50 Fun Facts About Food Wars!

In Food Wars!, which shy classmate is one bad grade from expulsion when she is paired with Soma?

Megumi Tadokoro starts with the worst grades in her year, yet she goes on to earn a seat on the Elite Ten. Stage fright, not a lack of skill, is what holds her cooking back.

Which Totsuki dormitory in Food Wars! makes Soma cook for its matron before he can move in?

Polar Star houses Totsuki's less affluent students, and its matron admits only those whose cooking satisfies her. Soma earns his room with a burger made from leftover mackerel.

What nickname in Food Wars! is given to Erina Nakiri for her supremely selective sense of taste?

God Tongue is a name so feared that most applicants flee when Erina is announced as their examiner. Her own family comes to see the gift as a curse that can ruin the joy of eating.

At the start of Food Wars!, what does Soma's father Joichiro do that sends Soma off to Totsuki?

Joichiro closes the family diner to cook around the world and sends Soma to sit Totsuki's entrance exam. Soma later learns his father once sat on the academy's Elite Ten himself.

In Food Wars!, what does Totsuki dean Senzaemon Nakiri tend to do when a dish truly impresses him?

Senzaemon bares his chest, stripping off his upper clothing, whenever he eats a truly good dish. The culinary world knows Erina's grandfather as the Gastric Godfather.

Which manga magazine serialized Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma from November 2012 to June 2019?

Weekly Shonen Jump ran the series for nearly seven years, and publisher Shueisha collected its chapters in 36 volumes.

Which Food Wars! transfer student from Florence declares himself Soma's rival at the training camp?

Takumi is heir to his family's trattoria and sees in Soma another chef raised in a working kitchen. His younger twin Isami transferred to the academy with him.

What ingredient does examiner Erina Nakiri demand in Soma's Totsuki transfer exam in Food Wars!?

Eggs are the theme Erina sets on a whim, and Soma answers with a plain-looking rice dish whose seasoning hides chicken aspic. She fails him anyway, until the school's director overrules her.

Each later season of the Food Wars! anime carries a numbered subtitle built on which dining word?

Plate completes each title, from The Second Plate in 2016 to The Fifth Plate, which closed the anime in 2020.

Before Totsuki in Food Wars!, how has every one of Soma's many cook-offs against his father ended?

Every cook-off ended in defeat for Soma, which is why surpassing his father drives him through the academy. Joichiro beats him yet again in a breakfast duel at the dorm.

Which Food Wars! student, known as the Meat Master, loses a shokugeki to Soma over a club's future?

Ikumi Mito bets everything on top-grade A5 beef and still loses to Soma's supermarket cut. The heiress to a meat empire then has to join the rice-bowl club she came to shut down.

What beef dish served over rice wins Soma the shokugeki for the Don Research Society in Food Wars!?

Chaliapin steak on rice wins every judge's vote, even though they at first refuse to taste a bowl made with discount supermarket beef.

Totsuki's feared French instructor Roland Chapelle is nicknamed in Food Wars! for never doing what?

Smiling is what he never does, until Soma and his partner rescue a sabotaged beef bourguignon in his class. He says he wishes he could award them a grade higher than an A.

In Soma's first Totsuki class in Food Wars!, what does he use to tenderize beef after a sabotage?

Honey softens the meat fast enough for Soma to remake the dish after classmates oversalt the first attempt. The saboteurs then ruin their own pot and fail.

In Food Wars!, what is the cooking specialty of Erina's cousin and rival Alice Nakiri?

Molecular gastronomy lets Alice treat cooking as a science, a specialty she shares with her Danish mother Leonora. Soma's homely bento still beats hers in the Autumn Election.

In Food Wars!, Erina's aide Hisako Arato draws on her family's tradition to specialize in what?

Medicinal cooking uses natural remedies and Chinese medicine to improve health. In the Autumn Election, Hisako's mutton dish even undoes the ill effects of a rival's foul-smelling entry.

Which Elite Ten member in Food Wars! lives in Soma's dorm and often wears nothing but an apron?

