Two series that we love to watch—and drool over—are Shokugeki no Soma and Yakitate!! Japan. Some of us here at Honey’s Anime are amazing cooks while some of us can’t make spaghetti and meatballs to save our lives. Yet, regardless of our cooking skill—or lack thereof—we love to see anime characters like Soma fire up some wickedly delicious dishes! We also know that we’re not alone in loving food-themed anime and often we hear some otaku try to replicate the dishes made in those shows with mixed results. Wonder why cooking anime gets us into our kitchens to try our hands at becoming amateur chefs? Let’s discuss some reasons why we think food anime gets us cooking!
Get Motivated!
The beauty of food anime—Shokugeki no Soma or Koufuku Graffiti—is that they motivate us to try dishes beyond our norms. Take-out or fast food might be appealing to avoid having to cook for hours over a hot stove—especially during the summer—but we sometimes should go beyond our comfort level and try to create high-level dishes! That’s why we recommend watching anime centered around food occasionally to push your cooking skills up a level!
Healthy Dishes? Time to Try Them!
Speaking of easy dishes, if you consider yourself a healthy person then you know crafting simple foods can sometimes be the worst foods for you. Cooking a cheeseburger or making beef stir-fry might take little to no skill but these meals will eventually cause you to reach unhealthy levels! When you watch Kouhei Inuzuka try to make dishes for his little girl Tsumugi from Amaama to Inazuma, then you realize how cooking healthy dishes isn’t that difficult and can be perfect for you or your kids/family! Next time you feel like grabbing a pizza, we recommend watching some anime like Silver Spoon—episode 4 in particular—to learn how to master the art of making your own pizza.
Save Some Money
Buying fast food can be quite cheap but that doesn’t mean all fast food is cheap. Some places can greatly reduce the bills in your wallet/bank and every otaku know that’s not a good thing. How, then, will you be able to afford that limited edition game or anime figurine!? Us otaku need to save some cash and learning to cook can help with that significantly. Regardless of what show you watch—maybe you loved the food in the Fate/Stay Night spin-off Emiya-san Chi no Kyou no Gohan—you’ll quickly realize that the ingredients used in these series tend to be quite affordable and last for a lot longer than a combo meal at your favorite fast food joint. Want to save money? Start buying your own meals and learn to cook!
Failure is Okay in Cooking
Coming from those of us here at Honey’s Anime who can cook, we will tell you one secret of cooking. It’s okay to fail when you make a meal! Almost every anime we mentioned above tells this to the viewers as cooking is sometimes trial and error. Even the easiest meals can be botched by adding too much salt or too little. That’s why, if you’re worried about failing, don’t be! Cooking takes practice and, eventually, you’ll become the next Soma if you don’t give up and believe in yourself!
Final Thoughts
Cooking anime is a great motivational means to make us try and create dishes we usually wouldn’t try. There are plenty of cooking anime—old and new—that make us want to become chefs in our minds and unleash the next great meal at a family dinner or get together. What anime has motivated you to cook? Tell us what series make your inner Soma scream out and what dishes you love crafting in the comments section below! For even more articles like this one be sure to keep stuck to our delicious hive here at Honey’s Anime!
Author: Aaron
