The Emperor's Cook

The Emperor's Cook (天皇の料理番) is a 2015 Japanese television drama based on the novel Tennō no Ryōriban by Hisahide Sugimori, depicting the life of imperial cook Tokuzō Akiyama. It premiered on TBS on 26 April 2015, starring Takeru Satoh in the lead role. The 1st episode is 108 minutes, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th episodes are 64 minutes long. The series was well received by the public, earning the highest viewership rating in its time slot during its run time.

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.

Cast

 * Takeru Satoh - Tokuzō Akiyama
 * Haru Kuroki - Toshiko Takahama
 * Kenta Kiritani - Shintarō Matsui
 * Tasuku Emoto - Tatsukichi Yamagami
 * Saki Takaoka - Ume Morita
 * Gajirō Satō - Sennosuke Morita
 * Sei Ashina - Kayano
 * Ryū Morioka - Kurasaburō Akiyama
 * Anna Ishibashi - Mitsuko Takahama
 * Yoshiyuki Tsubokura - Okumura
 * Jinta Nishizawa - Masashi Sasaki
 * Daisuke Kuroda - Araki
 * Takeshi Ōnishi - Sekiguchi
 * Mamoru Watanabe - Sugiyama
 * Hirotaka Ōkuma - Fujita
 * Yūji Kido - Suzuki
 * Ryōhei Suzuki - Shūtarō Akiyama
 * Tetsuya Takeda - Professor Shōgo Kirizuka
 * Hideaki Itō - Sergeant Yūkichi Tanabe (Cook of the 36th Infantry Regiment)
 * Yumi Asō - Okichi (Shūtarō's lodging house landlady)
 * Masaya Kato - Takeshirō Iogi (Chef to the British Minister to Japan)
 * Yōjin Hino - Kinnosuke Takahama
 * Satoko Ōshima - Harue Takahama
 * Jun Miho - Fuki Akiyama
 * Tetta Sugimoto - Shūzō Akiyama
 * Kaoru Kobayashi - Kamaichi Usami (Chef of the Peer's Club)
 * Hiromi Go - Japanese Ambassador to France Shin'ichirō Awano
 * Noémie Nakai - Simone
 * Kazuyuki Asano - Viscount Hayato Fukuba (Director of the Imperial Cuisine Division, Ministry of the Imperial Household)
 * Kazue Itoh - Takigawa (Lady-in-waiting of Empress Teimei)
 * Emi Wakui - Empress Teimei
 * Zen Kajihara - Emperor Showa
 * Sapphira Van Doorn - Françoise

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.