Recipe for Love ends with two families reconciled

KBS2 weekend drama Recipe for Love concluded with a happy ending built around reconciliation and love between the Gong and Yang families. Nielsen Korea's nationwide household ratings put the July 19 finale at 15.3%, below the drama's own peak rating.

The finale showed the end of the 30-year feud between the Gong and Yang households and their shift into one family. During the wedding of Gong Ju-ah(Jin Se-yeon) and Yang Hyun-bin(Park Ki-woong), Yang Seon-chul(Joo Jin-mo) collapsed from acute leukemia, and his family learned only afterward that he had been ill.

The family continued to lean on one another while a bone marrow transplant donor could not be found. After a 2-year time jump, Yang Dong-sook(Jo Mi-ryung) had opened store No. 2 and had a daughter with Gong Dae-han(Choi Dae-chul), Yang Dong-ik(Kim Hyung-mook) had been elected to the city council, and Yang Seon-chul had returned to the Korean medicine clinic after a successful operation.

The ending also returned to Gong Ju-ah's relationship with her mother-in-law Cha Se-ri(So Yi-hyun) and the continuing bond between Na Seon-hae(Kim Mi-sook) and Gong Ki-cheol(Kim Chang-wan). Na Seon-hae published an essay, Crossing 30 Years of Nights, compiled from letters she had exchanged with her husband over 30 years, and Gong Ki-cheol told her, 'I wanted to turn the time my wife thought she had spent alone for 30 years into time we spent together.'

Near the end of the broadcast, Han Seong-mi(Yoo Ho-jeong) returned to television after 2 years battling breast cancer. She said, 'What helped me endure that time was not a grand miracle, but the love of the family who stayed by my side.' The finale closed with the Gong and Yang families taking a family photograph together.

After the broadcast, viewer comments included 'It was a warm drama to the end,' 'It reminded me again of the value of family,' 'The happy ending made it even better,' and 'I watched it for healing every weekend, so I am sad it is already over.'