Anirban Bhattacharya
Apart from being one of the basic needs of humans, food also sometimes acts as the source of creative inspiration. So, it isn’t much of a surprise when we see multiple movies and TV shows made on the themes of food and cooking. Anime too has followed the trend and has produced some really entertaining shows and movies revolving around food. So, why not take a look at some of the top cooking anime ever made. You can watch several of these best food anime on Crunchyroll, Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime.
12. Muteki Kanban Musume (2006)
‘Muteki Kanban Musume’ is a fun little show about cooking. The anime is not very long and has a total of 12 episodes and each episode is about 24 minutes in length. So, one can easily binge the show. The protagonist of the anime is Miki Onimaru. She is 20 years old but acts like a child. It is quite easy to provoke her and after which she gets very violent. Miki is also very competitive and easy to pick up fights. She is the poster girl for the Chineses Ramen Restaurant that her mother owns. Miki often picks up the fight and her physical strength is something to commend. But her tomboy exterior does not last long when she is under the effects of intoxication. She behaves very lady like then and one can even say that she is the ideal representation of a Japanese lady. Miki often gets into a fight with her mother and other acquaintances which forms the basis of the anime. This would have been boring and tedious to watch if there were more than 12 episodes but the lesser number of episodes makes it a fun little show to watch.
11. Yakitate!! Japan (2004)
‘Yakitate!! Japan’ is an entertaining food anime which is all about baking bread. The word Yakitake actually means freshly baked. But the word Japan in the title is a pun. This is because pan means bread in Japanese. The protagonist of ‘Yakitate!! Japan’, Kazuma Azuma, is obsessed with bread. When it comes to other things he is a sort of knucklehead but when it comes to bread he is a genius. He wants to make Japan, the best Japanese bread ever, and make it compete against the best bread in the world. Kazuma’s hands are made for bread too it seems since he has warm hands which make it easier for the yeast to ferment faster. His love for bread came when his sister kidnapped him and took him to a bread store to show him the wonders of bread since he said he did not like bread. But at the store, he fell in love with the product and started to make bread himself. Now, at the age of sixteen, he goes to Tokyo to enter into a baking competition.
10. Toriko (2011)
‘Toriko’ is really entertaining and funny anime revolving around food. The premise warms the ground for comedy and the implementation of it delivers on that. In the world of ‘Toriko’ food grows naturally. Hamburgers can be found growing like clovers. ice cream can be found as mountain ranges, and one can find mac and cheese in hot volcanic lava. In such a world filled with gourmet nature, how can citizens and chefs stay away from great tastes? To find exotic, tasty, and rare ingredients, special professionals known as gourmet hunters are hired. They find unknown ingredients. Toriko. the protagonist of the anime is an infamous gourmet hunter. He is credited with finding 2% of the entire known ingredients. He aspires to create the best full course meal ever by finding the tastiest and the most exotic of ingredients. Joining him in his adventure is a five-star restaurant chef Komatsu. But the job of finding ingredients is not going to be easy. There are lots of obstacles on the way ranging from evil organizations to deadly monsters.
9. Moyashimon (2007)
Do you ever find yourself thinking about an idea, then immediately discarding it because you think it’s stupid? Well, anime or manga creators don’t and for very good reasons. Over the years we have seen eccentric ideas becoming an anime and doing rather good than anyone’s expectation. ‘Moyashimon’ is one of those anime. The premise of the anime deals with a boy having the ability to converse with chibi bacteria and other microorganisms. Yup, I am not kidding. Watch the first season of the anime to understand how fun the idea can be. The first season has a total of 11 episodes with each episode being around 23 minutes in length. So, one can easily binge it. But what does all this have to do with food? Well, the bacteria that the protagonist can talk to are very much responsible for the creation of our favorite food products like cream, cheese, wine etc. The anime revolves around Tadayasu, the protagonist, as he enters into an Agricultural college.
8. Gin no Saji (2013)
Staying with a similar theme let’s look at another anime which deals with the protagonist enrolling into an Agricultural Institute. ‘Gin no Saji’ is a really fun anime. The first season is really entertaining and has a total of 11 episodes with each episode being 23 minutes in length. I never got around seeing the second season but I have heard that it is equally good. Yuugo Hachiken is the protagonist of the anime. He is a hard-working boy but he is frustrated about living up to the expectations of people. So, to take some pressure off him and to stay away from his family he decides to enroll in Ooezo AGricultural High School. The school is a boarding school and is located in the countryside of Hokkaido. But what Yuugo did not expect was how tough this school is going to be for him. Every other student has been living in farms for their whole life and has all the knowledge about food, vegetables, and livestock. Join him as he tackles the obstacles of being a fish out of a pond in this school.
