Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (11-20)
Here is the second instalment in this series on nostalgic dramas! Jewel in the Palace episodes 11-20.
Read more Jewel in the Palace episode summaries 1-10
Drama Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (21-30)
Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (31-40)
Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (41-final)
By episode 10 Jang Geum has already gone through a lot! She’s watched guards arrest her father for treason and her mother die by a shot with an arrow.
But she’s also achieved the first part of her mother’s last wish which is to enter the Royal Palace and find her mother’s secret diary. But life in the palace is tough. And the other ladies bully her because of her low status.
Luckily, nobody can deny her talent for cooking. Still, this makes her unpopular with the powerful Choi family. First Geum Young Choi only sees her as her professional rival.
But then they become rivals in love too when Geum Young notices Sir Min paying attention to Jang Geum…
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JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 11
POISONOUS DUCKS?
Lady Jung has been Head of the Kitchen for 10 years when another crisis arises. It appears that someone has poisoned the prince. But it’s an unknown poison that not even a silver spoon can detect. Jang Geum can’t believe it when guards seize Duk Gu the cook (her adoptive father) for poisoning the prince with his duck soup!
She investigates and discovers that the prince has been taking nutmeg for his insomnia. But the Joseon doctors don’t know much about this exotic spice imported from Ming.
Jang Geum asks Sir Min for a medical book to find out more about the spice. It seems side effects include paralysis!
In the end, she decides to experiment on herself and tries the same concoction of nutmeg and ginseng to see what happens. Indeed, she gets paralysed. She can’t move but she’s ecstatic as she’s solved the mystery and Duk Gu can be exonerated.
JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 12
TASTE PALATE
The prince recovers. The king rewards Jang Geum with beef and releases Duk Gu from prison. But the scare reveals the Joseon’s doctors lack of knowledge about herbs from Ming.
The king is frustrated about how eagerly they use herbs from Ming without question.
Meanwhile, Lady Jung is getting old and weak and wants to step down as head kitchen lady.
One day when she’s not feeling well, she asks Jang Geum to help her prepare a meal for the head court lady’s birthday. But the food tastes bad because Jang Geum has unwittingly lost her sense of taste! The aftereffects of taking ginseng and nutmeg together!
Lady Jung suggests to the king that Lady Han and Lady Choi compete for the top kitchen position!
The Choi family can’t believe it.
Lady Choi thought the job was automatically hers! But unfortunately for her, the king likes Lady Jung and her idea. And he agrees to a competition. But Lady Han needs Jang Geum’s help in the kitchen. So they have to find a cure for her numb tongue ASAP!
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JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 13
UNLUCKY BEAN PASTE
Nobody knows that Jang Geum has lost her sense of taste. Of course, this is disastrous for a cook and she could get fired! They search for a cure. But in the meantime, Lady Han makes Jang Geum practise cooking with instinct rather than by tasting the food. (I don’t know what Gordon Ramsay would say about this. But for now it can’t be helped!)
But suddenly there’s another mystery. The palace bean paste is tasting strange. There is uproar in court as this as a sign of bad fortune on a national scale!
Lady Choi wonders anxiously if the salt her brother sells to the palace has anything to do with the bean paste going bad. (He’s been mixing poorer quality salt in with the good stuff)
The family quickly cover up the problem. So later, when Lady Han and Jang Geum check the salt, everything seems fine. They can’t find anything wrong with the soy beans or the ceramic pots either…
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Finally Jang Geum discovers the reason for the bad soybean paste. It’s the environment! The trees surrounding the pots have been cut down so there is less pollen in the air.
This has affected the paste as the pots are ceramic and so they can ‘breathe’. (Ceramic pots are also made in different sizes and shapes depending on the weather around the country. Read more about onggi pots.)
JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 14
COOKING WHALE MEAT
Jang Geum makes new soybean paste and the king is pleased that the taste has returned to normal. But baddie Lady Choi has realised that Jang Geum has lost her sense of taste.
