A Ranking of the Best Chefs in Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars!)

Introduction

Okay, here's a little you should know before you read this list and before you criticize me for every single thing. This list comprises of only chefs that have made a manga debut and can be considered even a little relevant in terms of the current story. Also, again this is mostly opinionated but I will add facts and some reasoning as to why I put that person where I did. So without further adieu, let's go. Also, this list follows the latest manga chapters.

The List

I am making a few rules as to how I am going to make this list. Firstly, no one can enter this list without being a chef. For example, we could assume that Senzaemon Nakiri, Erina's grandfather, was one of the best chefs. But since he has never cooked a meal we won't be considering him on the list. There are others who haven't cooked a meal in the series but I will be counting them since they are still chefs and I can somehow arrange them even if it's not very good. As for Senzaemon, I have no idea where to start. So, to conclude, I won't be showing all the teachers and the others who haven't cooked a dish and aren't important either.

1. Joichirou 'Saiba' Yukihira - He is Soma's father and is easily one of the best chefs in the series. Even though he was only second seat during his school years, Gin admits that Saiba's skills are better than his and this is proven when he says that his ratio to wins and losses against Saiba were 20:101. However, you could ask why I'm putting him above all the other first seats. This is because of experience. Saiba has travelled all over the world and has more experience than anyone else because of this. This is why he is so widely acclaimed. He meets Shinomiya Kojiro after Soma introduces them both although Kojiro feels that he has seen Saiba before.

2. Gin Dojima - I could have put Shinomiya here but again, Gin is older and has more experience. We haven't seen him cook anything apart from in the training battle between his team and Saiba's team, but just from that, you could see that he was world class. Also, he is more mature than Shinomiya and this is proven when Shinomiya's stubbornness is shown during the match between the team of Soma and Megumi against Shinomiya. Gin makes him realize where his mistakes were and thus can be ranked higher than Shinomiya.

3. Kojiro Shinomiya - Again, skill-wise, there is nothing we can say between Gin and Kojiro, but as I proved above, Shinomiya still have tons to learn outside of cooking and this is why he won't be as good as Gin or Saiba.

4. Nakiri Azami - A true genius and currently, as far as we know, the fastest student to climb to the top of the Elite Ten (Except Soma but Soma doesn't have the skill level of a first seat just yet)w. He was the third seat in his first year, behind Gin and Saiba, and the next year itself he acquired the first seat. This far surpasses all the current first years. However, we will say he is worse than Gin and Saiba because he couldn't train better students to win against students less skilled than them. We can't say for sure that he is actually any worse than Shinomiya because they might have never even met. But I'm not going to go too far into that.

5. Fuyumi Mizuhara - The next 6 or 7 entries will be based on experience because there is almost nothing to discriminate all of them for otherwise. Out of the remaining alumni, she is the oldest and had the 2nd seat for a while. This is why again I'm putting her above the others.

6. Riko Ebisawa - A former Elite Ten member, the fourth seat after Gin, Saiba and Azami. We know nothing about her but she was obviously pretty good. Again, experience puts her above the rest. I'm just using my discretion to put her below Fuyumi.

7. Hinako Inui - The 2nd seat in the year below Fuyumi and thus puts her here. I could have put her eighth but there is really no way to tell since none of these chefs has cooked anything.

8. Eishi Tsukasa - The former 1st seat in Tohtsuki and an absolute beast. He thrashed Soma and got very high up in his fine dining restaurant at the Moon Festival. He obviously lost to Soma and Erina alongside Rindo and even though he won against Isshiki, he still got tricked by Isshiki. He learns from Isshiki that true fun can be experienced in the culinary world with Soma and his bonds as an example. He is seen with Rindo after his graduation, fishing in the Amazon.

9. Taki Tzunozaki - She owns a Spanish restaurant and apart from the fact she was a second seat in the 88th generation, we know nothing. She is very feisty though.

10. Sonoka Kikuchi - She was a second seat in the 89th generation, the generation above the current third years(Eishi, Rindo, etc.). She is only below Taki on the account of the expected experience.

11. Rindo Kobayashi - She is the former second seat of the Elite Ten following her loss with Eishi against Soma and Erina. She is here because again, her seniors have professional experience so rank higher on the list. She beat Tosuke Megishima and judging that Tosuke beat Soma multiple times, it is safe to assume that they are both better than Soma. She hadn't been shown cooking until the 2nd Round against the rebels. Currently, she has already graduated.

12. Tosuke Megishima - Again, he is better than Soma but worse than Rindo and also better than the fourth seat, Momo. So it makes sense to put him around here. He wasn't initially part of the squad of rebels that Azami grouped because he was kicked out of the Elite Ten along with, Satoshi Isshiki and Kuga.