7. Chuuka Ichiban! (1997)
The story of ‘Chuuka Ichiban!’ takes place in China. It is the era of the Qing Dynasty when the emperor is not that powerful and the kingdom is slowly dissolving into chaos. The anime revolves around ‘The Era of Cooking Wars’ which is a fictitious ear when the art of cooking has the utmost importance. Insulting a top-chef can land people in prison. Also, if someone fools around with cooking is also punishable by law. During these times chefs from all over the country indulge in cooking battles against each other to earn respect and titles with the risk of losing everything. Mao is the protagonist of this anime whose mother was a legendary chef known as the ‘Fairy of Cuisine’. Mao wants to become the head chef of his mother’s restaurant but to do that he has to improve his cooking skills and learn new things. Join him on his journey to become one of the greatest chefs of his time.
6. Bartender (2006)
‘Bartender’ is a different sort of food anime. It is not about some young chef running around going on adventures to become the best in the business rather it is about the consoling effect of food. The anime revolves around a mysterious bar, Eden Hall, which one cannot find if they go on looking for it. Rather the bar is the one which chooses its customers and certain people with people having problems and troubles wander into this bar. The bartender of Eden Hall is Ryuu Sasakura. He is a prodigy in mixing cocktails and is able to serve the most consoling cocktail to his customers. He also guides them or shows them the way to solve their troubles.
5. Yume-iro Pâtissière (2009)
Want to watch a food anime revolving around tasty desserts? Then go for ‘Yume-iro Pâtissière’, an anime revolving around patisseries creating some of the tastiest desserts. Ichigo Amano is the protagonist of the anime. She loves eating cakes and has never been good at anything else. One day she encounters a famous patissier Henri Lucas who discovers that Ichigo has a great sense of taste. He asks her to join the famous St. Marie Academy. Due to Henri’s recommendation even though a rookie Ichigo is placed among the sweet princes consisting of three of the most talented dessert chefs. Along with them and Sweet Spirits, fairies having the ability to make a patissier’s dream come true, Ichigo embarks on a journey to become a great chef.
4. Isekai Izakaya: Koto Aitheria no Izakaya Nobu (2018)
‘Isekai Izakaya: Koto Aitheria no Izakaya Nobu’ is a sort of entertaining anime revolving around an izakaya by the name of Nobu. Izakaya is an informal Japanese pub where customers go for after-work drinking. But Nobu is not your everyday drinking pub. Though located in Kyoto Japan, it is a place which serves customers from an alternate world. The waitress of the bar is Shinobu Senke and the chef of the bar is Nobuyuki Yazawa. ‘Isekai Izakaya: Koto Aitheria no Izakaya Nobu’, is an Original Net Animation and has a total of 24 episodes with each episode being 14 minutes in length.
3. Ristorante Paradiso (2009)
The bulk of the anime takes place in a restaurant around Rome. Nicoletta is angry at her mother for abandoning her when she was a child. She wishes to confront her and ruin her life. Her mother, Olga, left her to remarry Lorenzo. However, Lorenzo has no idea about Olga’s daughter or about the fact that she is a divorcee. To keep Nicoletta shut her mother provides her with an apartment and a job at Lorenzo’s restaurant. While working there Nicoletta falls in love with the head waiter who is twice her age. the beautiful atmosphere at the restaurant and Rome makes her lose her desire to get vengeance against her mother. The anime has some great visuals.
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3. Cooking Papa (1992)
‘Cooking Papa’ is one of the longest running manga in Japan. Its anime adaptation is sort of fun and entertaining. The story revolves around a family man by the name of Mr. Araiwa. He is a good employee working at a big firm. But what people don’t know is that he is quite a genius when it comes to cooking. Araiwa loves to cook for his wife and son and never lets any occasion pass without treating them to some special food. Araiwa is not arrogant or proud of his cooking. He even lets other people assume that his wife is the one cooking all the stuff even though she is not very good at cooking. The anime has a total of 151 episodes with each episode being 25 minutes in length.
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2. Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan (2018)
Do you like the ‘Fate/Stay’ series? Do you find it entertaining? If the answers to those questions are affirmative then you are going to enjoy this anime about cooking which is a spin-off of the ‘Fate/Stay’ series. We get various characters from the original series. The protagonist of ‘Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan’ is Emiya Shirou who along with his servant Saber is slowly settling into everyday life in the aftermath of the Holy Grail War. Emiya has taken it upon himself to show Saber the delicacies of modern cooking and the anime revolves around him visiting the marketplace every day trying to find certain ingredients to create his favorite dishes.
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1. Shokugeki no Souma (2015)
‘Shokugeki no Soma’ is one of the best cooking anime out there. If you like ‘Naruto’, ‘Bleach’, ‘One Piece’, etc. then you will like ‘Shokugeki no Souma’ too. Since the feel of the anime is quite similar to those. Yukihira Souma is the protagonist of the anime. He works as an assistant-chef in his father’s diner. He wants to become the head chef of the restaurant and constantly tries to improve his skills. But his father suddenly decides to close down the restaurant and go around the world to test his cooking skills. He then asks Yukihira to enroll in the prestigious Tootsuki Culinary Academy which is the institution where great chefs are born. But it is not going to be easy since the graduation rate of the academy is 10 percent. Tootsuki is also famous for its food wars where chefs compete against each other to settle disputes.
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