Of course, she sees an opportunity to get rid of her. And sneakily makes a new challenge for Jang Geum. She suggests Jang Geum make a tasty dish with an ingredient she has never tasted before … WHALE MEAT. (and if she can’t, then she’s out!)
Desperate to get her taste back, Jang Geum hurries to the herb garden to find Dr Jung. She begs him to give her a bee sting! This is said to cure numbness, but it’s an experimental process.
He agrees, but after the treatment she breaks out in itches and it doesn’t seem to have worked. She asks Duk Gu what whale meat tastes like and he says ‘beef’.
So now they have to cook whale for the king. But no one has ever tasted it before as it’s so rare. Of course Lady Choi has an advantage as she gets secret whale recipes from her brother. But it’s not enough.
On the day of the competition, Jang Geum’s dish is chosen as the best! Finally, she tastes her own dish and realises her sense of taste is back.
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Episode 15
COMPETITION FOR HEAD KITCHEN LADY
It’s time for the next instalment in our love triangle! 💕 Jang Geum goes off to find Sir Min. She’s made a food parcel for him as a thank you for lending her books. And he looks jolly pleased.
But with spectacularly bad timing, poor old Geum Young turns up shortly afterwards with an ink well for him. Sadly, he doesn’t look half as pleased to see her, although she’s clearly infatuated with him …
Anyway, back at the kitchen, the queen mother is put in charge of another cooking competition.
The king has set the task of cooking a frugal meal. Just rice, soup, and a side dish. The recent floods and famine have made life difficult for the people.
So the king insists that the dishes must be made with foods that are usually thrown away like fish heads and windfall fruit.
Jang Geum is very confident that her team can win.
And she stays out late getting special meat from the butchers. But Lady Han doesn’t seem impressed. For the competition, Lady Han cooks plums and Lady Choi uses fish gills for the side dish.
Jang Geum is shocked when Lady Choi wins. But Lady Han says she knows the reason why they lost …
JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 16
EXILED TO THE TEMPLE
Lady Han is FUMING.
They were supposed to be thinking about food for ordinary people. But how could commoners get good meat from the butcher? Jang Geum is upset as she just wanted to win.
But Lady Han is furious with her and as a punishment sends her away to work at a temple. Once Jang Geum leaves the palace, other kitchen girls jostle to take her place as Lady Han’s assistant. But none of them pass Lady Han’s water test! (see episode 4)
But at the temple, Jang Geum STILL hasn’t learnt her lesson.
She’s rushing around trying to find cooking shortcuts. She’s looking after an old court lady. And when she wants to taste ol-gae – late harvested rice – Jang Geum strides off confidently to get her some.
She finds the temple cook drying the rice, but he tells her it’s not ready yet. Jang Geum ignores him, because she has a ‘special technique’ to speed up the drying process.
But when Jang Geum serves the rice, the old lady is not happy with it. Days later, the temple cook prepares the rice and finally the old lady is satisfied. And she can die in peace. Jang Geum realises she was wrong to try to hurry things along.
At least things are going better in the romance department. 💕 At the seaside, Jang Geum bumps into Sir Min and they frolic in the water getting to know each other better. Later she tells him what she has learnt about cooking at the temple. But in the background a jealous Geum Young has arrived. And if looks could kill…
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Episode 17
COMPETITION PART 2: RAW FISH
Geum Young’s jealousy grows when she sees Sir Min buying a small writing brush for Jang Geum. She realises that Sir Min and Jang Geum have been getting to know each other at the temple. But their time at the temple comes to an end when the old court lady dies. They can go back to the palace, but Jang Geum still receives a cold reception from Lady Han!
Meanwhile, the queen mother assigns another task for the head kitchen lady test. The contestants have to prepare fish so that it can be served fresh (not pickled) all year round.
Lady Han works on a raw skate dish. Lady Choi is still thinking what to do.
