> Craving for something cliche, sweet and highly enjoyable drama? Take chance and start Pasta.

PLOT
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The mainstream of the story was about an assistant aspiring to become a great chef in an elite restaurant and along the way, she falls in love with the head chef. It sounds typical, but not quite which I'll delve into later. I love the build-up/ formation of the episodes. Its refreshing and informative. This isn't my first food drama but, I find the setting, food preparation and kitchen scenes really interesting. Most of the time the conflicts come from the kitchen, its not annoying and repetitive, it's fascinating to watch. The dialogues said were useful and could enlighten the audience about food, cooking techniques and a lot more. I'm most excited on the competitions being held, small or grand, within or outside La Sfera, it's fun and educative on my part. The characters were given twists in the story and their involvement in plot development were delightful to watch.

While I liked how the story played out, the story alone didn't interest me much. If this didn't have Lee Sun Gyun and Alex Chu as main roles, I probably wouldn't have even given this a second thought. As I said earlier, the romance maybe is typical, but not really. The relationship development was the one that I really loved the most. It's not slow, not too dramatic either, it's entertaining. On their frequent argument, I smile. In most of the exchange of dialogues, I laugh. They're adorable to look at. They don't have a lot of physical contact, but their chemistry was absolutely convincing. With simple gestures, there's an evident spark. Oh yeah, the confession of love was outstanding and sweet. Their relationship wasn't only a display of affection, its also about them, working and helping each other to become better individuals especially on their working environment. The ending for everyone was creatively done, I was really happy for them, for the couple, well, it's cute!

CAST
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This was where the drama was fantastic. The acting was so good, that sometimes the main couple actually had me smiling like an idiot because I was so happy. I've already mentioned that I watched this for LSG and Alex, but some of the smaller roles were the ones that had me hooked.Choi Jae Hwan as Jung Eun Soo was absolutely perfect. By far one of my favorite characters from any drama I've seen. I can't even imagine someone else taking that role.As for the other supporting actors, they all had their moments. The Italian chefs had me laughing a lot throughout the show.

Gong Hyo Jin did a great job on the acting, she acted as expressive way as possible. For the male lead, his character is someone that you'll really want to hate but instead you'll learn to love. For me, he's just misunderstood. He was perceived to be arrogant, chauvinistic, insensitive, don't like women in his kitchen but for all of this, he has a credible reason. I leave the watching to you to know the reason. I forgive him because he made an exception, and for that he's still human after all. Overall, he's a good person, very professional when it comes to work, perfectionist but its not for himself alone; its for the customers, the restaurant and for his own people. His yells doesn't offend me, I don't know whether it's because of Lee Sun Gyuns deep, subdued voice that was very appealing to me or for the constructive criticisms he say upon raising his voice. Lee Sun Gyun was perfect on his role, his eyes were also expressive, I love it.

Before watching this series i thought that the lead pair may not get along with each other as Gong Hyo Jin gives me more of a calm and subtle feel - more like a noona/unnie. But she proved me wrong - the chemistry between the leads is simply superb and gives a feeling of a very young and matured love relationship. they have both made fall in for them as a couple too :). Besides his arrogant attitude towards others, his soft love towards Hyo Jin is adorable. Their love bond was quite different from the usual misunderstanding that happens with every other love story.

And also the Owner of La Safera - Alex is simply admirable. he's such a gentle man both in competing with Sun Gyun (Chef) to win Huo Jin's heart and as a supportive friend of Lee Ha Nui (F. Chef).

The supporting casts made their part shine also. There was no real antagonist here, however, there was no dull character made.
Choi Jae Hwan or no one else. he's the best for this kitchen assistant role. the scene where chef and him eat lollipops together was cute and pleasant. even guys eat lollipops ??? .


VERDICT
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While the story didn't interest me, the acting, music, and chemistry between every single actor/character more than made up for it.

What I love the most in this is the interaction between the characters, especially the main couple and there were parts that I found hillarious! The ending was fairly satisfactory and was a well rounded drama. There were a couple of parts that were left unexplained especially where No Min Woo's character was concerned, but I liked it.