Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma Volume 27 manga review

Food Wars: Shokugeki No Soma Graphic Novel Volume 27 cover image

Teenager Soma Yukihira grows up cooking in his father's Yukihira Family Restaurant.  The 15-year-old wants to be a better chef than his father, Joshiro Yukihira, so he hones his skills day in and day out.  His father decides to enroll him in a classy culinary school, Totsuki Saryo Culinary Institute, a place that prides itself on a 10 percent graduation rate.  If Soma Yukihira really does not want to attend Totsuki, how can he succeed?

As Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma, Vol. 27 (Chapters 227 to 235; entitled “The Third Bout”) opens, the “second bout” of the Régiment de Cuisine Shokugeki comes to an abrupt end.  The first card of the second bout had the Resistance's Terunori Kuga battling the Council's Eishi Tsukasa, with the theme ingredient being “green tea” (tea leaves).  The second card featured the Resistance's Tosuke Megishima versus the Council's Rindo Kobayahsi, with the theme ingredient being “red pepper.”  The third card had the Resistance's Subaru Mimasaka in a “tracer” battle against the Council's Somei Saito, with the theme ingredient being “tuna.”

There are three cards in each bout of the Régiment, pitting three members of Soma and his allies' group, known as “the Resistance,” against Totsuki's “Council of Ten.”  If the Resistance wins the Régiment, they save their expelled classmates and gain seats on the council.  If they lose, all students connected to the Resistance are expelled and Soma's father becomes a slave... or sorts.

And the Resistance loses all three cards of the second bout, just as the Council lost all three cards in the first bout.  Now, the crucial “third bout” begins.  Soma will take on the Council's Somei Saito in a battle with butter as the theme ingredient.  It is Takumi Aldini vs. the Council's Etsuya Eizan in a beef battle.  It is a duel of the sweets as Megumi Tadokoro takes on the Council's cutie-pie, Momo Akanegakubo, in a contest of apple-themed dishes.

Every Resistance fighter in this third bout is a first-year student at Totsuki.  Are they ready to take on the Council's more experienced chefs?  Is Takumi Aldini ready to learn why Etsuya Eizan is also known as “The Alchemist?”

[The volume includes a recipes and illustrated character profiles.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The Food Wars! manga is in the midst of a great shokugeki – a battle of chefs – that will decides the fates of many students.  And this manga is at its best when the kitchen is the battleground and cooking is the weapon.

Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma Graphic Novel Volume 27 is kind of like a gift to me from the series creators, writer Yuto Tsukada and artist Shun Saeki.  I am a fan of all three theme ingredients in the third bout:  butter, beef, and apples.  One of the many things that Tsukada and Saeki do is make readers believe they can smell the scent of cooking wafting from the pages of a Food War! graphic novel.  Oh, lawd!  The smell of butter melting in a hot skillet is divine.  I love sinking my teeth into a crunchy, crispy apple, and I certainly enjoy apple-based desserts.  And beef, literally and metaphorically... can be so satisfying.  Truly, Vol. 27 is a volume to savor.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers hungry for good manga will want the “Shonen Jump Advanced” title, Food Wars!: Shokugeki No Soma.

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9.5 out of 10