THIS IS FICTION WITH NO INTENTIONAL RESEMBLANCE TO ANY PERSONS, ORGANIZATIONS, OR OCCURRENCES.
OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE SOURCE MATERIAL, THERE MAY BE SCENES CONSIDERED OFFENSIVE TO MODERN SENSIBILITIES.
Still, you did great, Kota!
You made it all the way to the semifinals!
That's plenty to be proud of!
Let's all head back to Hamamatsu and have a party!
Thanks.
Thank you all so much.
That's really something.
He lost, but you'd never tell from the way they're reacting.
It's nice to have friends, huh?
Yeah.
Yo! Good for you, Kota-chan.
You can lose, and all your buddies will try and cheer you up.
Akiyama?
Look at you, clinging to your followers like the soft loser you are!
Cooking is a showdown!
If you ever want a shot at winning, then lose the cheer squad!
Try doing things on your own, the way I do.
And if you can't manage that, take your ass back to Hamamatsu
and suckle on your mommy's wrinkly old tits!
Y-You little...
You're a piece of crap! A real conceited one!
Give it a rest, Akiyama!
Nah. Not a chance.
Nothing pisses me off more than these kinds of displays.
All this babying crap makes me wanna puke.
You dumbass!
Now that was a close one.
But I'm not gonna just let you slug me every time.
I'll keep trying as many times as it takes!
Until I straighten out that twisted, over-competitive brain of yours!
I'd love to see you try!
I'm not just gonna try!
Come on, you guys!
Break it up!
Okonogi!
GOBANCHO'S CHINESE
I ended up soaked yesterday...
I might actually be sick. This is bad news.
Wh-Who's there?
It's Akiyama.
Come by the kitchen when you're done, okay?
The kitchen?
CHUANBEI ZHENG LI
What is this...?
It's a steamed pear dessert with chameleon plant tea.
They're both good for colds.
Pears are good for fevers.
I used some chuan bei mu and rock candy, too.
The chuan bei mu helps with a cough,
and rock candy helps keep the trachea from getting dry.
Come on, let's eat.
What is this about?
Don't tell me he...
It's not poisoned or anything, all right?
I don't want you using some cold
as an excuse when you lose in the finals. That's all.
What?
You eating or not?
I will.
Akiyama... are you really dead set on this "cooking to win" thing?
Sure am. It's what defines my cooking.
Is that absolute? No exceptions?
I'll never stop. No matter what.
Then leave!
I want you out of Gobancho's Chinese!
I don't even wanna see your face!
Mornin'!
Ya havin' a good morning or what, Kiriko-chan?
I saw the three of ya splash down in the fountain yesterday!
Ya didn't catch a cold, didja?
Aw, hell, yer all banged up! Looks rough.
But not bad enough to hold you back.
Yer a real tomboy, ain'tcha, Kiriko-chan?
Quit acting so friendly.
We're going to be competing in the finals.
That Akiyama kid cooks up some interesting dishes, huh?
I was legit impressed.
He hit Omae Kota's dish right where it hurt.
"Cooking's a showdown," he says. I got no problem with that.
I mean, nothing wrong with playing to win, am I right?
I am never going to lose to any chef who thinks like that.
Oh, don't get the wrong idea.
I don't personally think cooking's all about competition.
If I had to choose, I'd say cooking's about going all in. That's my philosophy.
All in?
I think cooking's all about taking flavor, fragrance, and presentation
as far as you can.
You can't half-ass anything.
The more you put in, the closer you get to something special.
That's why no one stacks up to me. And I mean nobody.
Ladies and gentlemen!
Only one round remains of the first All-Japan Chinese Chef Championship.
And who will be competing to reign as number one in this final battle
but these three?!
From Kobe's Sea Dragon, it's Celene Yang!
You can do it!
Show 'em that Tokyo chefs ain't nothing on Kansai chefs!
From Gobancho's Chinese Restaurant in Ginza, it's Gobancho Kiriko!
Kiriko! You're gonna be the best in Japan!
The best in Chinese cuisine!
And also hailing from Gobancho's Chinese Restaurant in Ginza, it's Akiyama Jan!
I hope you lose, Akiyama!
I don't care who wins! Just not you!
Now, what will be the theme of this final battle?
It's noodles! They'll be making noodle dishes!
Noodles?
But that's not all... There's more at play here.
They must also make... a dessert! A dessert dish!
A noodle dish and a dessert! Our chefs must make both!
Two things?!
This is gonna be interesting.
Noodles and dessert, eh?
The judges have assigned a pretty tough task this time.
FIRST ANNUAL ALL-JAPAN CHINESE CHEF CHAMPIONSHIP
Those are...
the judges Akiyama sent to the hospital with his poisonous mushroom soup.
They're back, huh?
Can't believe those idiots had the nerve to show up again.
I want you out of Gobancho's Chinese!
What brought this on?
If you insist that your way of doing things is the right way,
I don't want you cooking here!
I see.
But what if I refuse?
Because I don't think what I'm doing is wrong.
Your whole "cooking is about heart" deal is a bunch of naive nonsense.
So whoever loses will be proven wrong?
Is that what you're getting at?
Tomorrow, in the finals...
If you lose, I want you gone!
That's fine. And if I win, then you've gotta go!
How's that?
Fine.
I have to win.
Win and kick him out of Gobancho's Chinese!
Hey, Kiriko.
I'm taking your restaurant.
Now then... Ready?
Go!
First will be the noodle dishes!
I'm curious, Head Chef. What's so difficult about noodles and dessert?
