During the two-part examination, the supervising palace lady asks a question using a poem that reads “clothes but not clothes, head but not head, human but not human” and the Royal Kitchen apprentices are supposed to figure out what food dish the proverb is referring to. Geum-Young gets the answer right away, then other maid servants get it, but Jang-Geum and a few others don’t manage get the answer before time’s up. The answer is “dumplings” (because it looks like a head, wears chothes, but it’s not a person). Jang-Geum didnt’ manage to answer because she was away from palace while one of the superiors explained the metaphor to the Royal Kitchen apprentices.
So the girls take turn picking out ingredients to be used next day for the cooking examination. A bunch of new girls with higher ranking come to supervise and help to prepare. Jang-Geum is assigned a young girl, who happens to be the daughter of one of the supervisors (without others knowing). Jang-Geum finds out her flour is stolen by someone during the night. It’s devastating because everyone is supposed to make dumplings the next day and without flour you can’t make the dumpling skin. So Jang-Geum looks for flour and tells her superior that her portion has been stolen and asks for more but she’s told that’s not allowed. So she has to make due with what she has left with. Later Jang-Geum figures out the one who stole her flour is the new young girl. So Jang-Geum goes to the kitchen and sees the girl making dumpling soup. The two start arguing. Then the guards hear them and goes into the kitchen and asks what’s going on. Among them is Min Jung-Ho as he is one of the Royal Guards. The girl confesses she stole the flour because her mother will be sent away after the exam (forced retirement due to age and sickness, as they don’t allow to die in the Royal Palace) and she will never see her again, and her mother’s favorite food was dumpling soup so she’s making the farewell supper for her mother. The Royal Guard leader is shocked that a palace girl has a mother inside the palace (not usually allowed, Geum-Young’s maternal identity is also kept a secret). They decide to keep it secret, since the mother (at that point of time the girl believed is the Head of Royal Kitchen Lady), who has been a good royal servant. So jang-geum is left without flour the next morning. She spends all night trying to figure out how to make dumplings without flour. During the examination she makes dumpling with steamed cabbage as skin. One of the judges really likes her creativity but the rest of the judges think it’s not good for her to pass the examination especially after she lost her ingredient.
The Head Court Lady Zheng announces names of the girls that passed the exam. Those who didn’t pass.
have to pack their bags right away to leave the palace. They’re cutting down the staff to trim all unnecessary palace girls. One by one the names are called. Geum-Young passes but when she starts to read a list of people who didn’t pass, Suh Jang Geum is in there.