Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma (2015–…): Season 2, Episode 9 - The Sword That Announces Fall - full transcript

COOKING FALL
43RD SELECTION

FINALS

What the heck is that?

That's one blunt sword!

That transfer student's
up to his weird tricks again.

Is he tryin' to throw the contest?

I see, so that's why you weren't
at the fish market this morning, Yukihira.

You chose to age your fish to make up
for the difference in quality.

I could tell what you used
the second I looked at it,

and it won't be enough
to match a fresh, seasonal ingredient.

You can't know
that without eatin' it, can ya?

I made enough for you two as well.

Quit screwing around.
This competition's already been decided.

Congratulations on coming in third place.

That's still plenty to be proud of.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the time has come for the finals
of the Fall Selection to begin.

Please turn your attention to the ceiling.

Awesome!

The friggin' ceiling opened up!

Very soon now, we'll see
the Celestial Room's true form.

Cooking time for the competition
will be approximately two hours.

It shall last
from when the moon is in view

till it traverses its celestial orbit
to disappear again.

This may be an annual custom
but it's quite majestic, isn't it?

It makes me remember

those nostalgic days of yesteryear,

the night I fought in my own Selection.

All the chefs that have stood
on this stage have gazed on this moon.

Don't go losing to anyone
till the next time you've lost to me.

I'm gonna snatch it up, the top seat
among Tohtsuki's first-years!

Prepare yourselves!

Let the cooking...

begin!

THE SWORD THAT ANNOUNCES FALL

None of the contestants
have reached for their saury yet.

They're continuing
to prep their other ingredients.

Playing things by the book, huh?

Needless handling
can lead to a decrease in freshness.

They must retain
as much of that freshness as possible.

I find I am becoming excite.

There is no better sight
than watching such young men!

Goodness, Mother, how lewd!

And as always, your vocab is a bit off.

Alice, go back to your seat already!

You should come over here too, Erina.

It's okay, right, Grandfather?

I care not.

See? What did I say, Erina?

Your family certainly is fun, Nakiri-kun.

What's this?

It seems Yukihira has grabbed his fish.

I wonder if he managed to age it properly.

Yeah, and what kind of dish
is he going to make?

Ryo Kurokiba and Akira Hayama...

can you beat those two monsters, Yukihira?

Oh! Young Kurokiba has assorted seafood
at his cooking station!

What's more,
I see ripe tomatoes and olive oil!

He probably intends
to make an acqua pazza.

Acqua pazza, a rustic dish
from southern Italy.

The star ingredient is fish, which
is simmered with various ingredients.

It's a dish that is simple yet luxurious.

It is common to add olive oil,
tomato, and shellfish.

A key feature
is that it doesn't have much seasoning.

Its very simplicity highlights the quality
of the ingredients, good or bad.

It's the perfect dish to make use
of his eye for freshness.

Still, all those ingredients
can play starring roles.

Wouldn't simmering his saury with those
muddle the flavor of the fish?

True, that seasonal saury would...

Seasonal!

That's the key.

Rather than becoming muddled,

seasonal saury has the potential
to be the star of the entire dish.

He no doubt chose this dish
because he's confident in his trained eye.

In any case, he's so calm...

There's not a trace
of nervousness or pressure.

Impressive.

It's only natural, Chef.

Ryo-kun and I have had
serious culinary battles for years!

That does take me back.

You two were so cute when you were young.

You knew him when he was in Northern
Europe, didn't you, Auntie Leonora?

"Granny"?

How rude! You are selfish
to brag about your own youth, Erina-chan!

No, you're mistaken!
I said "Auntie," not "Granny"!

You think such of this boy, Alice?

Yes, Mother!

I'm thinking of making him my attendant!

Let go! I'm in the middle of stocking.

Erina has her own secretary, right?

I want an attendant who's my age!

Grrr...

Yes, well, we must ask your father.

Don't get ahead of yourselves!

I own the top spot in this restaurant.

I have no intention of serving under y--

I believe I told you to call me "miss."

Just leave!

Well then,
how about we have a cooking battle?

If you lose, you'll become my dog.

Woof, woof!

That girl's dish there is tastier.

Well? Go on, say, "Woof."

I challenge you again!

Tee-hee!

Two years after our first battle,
it finally happened...

I won!

Victory!

I'll challenge you again tomorrow!

Got it, Ryo-kun?

Sure thing...

Miss.

I'll fight you as many times as you want.

Well, if I win next time, you have
to speak to me more politely. Okay?

Cut the crap!

Heat-resistant film?

That ain't plastic wrap?

It can resist temperatures
from -40° to almost 400°.

It's a special film sheet that
lets you cook food while it's wrapped.

It smacks of molecular gastronomy,

something he's picked up
from his battles with Alice.

The dishes Kurokiba-kun makes now

would never have occurred to him
when he was at that seaport bar.

It's a reflection of their history
of competition over the years.

You'd better not lose, Ryo-kun.

That goes without saying, Miss.

This film will be the key to my dish!

Hayama!

I'm gonna use this
to finish you off, dammit!

