| “ | There’s something that reaches the diner before flavor and appearance. It remains after the diner chews and swallows, that’s fragrance. The one who do dominates the field of cooking is the one who dominates its fragrance. In other words, the one who’ll take the top at Totsuki is me, Akira Hayama. | ” |
—Akira to Soma, about his abilities | ||
The Chosen Ones (選ばれし者 Erabareshi mono) is the nineteenth episode of the first season of Shokugeki no Soma anime and is the nineteenth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
The contestants and rules for the Autumn Elections are announced: sixty selected contestants are split into two groups which they must top to advance to the tournament phase. Megumi is approached by Miyoko Hōjō, who is interested in her Shokugeki with Shinomiya, but is disappointed when she hears Megumi was helped by Sōma. After learning the first dish of the elections is curry, Sōma and Megumi visit Jun Shiomi, an instructor and Polar Star alumna who specializes in curry and spices. Using Jun's theories on spices, her assistant Akira Hayama, who is also in the elections, demonstrates that preparing the same ingredients of a curry dish in different ways can yield drastically different results. Impressed by the powerful flavors of Akira's curry, Sōma becomes determined to beat him in the preliminaries.
Plot[]
In the meeting of the Elite Ten Council, Erina objects that Sōma should be re-evaluated if he's allowed in the Autumn Elections and doubts his cooking merits his participation in a gourmet festival with tradition. Satoshi admits to Erina that her opinions are never wrong when it comes to food. However, when it comes to Sōma, he sees her views becoming irrational. Satoshi questions if something happened between them, but Erina denies it and believes Sōma is unworthy. Then she retorts to Satoshi for being biased because Sōma is from his dorm, but he denies it. Etsuya finds Sōma interesting and supports his participation, leading Erina to stand up out of frustration. Although he admits that Sōma has accomplished a little in Tōtsuki Academy, Etsuya acknowledges him for making a last-minute comeback of serving 200 dishes. While Etsuya asks Erina if Sōma would make the gourmet festival more entertaining, he doesn't understand why she's against it, so Erina silently sits down before Satoshi makes a decision with no objections.
During the day in Tōtsuki Academy, all the students are in a hurry to see the board for the elections, and some of them have made it while others don't. Fortunately, Sōma, Megumi, Shun, Yūki, and Ryōko are able to participate. Takumi approaches and declares that he and Sōma will have a Shokugeki. However, Sōma is paying attention to Ikumi who also made it to the Autumn Elections. He turns and says good luck to Takumi, but he retorts to Sōma not to treat him like a sidekick. Isami laughs while Takumi tells him to stop. Alice and her companion have made it. Alice tells her companion that failure is not an option, but he assures her that he'll be fine to win, even if he faces her. Upon hearing this, Alice gets upset and hits her companion's back for not respecting her, but he reminds her of having respect for her. Sōma notices Alice and greets her. As they see this, Yūki and Ryōko wonder how they have met, and they'll call Fumio about the "golden age" has returned. Urara makes an announcement of becoming a host to the Fall Elections and gets the boys' attention, making the girls jealous. She explains that the contestants are split into Group A and Group B to undergo the preliminaries, and those with a high rank will enter the tournament. When Urara reads the message from Etsuya, Sōma becomes cautious, and the VIPs and heavyweights of the food industry will attend the preliminaries. Furthermore, if any contestant makes an unworthy dish, they'll lose.
Inside the building, Erina is watching the scene while congratulating Hinako for getting elected. Hisako assures Erina that she will punish Sōma, but sees her getting depressed before she apologizes. Remembering when they're in the car and doubts him getting elected, which is out of her expectation, Erina believes she's above him. Sōma discusses with Alice about Erina not entering the Autumn Elections due to running it as a member of the Elite Ten, and she goes back to hitting her companion's back. Megumi is terrified, but she hears a pair of male students complaining about her getting picked instead of them. Suddenly, a girl steps in, defending Megumi from the boys. She criticizes them that the elections are based on the candidates' potential, not just grades, and scares them away after stomping her foot so hard. Megumi thanks and asks the girl who she is, and her name is Miyoko Hōjō. She is interested in Megumi after hearing that she had a shokugeki with Kojirō. Megumi confirms that it was thanks to Sōma's help. As Miyoko hears this, she is disappointed and walks away.
Alice explains to Sōma that the Elite Ten scored a victory during the tournament. In other words, there will be the next Elite Ten who make it through the preliminaries. The contestants in Group A are Ryōko, Shun, and Ikumi while those in Group B are Alice, Yūki, Takumi, Isami, Miyoko, and Megumi. While walking, Erina is stalked by a girl in Group B, Nao Sadatsuka, from the tree who admires her beauty, and she wants Erina to "despise" her. Then Nao sees Hisako and resents her, claiming herself to be more worthy of Erina than Hisako, and Hisako gets chills from it as she's also in Group B. In the library, Zenji is reading who is in Group A, and he is approached by the Miyazato Seminar. Alice tells Sōma to win if he wants the chance, hoping she, he, and Erina will compete over the Elite Ten seats before leaving with her companion, Ryō Kurokiba, who is also in Group A. A male student is watching the others checking the board for the elections while smelling the cinnamon.
