The first and foremost important thing about food/cooking anime is the food—if you couldn’t guess. While some may assume that food is just a necessity to keep you from dying (well, it is, technically), there is so much more to food than mere survival. In today’s world, especially in second and first world countries, where people are able to attain food more easily, food is a means of meeting new people and catching up with old friends. It is something that people actually enjoy and people may partake in eating as more of a hobby than for just mere survival (oh the life of the priviliged). People will meet together just to enjoy a good meal or try something new, regardless of hunger status.

At this stage in our world, food tends to be more of a social activity than just a necessity. People get together and break bread. This is shown in quite a few anime, as well, so let’s just show you exactly what we’re talking about.

Somewhere in the business district in Japan, there is a restaurant with a cat sign called Youshoku no Nekoya. This restaurant has been around for nearly 5 decades and caters to mostly the salarymen and officeworkers nearby. On the same day every week, the restaurant stays closed in Japan and becomes a restaurant only accessible by those in other dimensions. All types of creatures and beings dine at Youshoku no Nekoya, they just have to find their door on just the right day.

Isekai Shokudo is one of the best anime to show that food helps connect people and that people just plain enjoy food. at Youshoku no Nekoya, beings from all across the dimensions are joined together to eat at the same restaurant. They all plan their weeks around it so that they can enjoy the good food. They don’t just eat at Isekai Shokudo for survival, which they could easily do by eating in their own worlds, some of these beings go to Isekai Shokudo to eat amazing and foreign dishes that they sometimes take home to prolong the enjoyment. Likewise, some beings will use the restaurant in order to spend time with someone else from another world. Love or friendships can be built so easily over breaking bread together, even when people may not come from the same world, and this is shown in several episodes of Isekai Shokudo. Yet, if that’s not enough to prove our point, keep reading!

Inuzuka Kouhei’s life has been difficult since the death of his wife. He does all he can to take care of his daughter, Tsumugi, but one particular task is challenging: cooking. After feeding her frozen foods for so long, Kouhei is determined to learn how to cook to properly feed Tsumugi! Then one day, he befriends one of his students, Iida Kotori, who offers to teach him how to cook. With Kotori’s help, Kouhei might just be able to feed Tsumugi delicious and nutritious foods that she used to eat when her mother was around.

One of the sweetest anime of the 2016 summer anime season has to be Amaama to Inazuma, otherwise known as Sweetness and Lightning. Amaama to Inazuma presents to us an anime in which a father, Kouhei, is able to reach out to his daughter, Tsumugi, through food. While Tsumugi appears to be coping with her mother’s death, it’s not like her relationship with her father has changed since then, until Kouhei decides he’s going to start creating nutritious meals for her. This also presents an opportunity for Kouhei and Tsumugi to build a relationship with Kouhei’s student, Kotori, who feigns knowledge on how to cook in order to befriend them. These three, along with a few miscellaneous characters, form an unlikely bond through their desire to cook and eat good food together.

While there are a lot of anime that revolve around food and people, let’s not forget that there are also cooking anime as well! Cooking anime refers to anime which features cooking—duh! Cooking anime typically show their characters cooking meals or a specific dish while usually discussing some aspect about the cooking process to the viewers. It’s a bit of an information dump, but that does not mean cooking anime aren’t popular! Heck, you may even pick up a few tips and tricks along the way!

Yukihira Souma loves to cook and dreams of taking over his family diner in the future. Then one day, his father decides to close the restaurant and sends Souma to Tootsuki Culinary Academy in order to refine his cooking skills. Souma thinks that there’s nothing to be gained by going to a school for cooking, but at Tootsuki Culinary Academy, only the best of the best will make it and you’re going to have to fight your way to the top in a shokugeki!

As a cooking anime, Shokugeki no Souma, also known in English as Food Wars!, is not one you should miss. Featuring a rather impressive plot for a cooking anime as well as a vast array of entertaining characters, Shokugeki no Souma also presents its audience with real cooking techniques that will have your mouth watering. While a bit dramatic, the cooking scenes are real so you can pick up a little something as you watch your favorite characters fight to show off their abilities. If you would also like to copy some of the recipes from Shokugeki no Souma, the manga has each recipe information for you to cook your favorite mouth watering Shokugeki no Souma dish!