Satoshi Isshiki holds the seventh seat as a second-year, and behind the apron he is a master of traditional Japanese cuisine. He later loses his seat for opposing the academy's takeover.

Which Elite Ten seat does prodigy Erina Nakiri hold when Soma arrives at Totsuki in Food Wars!?

Tenth is the lowest seat, yet Erina won it as the youngest student ever to join the Elite Ten. She later resigns it to fight alongside Soma's rebels.

Which Paris-based Totsuki graduate in Food Wars! fails a student for improvising on a terrine?

Kojiro Shinomiya, known in Paris as the Vegetable Magician, is pressured into an unofficial shokugeki over the expulsion. It ends in a tie, and he lets the student stay.

Which record-setting Totsuki graduate in Food Wars! serves as head chef of the Totsuki Resorts?

Gin Dojima left with the highest marks in the school's history and turned down job offers from over 800 restaurants. He shared a dorm with Soma's father in their student days.

Which breakfast dish nearly fails Soma at the Food Wars! training camp until he cooks it live?

Soufflé omelette deflates before any guest picks it up, so Soma switches to cooking in front of the crowd. He completes his 200 servings with seconds to spare.

What dish does Soma remake in Food Wars! to save his hometown shopping district from a rival chain?

Karaage from a new chain was draining the district's customers, so Soma sells his own chilli-marinated version in a rice-flour wrap made for eating on the move. The chain's secret backer sits on the Elite Ten.

What dish must the sixty chosen first-years cook in the Autumn Election preliminaries in Food Wars!?

Curry is the theme, and many contestants spend the rest of the summer studying spices for it. Only the top four in each of two groups reach the main tournament.

Which spice expert with an extraordinary sense of smell wins the Autumn Election in Food Wars!?

Akira Hayama beats Soma in the final, where originality decides the judges' vote. He owes his career to Professor Jun Shiomi, who brought him out of the slums to Japan.

Which Food Wars! student wins duels by stalking rivals and cooking better copies of their dishes?

Subaru Mimasaka had taken a prized tool from each of 100 beaten opponents before Soma wagered his whole career against him. Soma wins, and Mimasaka has to give up every one.

What prized tool does Soma's Italian rival stake and lose in an Autumn Election duel in Food Wars!?

The mezzaluna goes to an opponent who copied and improved his dessert. When Soma wins it back, its owner asks him to hold on to it until he can reclaim it himself.

What makes the final of the Autumn Election in Food Wars! unusual after a deadlocked semi-final?

It has three finalists because the judges cannot separate the cooks in the second semi-final, so both go through to face Soma in the decider.

Which fish is the set theme of the Autumn Election final that Soma reaches in Food Wars!?

Pacific saury pushes Soma to age his fish in salted rice bran, an idea borrowed from his dorm matron's pickles, though it is not enough to win.

What are the restaurant internships that follow the Autumn Election called in Food Wars!?

Stagiaire sends each first-year to live and work at real restaurants and leave a visible mark on them. Soma's second posting is a demanding French kitchen run by a Totsuki graduate.

Which Food Wars! seafood specialist is Alice Nakiri's aide and treats the kitchen as a battlefield?

Ryo Kurokiba is the former head chef of a pub on the coast of Denmark, and he later rises to a seat on the Elite Ten.

At which Totsuki event in Food Wars! does Soma run a booth facing an Elite Ten member's restaurant?

The Moon Festival lasts five days, and Soma's booth outsells the restaurant across the way on only one of them, leaving his boast unfulfilled.

Which regional Chinese cuisine does Terunori Kuga drill into his research society in Food Wars!?

Sichuan cooking is what dozens of his club members reproduce with army-like precision, every portion identical. Kuga once challenged the Elite Ten's top seat as a first-year and lost.

Which exiled relative of Erina seizes Totsuki in Food Wars! with six Elite Ten members' backing?

Azami Nakiri, Erina's father, was banished after the harsh way he trained her palate when she was a child. He returns to oust her grandfather and remake the school to his own taste.