Only one person
will reach the top of the Fall Selection,

and that's me!

The moon's gone halfway across the sky.

So that's one hour left.

Ah, look.

All done.

Kurokiba's the first one done, huh?

But is that...

...really a dish?

You finished quite fast.

Here's hoping
you didn't overlook anything.

Talk that crap while you can.

My dish is gonna slay anything you've got.

What the heck is Kurokiba up to?

With that thin film, that is.

It's something
you're probably familiar with.

And Kurokiba is the first to serve.

As the competitor approaches the judges'
area, the moon acting as stage lighting...

it's as if both the cook
and his dish are being purified.

Wow!

It is still bubbling inside of the bag.

It is extremely hot, yes?

He's serving it as-is,
making the judges open it?

Very well, to the tasting!

Shrimp, mussels, clams, and saury!

I'm being swallowed up by the gradation
of billowing waves of aroma!

The tension is draining from my face!

The director!

Even our austere director is grinning!

A grin!

I never imagined
he would break into a grin!

The ingredients are essentially
the same as an acqua pazza,

but wrapping it in heat-resistant film
gives this dish a different name:

cartoccio!

The dish I've served
is a cartoccio of fall saury!

In the semifinals, he used
an "incendiary device" of umami.

Now he's followed that up
with a bomb blast of flavor, huh?

Makes sense.

Okay, eat up!

It is too delicious!

The fat of the saury so sweet
and seems to melt!

The seafood is at the peak of freshness,
and so much umami!

For him to infuse it with such bold umami,

it's almost brutal!

This is the essence of Ryo Kurokiba!

Still, while a seasonal dish,

for him to develop such rich flavors
using little seasoning...

It has a refreshing aroma,
something that's not seafood.

This is...

...herbal aromatics!

Exactly right!

When I was wrapping it in the film,
I also added...

this herb butter!

He took room-temperature butter and
added thinly diced herbs and spices to it.

Place it in the fridge overnight
to rest and it's done.

This stuff took its time melting
when heated in the oven,

so its rich flavor slowly permeated
the saury and the other ingredients!

That's what gave it such flavor and aroma,
like a super-dreadnought of impact!

It's a ferocious flavor
that runs through and through!

It looks like it's going to happen.

Mother is going to...

show herself!

Out here in the open?

-For real?
-Th-- th-- that just won't do!

It was a splendid saury dish.

Truly, when brought to the table,
it was like a visual assault.

Even the way it was served paid adherence
to the important elements of the dish

as well as current culinary trends.

Throughout this venue,
people leaned forward to gaze intently,

by which one can say the intent
of this dish was expertly realized.

Anchovies are often used in acqua pazza,

-When Mother eats something delicious...
-...but as this dish uses herb butter...

...she stops sounding so stilted
and speaks fluently.

Oh, that's right.

What do you mean,
she stops sounding stilted?

The mellowness of the butter ties together
the essences of the various ingredients,

yet while the herbs impart
a powerful flavor impact,

the aftertaste is not at all
persistent and fades gently...

This deliciousness
would not have been possible

with any fish other than seasonal saury.

It's the culmination
of his cooking techniques!

In body...

...and in spirit!

You become one...

...with the ocean!

Kurokiba is awesome!

Even the head of the family stripped bare!

Take that!

Burn my dish, the power of it,
into your head, Hayama!

Hayama will be serving next.

Quit screwin' around, dammit!

You think you can beat me with that?

Are you takin' this competition seriously?
You ain't even close!

You wouldn't understand.

Aroma can change
one's preconceptions of a dish.

It can't be...

A carpaccio?

He's serving an appetizer?

This is a joke, right?

These are the finals!

How could he win with an appetizer?

Appetizers are a staple of multi-course
meals, intended to whet the appetite.

By nature, they're a light menu item.

For him to choose that as his dish...

Hayama, your eye
for ingredients is as good as mine.

You may have tried to showcase

the fresh sweetness
that comes from raw, top-quality saury,

but there's no way it can compete
with the impact of my cartoccio,

which slays the eater
with umami and aroma!

Very well, let us--

A moment please.

There is one finishing touch.

He's going to use a blowtorch
to give the surface some char?

But there's no way it can match

the aroma depths of that young man
Kurokiba's incendiary--

Finished.

My dish is a charred saury carpaccio.

-That's delish.
-Delish!

It's delish without even eating it!

It looks incredibly juicy!

That's even more powerful than smoking it.

Amazing!

It's completely different
from before he charred it!

It's so seductive,
like it's enticing the eater.

I can't wait a second longer!

The dressing uses extra virgin olive oil
and wine vinegar.

Even the saury's liver has been dressed.

The bold taste of the liver
spreads slowly across the tongue,

accentuating the sweetness of the flesh!

I feel I could drown in
the outpouring depths of flavor!

It's a compilation
of so many different spices!

No! He has used but one: allspice!

What?

He used just one flavoring?

But isn't blending spices together

to create the ultimate aroma
Hayama's main weapon?

No.

His ability to manipulate aromas
is more than just adding them together.