But Lady Jung discovers that Lady Choi has been keeping the Head Kitchen Lady’s Diary – even though she has no right to look at this book. She is NOT the Head Kitchen Lady! Lady Jung should have the book, but clearly the Choi family think this is THEIR book!
Suddenly, an epidemic breaks out in the palace.
Anyone with cold symptoms must leave the palace. And immediately, the Choi family see an opportunity to get rid of Lady Jung who is already weak. They insist that she also has flu symptoms, so she must leave the palace. And the competition is postponed.
Episode 18
THE DIABETIC ENVOY
The queen mother agrees to let Lady Choi be in charge until Lady Jung can come back.
But stress levels are high when envoys arrive from Ming. Due to the epidemic, the kitchens are short-staffed. With Lady Choi in charge, Lady Han and Jang Geum are sent to the guest house to cook for the envoys – a notoriously difficult job.
The king is concerned because the envoys always find fault. Everything must go well as the King needs the envoy to accept his son as the legitimate heir to the throne.
Over at the guest house, Lady Han adjusts her menu when she hears that the envoy has diabetes. She makes him simple dishes with lots of vegetables.
But he is furious at the ‘frugal’ food. Lady Han is dragged away by guards, but Jang Geum begs him to eat the healthy food. The envoy agrees to eat Jang Geum’s dishes for 5 days. But if he doesn’t feel better after that, there’s going to be trouble!
Meanwhile, Lady Choi is delighted to hear that the envoy is upset. She arrives ready to take over and save the day. But Jang Geum insists on cooking for the 5 days.
Lady Choi is only too pleased to sit back and watch her fail. After all, the envoy doesn’t seem to be enjoying her food …
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JEWEL IN THE PALACE
Episode 19
THE SECOND TEST
After the five days of simple, healthy food, the envoy allows Lady Choi to take over.
She makes a huge banquet looking very pleased with herself! The envoy enjoys the food BUT wants to go back to the simple menu as he is feeling better. In fact the envoy is feeling SO good that he agrees with all the business about the crown prince and the king is pleased.
Lady Choi is disappointed but as the head of the kitchen she gets praise from the queen mother.
But later the queen mother hears what really happened with the envoy and announces that this event will be considered as the second part of the competition and so Lady Han is the winner! Lady Choi and Lady Han have now won one competition each.
Outside the palace, Lady Jung is still quarantined. (although she has kidney problems not flu!) And now, she realises that Lady Choi has knowingly been sending her medicine to make her kidney problem worse, not better!
She threatens to reveal this fact if she is not allowed back to the palace asap!
For the final stage of the test, the candidates must cook a simple dishe (there is a famine after all) for the king and queen mother on her birthday. Lady Han gets the persimmon vinegar she buried in the palace grounds with her friend Lady Park years ago …
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JEWEL IN THE PALACE
episode 20
THE KIDNAP
But there are shenanigans in the kitchen. Kitchen cook Young Ro is working for the Choi family and sabotages Lady Han’s work station, so she has to go out all night looking for new ingredients. But while she’s out she gets ‘kidnapped’!
Back at the palace, with Lady Han missing, Jang Geum has to stand in for her. They serve the first dish. The queen mother and the king both prefer Lady Choi’s dish: five seed rice porridge.
She wins the next course too.
But for the third dish, Jang Geum uses her mother’s persimmon vinegar. (Her mother told her it was buried in the palace grounds).
The Royals are impressed by the flavour of her dish. And they are even more impressed when they hear about the devotion it took preparing the vinegar and keeping it buried in the earth for years. Jang Geum wins!
Jewel in the Palace episode summaries 1-10
Drama Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (21-30)
Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (31-40)
Jewel in the Palace episode summaries (41-final)
What Kind of Perfume Accessories did Joseon ladies carry?
Who are the top 10 Korean women in historical drama?
Read about the making of the drama Dae Jang Geum. I also have some notes from Director Lee Byung Hoon on the making of Heojun and how he changed sageuk in Korea, and the director’s approach and views on making sageuk.
