Meiji 44th year. Meiko is the daughter of Daigo, who owns a western restaurant in Tokyo. She loves to eat the omelette prepared by Daigo, and the nukaduke (pickles) prepared by her mother, Iku. Theirs is a warm, close knitted family, and Meiko's love for food grows with age. Even now, when she is in an all-girls' high school, her mind is filled with thoughts of food all the time. Due to that, Yutaro, the university student who is boarding at the Uno's home, scathingly calls Meiko, "a person with no charms whatsoever". However, as Meiko changes from someone who loves to eat, to a person who loves to prepare food for others to eat, she starts to display an inner strength as foretold by her mother and her grandmother.
"To crave for food, is to have the will to live; the stronger the craving, the greater the will".
Those are the words that help to encourage Meiko and her loved ones as they go through all the trials and tribulations in their lives.
1945年（昭和20年）夏、戦争で焼け野原となった大阪で、子供たちに炊き出しを振る舞う一人の女性がいた。彼女こそ、この物語の主人公・西門（卯野）め以子である。
卯野芽以子出生在東京一戶經營西餐廳的人家，從小便很貪吃，對食物的熱情要比別人高一倍。在大正時期浪漫地度過了自己的學生歲月，與在大阪出生的大學生西門悠太郎邂逅，思想從「自己想要吃」轉變為「想讓別人吃」。她硬是追求並嫁給悠太郎，婚後與他回到了大阪。西門家是大阪的世家，起初芽以子對如何處理這樣的家庭關係不知如何是好，然而她不只是想讓悠太郎幸福而是要讓整個西門家都獲得幸福，抱著這樣強烈的信念，懷著對食物近乎固執的熱愛之情，學到了具有「講究飲食的大阪」的日餐的精髓。正是芽以子用心製作的料理使整個西門一家人長期的矛盾逐漸化解，彼此之間更加團結。
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