13. Nakiri Erina - Soma appoints her as the current Academy Director of Tohtsuki. She beat the fourth seat, Momo and in a battle between Erina and Soma, I see her winning due to her supreme knowledge and drive. When it comes to skill, she outclasses Soma but he does know how to cook a dish so it is a very subjective call. She had obviously thrown away her tenth seat in the Elite Ten while confronting her father. She is the only main character to haven't have lost an official Shokugeki up until this point in time. Also, she was the one who made the main dish in the 5th round while Soma made the appetizer so I would say she is the better cook.

14. Yukihira Soma - Although Soma is currently the first seat in the Elite Ten after Erina appointed him so, on the basis of pure cooking skill, Soma still has a long way to go. He beat both the 5th and the 6th seat of the Elite Ten. He is currently the only first-year student along with Erina to have beaten a third-year student.

{Disclaimer: Since both Eishi and Rindo lost to Erina and Soma, you might be asking why I am still putting these two so low. It's because Soma lost to someone worse than Rindo and Eishi and Erina would still lose to Eishi, if not Rindo. Again, it's tight as to who would win between Megishima and Erina but there's no way to tell as of now.}

15. Momo Akanegakubo - A sort of NEET who is a really weird character and a loli ;). She lost to Erina and hasn't really been shown to be extraordinary or anything of the sort. However, she did win her match during the time in which Central challenged clubs for there disbandment clauses following Soma's victory against Eizan's rigged match. For a while, after Megishima was kicked out of central, she had the third seat but realistically she was the former fourth seat.

16. Satoshi Isshiki - Isshiki got destroyed by Eishi but it seemed like that was his plan all along. He isn't shown to be mindlessly strong but it is later observed that he is just as good as Rindo, the former second seat, but since he doesn't have any battles against anyone of his calibre, we can't really put him any higher than this. He is extremely smart and predicted Nene would lose to Soma while also outclassing Julio Shiratsu, a temporary Elite Ten eighth seat.

17. Somei Saito - The former 5th seat. He lost to Soma during the 3rd round of the Rebels fights. He looks similar to Megishima. There is literally nothing else to say about him.

18. Nene Kinokuni - The former 6th seat. She lost to Soma during the 1st round. Apart from the fact that she is a childhood friend of Isshiki and seems to have a score to settle with him, we know nothing of her. However, she does have a phone.

19. Akira Hayama - The second former 9th seat of the Elite Ten having joined only to save Jun, his guardian, and her research facility. He is humbled by Soma during the promotion exams following his win against soma during the Autumn Elections. He is really good with spices, however, lacks demeanour and that's why he has lost some matches.

20. Terunori Kuga - The former 8th seat of the Elite Ten. Almost won a Shokugeki with Eishi at the Moon Festival but Soma stopped him on the last day of it and since then has won Kuga's acknowledgement. He hasn't really faced off against anyone except Eishi. He has lost twice to Eishi, once long ago for reasons unknown and once during the Rebels fights in the 2nd round.

21. Takumi Aldini - He is a very good cook. Even making it this far is very impressive. He beats Eizan Etsuya in the third round, however, loses to Rindo in the fourth round. He has only ever won 1 match (that we know of) in the entire series.

{Disclaimer: I would have put Shoko Kaburagi above Julio Shiratsu. We don't know much about them, however. I would have put Shoko just above Nene Kinokuni because he was a temporary 5th seat and I would have put Julio Shiratsu here, below Takumi Aldini. Just didn't feel like they counted as a relevant chef in the series.}

22. Etsuya Eizan - He's very smart and he is definitely not a bad cook what-so-ever. But he did lose to Takumi under fair circumstances and moreover, he also lost to Soma even when he had rigged the match. I think it's fair to put him here.

23. Kurokiba Ryo - I'm putting Ryo above Megumi because he won against her in the Autumn Elections and Megumi didn't even win at anything during the Rebels fights. Megumi only really got through to the quarter-finals due to luck and she didn't get expelled with the rest of them because Rindo was too nice. Also, I'm putting Ryo above Alice because he says he has won more than Alice has against him by the end of the quarter-finals.

24. Nakiri Alice - She's definitely better than the rest of the rebels but not as good as she seemed when she was introduced during the Camp. She got the highest score from the judges during the Autumn Election Preliminaries with a score of 95/100. But she lost to Yukihira, convincingly during the quarter-finals so there isn't much left to say.

