Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma

Soma Yukihira works as an apprentice chef at his father Joichiro's diner. One day while his father is away, Yaeko Minegasaki, an urban life planner, arrives and threatens to demolish the restaurant to build a luxury hotel on the spot. Yaeko spoils the meat in the restaurant and orders Soma to cook her a tasty meat dish if Soma wants to keep the restaurant open.

When Erina, known as God's Tongue, is announced as the examiner, all applicants except Soma withdraw from the exam and flee the room. For his examination, Soma is ordered to cook an egg dish to satisfy her highly selective palate.

At the entrance ceremony, Soma declares that he will become the top student at Totsuki, instantly earning the ire of the entire student body with his nonchalant attitude towards the school and its reputation. On the first day, Soma is paired up with Megumi, who has the worst grades among the admitted students and is one E grade away from expulsion.

Soma arrives at Polar Star Dormitory and is required to cook a dish that satisfies Fumio in order to become a resident. Not knowing that he was supposed to provide his own ingredients, he cooks a mackerel burger meal using leftover ingredients in the kitchen, which impresses Fumio.

Having his sights set on becoming a member on the Elite Ten, Soma challenges Satoshi for his spot only to find out that it can only be obtained through a high-stakes cooking duel called a Shokugeki, and Soma has nothing of value to Satoshi to wager that is of equivalent value to his Elite Ten membership. Meanwhile, Erina challenges the Chan Research Society president Kiyoshi Godabayashi to a Shoku

Soma and Megumi look for a club to join and stumble upon the Don Research Society, who is targeted for disbandment by Erina for her expansion project. One of Erina's enforcers Ikumi Mito challenges the club president Kanichi Konishi telling him that no matter what he cooks that his dish will never beat her A5 grade meat.

At the Shokugeki, Ikumi wows the audience with her A5 grade beef, while Soma draws jeers for using discounted beef from the supermarket. Ikumi completes her A5 Japanese Beef Roti Don first and impresses the judges with the taste of her dish.

The first year students at Totsuki Academy go to training camp - the students are given various challenges with alumni from the school brought in to be judges. The first challenge for Soma's group is to make a dish that can be served at a Japanese restaurant, using ingredients gathered from nature in the area surrounding the kitchen.

Having come up with ideas to make a dish, Soma makes a list of ingredients for he and Megumi to gather. Soma takes Inui's kaki peanuts understanding that any ingredient found in the area can be used.

Soma bumps into Erina and apologizes, but Erina refuses his help out of fear of letting her guard down.

Shinomiya initially refuses Soma's challenge, however Dojima and Inui pass by and pressure him into accepting the challenge. Thus, Soma and Megumi battle Shinomiya in an unofficial Shokugeki.

Megumi manages to impress the judges with her Rainbow Terrine, which emphasises the maturity of vegetables. However, when it comes down to voting, all three judges vote for Shinomiya's dish based on the difference between their skill.

Before the students have a chance to sleep for the night, Dojima announces his next task, in which the students must prepare a buffet-style egg dish to be served at breakfast early next morning. With everyone spending the night trying to come up with a recipe, Soma decides on a soufflé omelette, which is met with silent criticism from some of the other students. As breakfast comes the next day, it

Due to the specific timing required for his soufflé omelette, Soma struggles to get any customers to try his dish before they end up deflating. With half an hour left in the challenge, Soma calmly analyzes the situtation and changes his approach, cooking in front of his customers in order to attract a crowd while also delivering the dish in its peak condition. Optimizing his preparation to cook hi

As the students make their way home, Shinomiya decides to return to France make his restaurant the best in Paris, while the other alumni explain how the training camp also serves as a recruitment ground to determine potential for future employment. Going back for his headband, Soma ends up missing his bus and has to hitch a ride back to school with Erina, who explains about the Autumn Festival whi

With Fumio, Megumi, and Satoshi winding up as judges, Soma and Joichiro are challenged to use ingredients from the kitchen to make a light yet energizing breakfast dish that will wake them up. Soma presents an apple risotto, which provides a crisp taste which changes with the addition of black pepper. Joichiro, on the other hand, presents the unusual choice of ramen which, despite its heavy appear

Arriving back home, Soma temporarily re-opens Yukihira Diner to serve his loyal customers, including his childhood friend, Mayu Kurase, who has a crush on him. He learns that the Sumire Shopping District has been doing poor business lately due to the arrival of a popular karaage chain shop, Mozuya. Wanting to help revive the shopping district, Soma decides to come up with a competing karaage recip

Noting that the shopping district focuses more on walk-and-eat food, as opposed to Mozuya's packaged approach, Soma shifts his focus towards creating a karaage that can be enjoyed straight out of the fryer. Opting to go with thigh meat with a chilli-based marinade, Soma gets inspiration from a bento shop owner and decides to serve his karaage in rice flour wraps with salad, providing enhanced flav

The contestants and rules for the Autumn Elections are announced, in which the sixty selected contestants are split into two groups which they must top in order to advance to the tournament phase. Meanwhile, Megumi is approached by a girl named Miyoko Hojo, who was interested in her shokugeki with Shinomiya but becomes disappointed when she hears she was helped by Soma. After learning the first di

With the challenge of creating a curry dish set, many of the contestants set off to visit their families and study up on spices during the remainder of the summer while Soma stays at the dorms to try out various combinations. The Autumn Election preliminaries soon arrive, with only the top four from each group able to make it through to the tournament phase. As each of the contestants start bringi

Soma awakens from his nap to tend to his dish, which involves a creamy rice infused with spices. Meanwhile, Megumi brings out a monkfish for her dish, having learnt how to butcher it in order to help her family. With the cooking period over, the judging soon begins with a harsh panel of judges hitting most of the students with low scores. In Group B, Nao Sadatsuka, a somewhat creepy girl with an o

Miyoko scores 87 points with her pineapple-fragranced cha-han while Yuki gets 86 points for her wild game curry. Afterwards, the Aldini brothers face off against each other, with Isami presenting a curry calzone that scores 87 points while Takumi presents a curry pasta dish using tamari soy sauce and cheese filled pasta that scores 90 points. Alice then presents her deconstructed curry dish that l

Back in Group A, contestants are struggling to score as one of the main judges, Natsume Sendawara, keeps giving out zero scores. This streak soon breaks when Ryo Kurokiba, Alice's aide, presents a lobster curry made using a cognac base, earning 93 points. Next, Ikumi presents a Dongpo pork curry, using what she had learned from her Shokugeki with Soma to impress the judges with a complete dish and

Akira's dish, which on top of its powerful fragrance also uses the power of holy basil and yogurt, earns a score of 94 from the judges, two of which gave him a perfect 20. Finally, Soma presents his own fragrance bomb, combining his past two failures into a curry risotto omurice containing a mango chutney that deepens the flavor. The dish earns Soma 93 points, landing him second place behind Akira