By cutting back on flavorings,

he was able to elevate
the fresh taste of seasonal saury.

Well then, what was that wealth of aroma?

It was even a match
for Ryo-kun's cartoccio.

Yes, that was not be possible
just by charring.

It was kaeshi.

I brushed some on the surface
of the fish just before serving.

"Kaeshi"?

You mean like tsubamegaeshi?
Kojiro Sasaki?

How do you even know that term?

But no, that's not right.

Kaeshi is a seasoning made
by adding mirin or saké to soy sauce.

By adding dashi stock, it becomes
a dipping sauce for soba noodles.

It's viewed as an all-purpose condiment
for use in all manner of Japanese cuisine.

So that's why.

Even with the high temperatures of a
blowtorch, it's hard to get fish to burn,

but the sugars in the kaeshi
make it easier to get a char.

By using a short burst of heat, you were
able to preserve the saury's fresh flavor.

That heat caused both the saury's fat

and the sugars in the kaeshi
to bubble and surface.

In other words, I took the conflicting
theories of emphasizing and reducing aroma

and presented them both
on this single plate.

Ryo Kurokiba and Akira Hayama...

Have both evolved as a result
of having clashed just once?

Ryo Kurokiba brandished his mighty sword,

showing that even through competition,

he had further honed
his explosive power to incite hunger.

By comparison, the duck dish
that Akira Hayama served in the semifinals

was a flamboyant presentation of spices.

It was like a bejeweled sword,
rich in design and decoration.

Yet how was Hayama this evening?

Through precise selection and exclusion,

he was like a keenly honed rapier!

A "one-trick pony
who's only good at spices," was it?

This is what it means
to follow the doctrine of spice.

So this is the true face of Akira Hayama,
the Virtuoso of Aroma?

The sheer might of the saury was like...

a straight shot of taste!

And it was a bull's-eye!

Splendidly done!

The head honcho bared his chest again!

The moon's starting to disappear.

Soma-kun, hurry!

Yukihira, you're outta time!

Sorry for the wait.

Here's your last dish.

It's too much to take.

To someone for whom rice is a staple,
this will bring an unbidden smile.

The sight and scent of it
are overwhelming!

It's a nukasanma,
saury pickled in rice bran.

Bran?

-He pickled it?
-So he hadn't given up after all!

That looks delicious!

Man, seeing his crusty-lookin' fish,
I wasn't sure how this would turn out.

Yeah, his saury looked off
because he'd pickled it in rice bran!

Oh! I cannot take the scent
of that fresh rice!

Yeah, yeah, I'll spoon it out soon,
so hang on a sec.

I swear, Yukihira-kun, that is not good.

Hurry, hurry!

The other two made a show
of having us look forward to their dishes,

and Yukihira-kun is no different.

He's learned the art of fanning
the flames of anticipation!

There it is! Finally, I say!

And now to tasting!

The happiness of fall's saury
is running through my body!

Such soft and fluid deliciousness!

The saury was charcoal grilled and then-

Once charcoal grilled,
it was cooked with the rice.

Such attention to detail is what resulted
in the rice's splendid depth of flavor.

And the saury itself is wonderful!

It has a depth of salt-based umami
as well as a gentle aroma,

both of which spread across the tongue!

The quality of this rivals or surpasses
that of the other two contestants' dishes.

Is this rich flavor
the result of pickling the saury?

Indeed.

In Hokkaido, it is a traditional
and long-beloved food.

It brings out the umami
of the ingredients,

reducing unwanted smells
and increasing nutritional value.

Some even insist
it's the most delicious way to eat saury.

In any case, you've done an admirable job
of elevating the flavors, Yukihira.

It was a race against time,
but I went for it.

I got the best saury I could
from the market,

and kept working on my dish
while they were fermenting,

while experimenting with aging methods
other than pickling, of course.

I couldn't come up with something to go up
against the best the season has to offer,

but right before the finals,

I finally came up with an aging method
I was happy with,

using rice bran.

It was what Fumio-san said, and the
pickled vegetables she made in the dorm,

as well as everyone's knowledge of aging
that lit the spark of inspiration!

You're saying you arrived
at this method of aging on your own?

I'd thought yours would
be a blunt blade...

but instead, you presented
a fine sword indeed!

Like a swordsmith who forges steel
to make blades of renown,

you've made your own "sword of fall"!

Soma-kun did great!

Yup! No complaints here!

That's sure to get him great reviews--

The director! He hasn't bared his chest!

D-- Dude!

And both Dojima and Leonora
have put down their chopsticks.

So then...

Young Yukihira lost too much time
making up for a less-trained eye.

The idea for his dish does not
approach that of the other two!

Sure enough,
there was no way he could beat them.

Yeah...

Like I thought, this battle
is going to be between...

...Kurokiba and Hayama!

I'd like you to have seconds.

Anyone up for more?

It's the end of the line.

Soma-kun!

This concludes the judging--

If you were up for seconds...

I was thinking of pouring in some of this.

My saury dish...

isn't done yet.

I'll now show you the true,
sharp flavor...

of this sword!

Subtitle translation by
Javier lopez