During the night in the Polar Star Dormitory, Sōma is sharpening his kitchen knife and looks at the scorch mark on the floor, remembering Jōichirō and Etsuya. In the morning, Satoshi, Sōma, and Megumi are working in the fields. Yūki approaches and shows them a letter from the Autumn Elections Office. As they open it, the topic for the dish in the preliminaries is curry. Discussing what the topic is about, Sōma suggests making curry rice, but Ryōko confirms that it says dish. Shun figures that it's any dish that uses curry. While thinking about how hard curry is to grasp, Sōma remembers Jōichirō mentioning a student, Jun Shiomi, who always made curry and became an instructor at Tōtsuki. So Sōma and Megumi visit Jun's seminar. They enter the building and the lab where they see a young girl on the ground, making spice mixtures. She apologizes to Sōma and Megumi, yet Megumi apologizes back. When Sōma mentions the young girl he's Jōichirō's son, she furiously punches him out cold and tells Sōma to leave, revealing herself to be Jun. A male student comes in and sees the incident, and Megumi apologizes to him.
A flashback shows Jun introducing herself to the previous Polar Star Dormitory residents when was a student of Tōtsuki. Gin welcomes Jun after passing Fumio's test, and Jōichirō greets everyone after waking up from bed. Jōichirō asks Jun to taste his new recipe, and she happily obliges. Unfortunately, Jun is used as a subject for Jōichirō's horrible dishes, which traumatizes her. Back in the present, due to the spices, Jun remains youthful. Sōma happily learns that his father treated his kouhais poorly, much to Megumi's frowning. Sōma and Megumi need Jun's help to learn about curry, but she can only help Megumi except for Sōma, who refuses to speak with Jōichirō or his family members. The male student brings tea to them and apologizes for the rudeness, and he introduces himself as a first-year and an assistant named Akira Hayama. Upon hearing this, Megumi is confused because only second-year students can join a lab, but Akira clarifies that Jun needs him because she can't do anything other than fiddling with spices. Then Jun tells Akira to call her Professor Shiomi to show some respect as her assistant, but he reminds her about watering the plants she forgot and hosting the guests she ignored, causing Jun to apologize since he did them all. Sōma and Megumi see various spices and one of them smells like curry. Akira tells them that it's called kari patta, which goes by the name curry leaf. Megumi remembers the curry leaves in her home die in winter and are only found dried in Japan. Akira explains that Jun found a way to cultivate tropical spices in Japan and was successful in finding long-term storage methods with freezing technology. When Sōma compliments her, Jun says getting flattered by him gives her no joy, but she is flattered and says spices have potential. So Jun explains that blending spices creates synergy, but if someone is not careful with spices, it'll give an off-flavor. It takes a while, but Akira helps Sōma and Megumi the fastest way to learn is to experience it as he takes them to the kitchen.
Akira makes Kozhi Varutha Curry, a traditional southern Indian dish. Sōma takes a bite from it and tastes its strong fragrance. Next, Akira makes Goa Fish Curry, which uses whitefish such as marlin and salmon. When Sōma and Megumi taste them, Akira has used toasted red peppers and coriander in the frying pan, and he has also used dry-roasted spices. As a result, Sōma understands what Jun is talking about. Akira makes another Kolivartha curry, but it's different with a stronger curry leaf with water after Megumi tastes it. Sōma has noticed that Akira didn't look at the pot and used his nose instead. Akira turns Jun's principles into cooking, which is why she needs him. When Jun finishes her explanation, she sees that the three have left. Sōma questions Akira about participating in the Autumn Elections as well, and Akira answers that he's in Group A like Sōma. Wanting to know how he knows his name, Akira simply tells Sōma everyone knows him from the opening ceremony and finds his cooking interesting, but it's not good enough to climb the top of Tōtsuki, which irritated Sōma. Akira claims that fragrance dominates the world of cooking, and he'll be the one at the top. Sōma thanks Akira for the food, and he'll repay him by letting him taste the curry that will be better than his next time at the preliminaries. Sōma is about to leave, but he accidentally gets hit in the stomach when Jun opens the door. Akira tells Sōma that he doesn't stand a chance because his nose is special.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Polar Star Dormitory residents
- Elite Ten Council
- Takumi Aldini
- Ikumi Mito
- Isami Aldini
- Alice Nakiri
- Ryō Kurokiba
- Urara Kawashima
- Hisako Arato
- Miyoko Hōjō
- Tōtsuki Academy Alumni
- Kojirō Shinomiya (Mentioned)
- Jun Shiomi (Debut)
- Gin Dōjima (Flashback)
- Nao Sadatsuka
- Takao Miyazato (Cameo)
- Madoka Enomoto
- Akira Hayama (Full debut; had a cameo in Episode 3)
- Jōichirō Yukihira (Flashback)
Featured Dishes[]
- Akira Hayama's Kozhi Varutha Curry
- Akira Hayama's Goa Fish Curry
Featured Cooking Duels[]
- TBA
Locations[]
- Tōtsuki Culinary Academy
- Polar Star Dormitory
- Polar Star Farms
- Shiomi Seminar (Debut)
- Polar Star Dormitory
Trivia[]
General Trivia[]
- This is the only episode where Daigo Aoki and Shōji Satō do not make an appearance with the rest of the Polar Star Dormitory residents.
Manga and Anime Differences[]
- TBA
Errors[]
- The captions for Jun uppercutting Sōma were mistranslated as punches than cameras in the English dub.
[]
| v - e - t | Episodes |
|---|---|
| Introduction Arc | 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 |
| Training Camp Arc | 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 |
| Tōtsuki Autumn Election Arc | 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 |
| Stagiaire Arc | 35 • 36 • 37 |
| Moon Banquet Festival Arc | 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 |
| Central Arc | 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 |
| Promotion Exams Arc | 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68 • 69 • 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 |
| Beach Exam Arc | 74 |
| BLUE Arc | 75 • 76 • 77 • 78 • 79 • 80 • 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 |
| OVA | OVA 1 • OVA 2 • OVA 3 • OVA 4 • OVA 5 |