Title: Fermat no Ryori (Fermat’s Cuisine)

Director: Ishii Yasuharu, Hirono Shunichi

Language: Japanese

Genre: Drama

Platform: Netflix

Written by: Sam Ooi

Disclaimer: Minor spoilers ahead…

Perfection is what most people often strive to achieve. In a world that is often competitive and stressful, people often find themselves struggling to keep up with one another. And those that do manage, manage themselves well. Staying ahead of the competition and staying relevant is often what drives people to push themselves even harder. But what happens when one were to hit a major roadblock; an immovable obstacle; an unsolvable question; an insatiable appetite for perfection. Such is Ishii Yasuharu and Hirono Shunichi’s adaptation of Fermat no Ryoru or Fermat’s Cuisine.

Adapted from the Japanese manga also titled Fermat’s Cuisine, the story centers on the mathematical high-school genius, Kitada Gaku (portrayed by Fumiya Takahashi), who realizes that he is not the only person who excels in the field of mathematics, coming to terms with the fact that he is not the person he thinks himself to be as his aim was to be close to if not just like the famous French mathematician, Pierre de Fermat. Being humbled by the notion that there is always going to be people who are better than you would often strike at one’s ego, and perhaps could even make one lose interest in the things that one finds most enjoyable. Due to this, Gaku becomes directionless, not knowing how to progress in his life, as mathematics was his one and only goal in life. Until one fateful day, where Gaku meets a genius chef, Kai Asakura (portrayed by Jun Shison), over a plate of Spaghetti Napolitan. Intrigued by Gaku’s method of cooking and keeping silverware at a certain temperature, Kai decides to take Gaku under his wing and show him the wonders of the culinary world.

Fermat’s Cuisine focuses on not just the aspect of food, but the overlying themes behind the character’s motivations too. Often, people would think that because the title has a word relating to food, that the food in the show should be the main focus of the show, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The drama focuses on how the dishes are prepared by the characters who cook them. The dishes often have a purpose or a backstory to why they were created in the first place. From Gaku’s perspective, being thrown into the culinary world with zero experience, he had to find ways of creating dishes using the one thing at his disposal, mathematics. 

A dish of monkfish, garnished with floral shaped vegetables. Inspired by the Golden Ratio

The show uses elements of flash forwarding into Gaku’s future and what he has become to bridge the gap between how he started with little to no experience to how he ended up being a perfection-seeking tyrant, where he constantly pushes his comrades away because they aren’t able to see what he sees. These flash forwards aren’t just a pathway to seeing how Gaku improved over the years, but also shows his crippling descent into madness in the pursuit of perfection, all in the hopes of achieving what his predecessor, Kai, had envisioned for him.

Gaku, frustrated at the imperfect dish.

The drama series also emphasizes on the theme of perseverance. Most of us are familiar with the phrase, “Keeping your head up.”, when in the midst of hardship one should always do their best and never give up. Despite failing in what he was passionate for all his life, Gaku found new passion in the world of culinary arts through the use of mathematics. What this drama teaches is that even in the face of absolute despair and hopelessness, it is important to keep standing up and trying over and over again no matter what field one is in.

Gaku being given a chance at redemption by Kai

Despite only being 10 episodes long, Fermat’s Cuisine is a good introduction to the world of Japanese drama (J-Drama), it has a good balance of character developments and character conflicts. Though most people may consider the plot and the characters in the drama to be cheesy, as it is an adaptation of a manga, the art of combining the concepts of mathematics, arts and food is simply a feast for the eyes. Thus, I highly recommend giving Fermat’s Cuisine a try, see if this show manages to arouse your senses, and most importantly your appetite.