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One of the hottest and latest Chinese drama right now has some familiar faces and a whole lot of food.

"Royal Feast" (尚食 shàng shí) stars Chinese actors Wu Jinyan and Xu Kai, who played the leads Wei Yingluo and Fuca Fuheng in the 2018 hit "Yanxi Palace".

Set in the Ming Dynasty, the show follows the romance between Yao Zijin (played by Wu), a kitchen maid in the imperial palace who works her way up to become the head chef, and Zhu Zhanji (played by Xu), the grandson of the Emperor.

The show premiered on Mango TV and has reportedly gained more than 400 million views within five days of its launch on February 22.

But the main attraction of the 40-episode series is, without a doubt, the food.

"There are more than 1,000 dishes in the menu of the show. Among them, around 100 dishes are desserts, nearly 300 are fried dishes and there are over 100 recipes for staple foods, covering nearly all the dishes mentioned in historical records of the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)," the show's cuisine consultant said to Global Times.

The director of "Royal Feast" also told the Chinese media outlet that the show restored cuisine from Chinese history to introduce more aspects of Chinese food to viewers.

A highlight of the show would probably be a sculpture made entirely out of food (you can catch a glimpse of it in the trailer), depicting a painting by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei.

According to CNA Lifestyle, it took six artists more than seven days to create the sculpture.

You can check out the trailer but be warned: don't watch it on an empty stomach.

All images via YouTube screengrab. 

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