Qiao Wan, a 35-year-old five-star hotel head chef, accidentally travels back to ancient times and finds herself stranded on the street with no money. Relying on her exquisite culinary skills and modern business mind, she starts from a roadside food stall. Delicacies like brown sugar glutinous rice cakes and duck blood vermicelli soup sweep the entire city, and she unexpectedly discovers that her ancestral iron wok conceals a lost ancient recipe from the former imperial kitchen. She meets Xiao Jing, a young general poisoned with a rare toxin and suffering from a complete loss of taste; only her dishes can awaken his taste buds, and the two gradually develop feelings for each other. Facing suppression by wicked merchants and poisoning conspiracies, Qiao Wan and Xiao Jing join forces to fight back and win first place in the imperial culinary examination. In the end, Qiao Wan politely declines the imperial chef title, persists in running her humble stall so ordinary people can eat hot meals, and achieves a happy ending with Xiao Jing.