Food Wars! Vol. 14 and the second stage of Soma’s stagiare begins at Shonomiya’s new Tokyo branch for his restaurant, Shino’s. Soma, nursing wounded pride at placing second in the Fall Classic due to his dish not being deemed unique enough to be considered a specialty (defined in volume 13 as an expression of the chef’s skill and personality that only one chef could make) sees this as an opportunity to develop his own specialty under Shonomiya.
However, before Soma can prove that he is special enough to make a specialty, he first gets knocked down a peg when he proves unprepared for Shino’s French styled kitchen prep during the breakneck pace of the pre-opening. Shinomiya taunts Soma that he should leave, and the reader gets the sense that this is both Shinomiya’s version of tough love and also due to the fact that he still scorns Soma for his effrrontery to challenge him to a shokugeku.
Soma’s response is to sleep less–or maybe not at all–so that he can pre-prep before the other chefs arrive in the morning. And upon this solid foundation of hard work, he learns how to prep in the Shino’s way, so that by the end of the stagiare, Soma is complimented for it by some of the other chefs. And so, Soma does manage to persevere to the last day of the pre-opening, upon which Shinomiya closes early to host some special customers: past teachers and peers from The Totsuki Institute eager to try out Shinomiya’s Tokyo menu for Shino’s.
While Soma has had no time to prepare his specialty, he tells Shinomiya that an image of the dish has been simmering all week in his head, and Shinomiya allows Soma to prepare it for the elevated palettes that will be sampling his new menu. However, he adds, “don’t come whining to me if this new sense of confidence of yours gets crushed.”
I won’t reveal either Soma’s specialty or the response to it here, suffice to say that it is memorable and humorous, and it sums up not only The Fall Classic story arc, but also calls back to Soma and Shinomiya’s shokugeku.
From here, the reader gets to see a series of vignettes sampling other Totsuki students’ stagiares, and then there is an impromptu shokugeku when one of the returning freshmen is challenged immediately, based on that student’s powerful reputation, by a sophomore.
After this, the eight finalists of The Fall Classic are summoned to a meet and greet with The Totsuki Institute Council of Ten Masters.
I was disappointed that the four week internship only filled out the end of 13 and most of 14 because I enjoyed the stagiare stories. By comparison, the Fall Classic was a multi volume epic, and the stagiare, which would have been a great way to put the spotlight on supporting characters like Marui or even back row characters like Aoki and Sato, was barely an interlude and only used to let Yukihira develop his specialty in what became an extra credit follow-up to the fall classic.
Additionally, this volume only has one recipe and it is light on food lore compared to the previous volumes, although there are two electric two-page spreads of culinary exposition and analysis in this manga: Shinomiya’s elucidation of burdock root, and Soma’s explanation of his specialty.
Still, after Platinum End, this was my second favorite October manga from Viz Media. Food Wars has one of the best recipes in sequential art and serial fiction: 1 oz. school camaraderie; 1 tbsp. teen harem romance; 1 tsp shonen fighting manga; 1/4 cup culinary wisdom.
Food Wars Vol. 14 was released on October 4th, 2016, and it is available in bookstores and online. Here are some more reviews of Food Wars: volumes 10 and 11; volume 13.
Viz Media sent the review copy.