Which Elite Ten consultant in Food Wars!, nicknamed the Alchemist, tries to shut down Soma's dorm?

Etsuya Eizan sends men to clear the building while the duel is still under way, but the judges vote unanimously for Soma's chicken gyoza and the dorm is saved.

Which stage-shy Food Wars! third-year, nicknamed the White Knight, holds the Elite Ten's first seat?

Eishi Tsukasa beats Soma in an informal duel, then declines to claim his prize of making Soma his assistant. He fears Soma's unorthodox style would get in the way of his own cooking.

Which rare-ingredient expert in Food Wars! was so popular the writer considered making her the lead?

Rindo Kobayashi holds the Elite Ten's second seat and cooks with exotic meats such as alligator. Years earlier she and a friend had promised each other they would take the top two seats together.

Which island do Totsuki's first-years cross by train for their advancement exams in Food Wars!?

Hokkaido hosts the exams, with students moving from the island's south to its north as they pass each stage. Erina first spends a week drilling her friends on the local ingredients.

Which strong-smelling meat is the theme of Soma's duel against a new Elite Ten member in Food Wars!?

Bear smells so strong that Soma hikes into the mountains for ideas and tames it with schisandra berries. His fried cutlet then wins a narrow vote on the strength of its sauce.

What is the name of the team shokugeki in Food Wars! that pits Soma's rebels against the Elite Ten?

Regiment de Cuisine is the format Soma's father and Erina's grandfather propose, with the rebels' expulsions and the Elite Ten seats at stake. The rebels sweep its first round.

Which noodle, Nene Kinokuni's family specialty, is the theme of her duel with Soma in Food Wars!?

Soba is her family's trade, so Soma answers with an instant-style stir-fried version rather than copy her. He wins because the cold arena dulled the delicate flavour of hers.

What is the specialty of Somei Saito, the Food Wars! chef who follows the bushido code?

Sushi became his craft when he ran his mother's restaurant during her illness and faced down the traditional chefs who had disrespected her. Soma beats him in a duel themed on butter.

After the rebels' victory in Food Wars!, which Totsuki post does Soma nominate Erina Nakiri to take?

Headmaster is the role she takes over from her ousted father, and she in turn nominates Soma for the top seat on the Elite Ten.

Which former protege of Soma's father leads the dark chefs and plans to marry Erina in Food Wars!?

Asahi Saiba beats Soma's father and takes his knife as a trophy, then turns up at Totsuki posing as an instructor named Suzuki. He is finally revealed to be Erina's half-brother.

Which unlikely tool does the military-themed dark chef Sarge favour for cooking in Food Wars!?

A chainsaw is her preferred tool, and she adds a sledgehammer and explosives to bake a Christmas cake against Soma. His version, made without sugar or dairy, wins anyway.

What forced the final season of the Food Wars! anime off the air for months after just two episodes?

The COVID-19 pandemic paused new episodes in April 2020, and weekly broadcasts only resumed on July 18 after reruns of the first two.

Which studio animated Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma under series director Yoshitomo Yonetani?

J.C.Staff produced the adaptation, which Shueisha announced in October 2014 and which ran for five seasons.

Which English dub actor voices Soma Yukihira in Food Wars!, opposite Stephanie Wittels as Erina?

Blake Shepard voices Soma in English, while Yoshitsugu Matsuoka plays him in the original Japanese.

Which streaming service simulcast Food Wars! with English subtitles from its April 2015 premiere?

Crunchyroll began streaming the anime on April 4, 2015, though the first two seasons left the service in 2022 after Sony bought the platform.

On which Adult Swim programming block did the English dub of Food Wars! air from 2019 to 2023?

Toonami picked up the English dub four years after the anime's Japanese debut, with Sentai Filmworks as its North American licensor.

What did Yuki Morisaki contribute to the Food Wars! manga alongside its writer and illustrator?

The recipes are genuine dishes supplied by Morisaki, one reason reviewers praised the series. The creators kept a library of researched dishes to slot into each week's story.