25. Subaru Mimasaka - Yeah, the copy dude. We can't say as much for his actual cooking skill. So, it does seem unfair putting him here. But the fact is, what he did wasn't illegal and was kind of smart actually and he did make it to the semi-finals after beating Aldini. I can't put him higher than Aldini on the regard however because Aldini would be better at the present moment and again, his method...

26. Hisako Arato - She's not bad at all. But she doesn't really shine out from among the crowd. She made quarter-finals and lost to Hayama but she didn't really have any chance in the end. She lost in the Promotion Exams to Saito.

27. Tadakoro Megumi - She's really bad. However, since she did manage to scrape through to the playoff rounds of the Autumn Elections, she is better than the rest of the pack. Kind of a yandere though.

{Disclaimer - For the rest of the list, they will be ranked on the basis of how many points they scored during the Autumn Elections.}

28. Shun Ibusaki - If we go along with this points system, Megumi and Ibusaki both scored 88 but because they were in different blocks and Ibusaki's block was clearly harder to get into, Ibusaki would be ranked higher. But I don't think Ibusaki would put up a good fight against Kurokiba as Megumi did. So, he's below her. His speciality is smoked food. He hasn't played a match in the series.

29. Zenji Marui - WaiT, Marui scored 88 too. But again, I feel that Megumi is still a better cook than Marui. He has no particular style of cooking. But that again just makes him even less of a known character. He hasn't played a single match in the series.

30. Isami Aldini - The fat/slim kid. His brother is pretty good but this boy is terrible. He was actually knocked out of the Advancement Exams by Eishi (who he definitely had a chance of winning against). He hasn't won a single match in the series.

31. Miyoko Hojo - No one really cares about her. She's a feminist and cooks Chinese even though she isn't herself. She was really overhyped in the manga. She and Aldini both got 87 points during the prelims.

32. Yuki Yoshino - She got 86 points in the prelims and likes to cook with many different types of animal. She again hasn't participated in a single match.

33. Ryoko Sakaki - She also got 86 points in the prelims. She specializes in Koji i.e. fermentation and the only reason she's below Yoshino is that she's a yandere. I don't like yanderes.

34. Ikumi 'Nikumi' Mito - She, again, got 86 points in the prelims. I'm putting her below Sakaki because I really, really, really like Sakaki's boobs and I'm not a huge fan of cleavage flaunters like Nikumi. She specializes in meat dishes.

35. Nao Sadatsuka - And finally, the worst relevant character who is also a cook in the series. She only got 84 points in the prelims, a whole 11 points off first-placed Alice. She specializes in smelly, rotten food.


36. Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato - No one gives a shit about these two. By far the weakest out of all the rank-able characters. They both passed their stagiaires though so they can be considered above average.

The Others

Okay, that's the list done but you might be wondering where I put some of the other cooks. Here's a list of all the Shokugeki no Soma characters that are not on the list. They do all have names though. Why I haven't put them on the list? They aren't really considerable and aren't relevant or I simply have no data to track their cooking abilities.

-> Senzaemon Nakiri - the school's dean.
-> Fumio Daimido - the dorm mother.
-> Roland Chapelle - The reason I didn't list him is because we know nothing about his personal achievements. For all the chefs I listed, we know at least their Elite Ten Ranking. However since we know nothing of this man, he can't be listed.
-> Jun Shiomi - Although many say that she was a seat in the Elite Ten, we don't know for sure and so I won't be listing her.
-> Takao Miyazato - the president of the Shokugeki Administration Bureau.
-> Shawn Aida - Azami's secretary.
-> Rentaro Kusunoki - One of Central's helpers.
-> Mea Yanai - Another Central helper.
-> Shigemichi Kumai - Another Central helper.
-> Rui Kofuru - The fourth Central helper
-> Kanichi Konishi - The president of Don RS.
-> Urara Kawashima - The master of ceremonies at Tohtsuki.
-> Yua Sasaki - The other master of ceremonies at Tohtsuki.
-> Mitsuru Sotsuda - The journalist that follows Soma around.
-> Mayumi Kurase - That one girl that has a crush on Soma; his childhood friend.
-> Yuya Tomita - A patron of Yukihira's Diner. Not sure why we know his name.
-> Leonara Nakiri - Alice's mother.
-> Soe Nakiri - Alice's father.
-> Berta & Cilla - Two judges at Soma's and Hayama's rematch.
-> Anne - Head Judge in the 5th Round between the Rebels and Central.

That's all folks!

Okay, that is the end of the list. I shouldn't have missed any characters here so I do hope you liked it. It did take a while to do all the research and one or two things may be wrong but I still hope you enjoyed it.

-Ganu