was filmed in various locations in Japan (including Fukushima, Ibaraki, Kobe, Okayama) and in France. Takeru Satoh took cooking classes to portray the character and did the cooking scenes without a stand-in.