Pleasantly Surprised (), also known as Love Myself or You, is a 2014 Taiwanese romantic-comedy television series produced by Sanlih E-Television. Starring Puff Guo and Jasper Liu as the main leads, with Jolin Chien and Lene Lai as the main supporting leads. The original title has a double meaning which literally translates to "Like Someone" or "Like To Be Alone", depending how it's read. Original title during development of the drama was "Love Met Cupid 愛情遇見邱比特", the title was then changed to "Love Myself or You 喜歡·一個人" during start of production. The English title was once again renamed "Pleasantly Surprised" right before the drama began airing. Filming took place from April 23 to October 13, 2014 and was filmed as the drama aired. First original broadcast began May 23, 2014 on SETTV channel airing every Friday at 10:00-11:30 pm. Final episode was aired on October 17, 2014, with 22 episodes total.
Synopsis
Du Kai Qi is an aspiring young chef, her only interests are cooking and reading manga comics. She doesn't have many friends and doesn't want anymore. After enjoying her most delicious full course meal prepared by a chef named Louis, she snaps a picture of his signature from the plate and request to meet him. However, a family emergency forces her to leave before meeting Louis. She looks to Louis's signature as strength and inspiration for her upcoming sous chef promotion test. On the day of her test the new restaurant intern Ah Jie, who has to decide the winner, chooses Kai Qi's rival dish over hers. Losing out on her promotion, Kai Qi makes instant enemies with Ah Jie. What she doesn't know is Ah Jie is her boss's son, her new next door neighbor, the chef Louis that she admires so much and her long lost childhood friend Fu Zi Jie who she had a close bond with.
Plot summary
The once cheerful and happy Du Kai Qi has grown up to be a cold, fierce and isolated person due to her harsh upbringing. Her father is a money asking, alcoholic and abusive person. Even though both of her parents have been separated for many years, her father still harasses and abuses her mother for money. With so many difficulties in her life, it has made her liked to be left alone. Kai Qi works as an assistant chef at "Figaro Cuisine", a fancy French restaurant owned by her mother's former employer. At Figaro's, it brings her pleasant memories of her childhood when both she and her mother had their most delicious meal there. Knowing how happy that meal made her mother feel, it drives her to become an accomplished chef hoping to provide a better life for her and her mother. Already struggling financially, she is forced to take in her young nephew when his father abandons him to get remarried.
Fu Zi Jie has just returned home for the first time after many years living abroad in France. A highly skilled French chef, he has never risen pass an intern position because of a promise he made to his brother. During dinner with his parents, his mother begs him to take a position as an intern for one month at one of his father's restaurants hoping it will change his mind to stay in Taiwan and takeover his father's business. Seeing his mother's persistence he agrees, but ask that his real identity be concealed from the restaurant staff and that he moves out on his own. He arrives at "Figaro Cuisine" and instantly remembers the happy times he had as a child with his nanny and her daughter who became his best friend. He tells the restaurant staff to call him Ah Jie. On his first day at the restaurant he is asked by the executive chef to judge the sous chef promotion test between Kai Qi and her rival Cheng Le Xuan. Not happy with the outcome of the sous chef promotion test, Kai Qi instantly makes enemies with Ah Jie, but also finds out her dish has been sabotaged by the executive chef because she rejected his advances to be his girlfriend earlier.