Couldn't you just make a fancy combo like ramen and almond jelly?
No. For one thing, Japanese ramen isn't a Chinese dish.
It's native to Japan.
Ramen!
Take a bowl and add soup with a soy or miso base,
then add cooked noodles along with toppings.
The soup is created with a wide variety of broths,
like chicken, pork, vegetables, kelp, or katsuobushi.
And the noodles can vary from extra thick to curly,
often selected for compatibility with the restaurant's soup!
It's a Japan original born of knowledge and improvisation.
That's Japanese ramen.
In comparison, China's four millennia of history
have produced a food culture of bei mian nan fan.
BEI MIAN NAN FAN
They have rice dishes in the warm south,
while the north that has a harder time growing it
BEI MIAN
ended up developing around the cultivation of wheat.
FLOUR-BASED FOODS
So when it comes to Chinese food,
noodles are considered a type of flour dish.
With the noodles being a product of that flour...
What about the dessert, then?
Traditional Chinese cuisine doesn't have "desserts"
like you'd find in the West.
That said, there are sweet tea snacks known as dianxin, which are similar.
XIAN DIANXIN
Dianxin!
You have the savory variety: meat buns, rice balls with meat, and gyoza!
Then you have the sweet kind: red bean buns, mooncakes, and almond jelly!
TIAN DIANXIN
Broadly speaking, they can be split into these two groups!
The question is whether the chefs will realize
the intent behind these themes.
There's something behind it?
Indeed.
Sticking to the fundamentals of traditional Chinese cooking
while also showcasing their own innovations.
In other words, it's a matter of how creative their cooking is,
and whether or not they're chefs who can conceive the future of Chinese cuisine.
Chinese cuisine for the 21st century.
Whoever has the clearest idea of that will be the winner of this tournament!
1988, KOBE
Mama, I'm home.
Oh, welcome back...
CELENE YANG (AGE 10)
Cele...ne?
Wh-What the heck happened, Celene?
Nothin' worth talkin' about. Just got into a scrape with some friends.
You were fighting?!
What's gotten into you?! You realize today is your birthday, right?!
Of all the stupid... What on earth happened?!
Hey, don't walk away from me!
Mama.
Where's Papa? At the restaurant?
What're you, some kinda moron?!
Real Chinese food is like the stuff they serve in Chinatown!
What they got at your place ain't the real deal.
You're the moron! Our restaurant has got legit Chinese food!
It's as good as any other place's!
Well, my uncle who lives in Chinatown...
He says that yours is just wannabe Chinese!
Nuh-uh!
Shut yer trap!
What're you doin'?!
Who're you calling "wannabe Chinese"?!
Stupid! Idiot! Jerk!
Stop it, you two!
Hey! What do you think you're doing?!
Papa.
We've got a Chinese restaurant, right? Don't we?
What're you talkin' about? Of course we do.
We're as authentic a Chinese restaurant as you'll find anywhere.
It's where people can eat a new type of cooking
straight from Hong Kong, nouvelle chinois.
Nouvelle chinois...?
We make Chinese food tastier and more beautiful than ever before,
and that's what we serve.
After meeting your mom, I ended up eatin' a ton of French food.
And it occurred to me...
Chinese food could be served and presented in a fashion
closer to the way the French do it.
Traditionally, Chinese food has been about serving large groups
and hasn't been suited to couples or smaller parties.
I realized that might be its greatest weakness.
So when I cook nouvelle chinois, I'm open to using any ingredients.
I just put in the effort to make sure they look nice.
You also get a full-course Chinese meal,
even if it's only for one or two people.
Cooking needs to evolve with the times.
Do you understand, Celene?
Nouvelle chinois...
Now, go and enjoy your birthday party with your friends.
I'll be making a feast for you all later.
B-But...
Besides, look.
Happy birthday! And congratulations!
Everyone...
It's like French food!
It's so beautiful! Amazing!
Thank you for the food!
Don't hold back now! Eat all you'd like!
You can use chopsticks if you want!
It's so good!
Yeah! Delicious!
What is this? It's incredible.
It tastes so interesting!
It's nothing like any Chinese I've had before!
It...
It's good.
I've never had anything like it!
That's right. Nouvelle chinois is the pursuit
of all-new flavor and beauty from Chinese food.
A white plate's my canvas.
I make better-tasting, better-looking food!
Here we go!
Get a load of Celene Yang's nouvelle chinois!
All right! Let's make some art!
I-It looks like Yang...
is using some kind of cookie cutter?
She's using it to shape her noodles!
She's not going with the traditional string style!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
What? Hang on a sec!
Head Chef, is that allowed?! Can she do that?
This chef named Yang is taking a pretty bold approach.
She clearly knows what she's doing.
R-Right...
Now, let's see what our other chefs are doing!
Oh, w-would you look at that?!
Akiyama has a circle of woks, all full of boiling water!
Akiyama—
Oh, right, stay one meter away. I remember.
But this is a lot of woks! What are you using them for?
Um...
No good. They're not uniform in terms of length or thickness.
Ready to give up?
There's no need to hide it.
This isn't the kind of technique you can master in short order.
It's only possible with daily diligence, Jan.
And...
With enough training... you'll be able to do this!
In addition to...
What do you think?
They all went in...
They all went in, sir!
Pay more attention, boy.
The trick is making accurate cuts of consistent length and thickness.
They really are...
Don't rush it. You can rest for now.
No! I'll keep trying. I can keep going.
Go ahead, then. Your goal is to cut 110 noodles in 30 seconds.
Yes, sir!
A technique like cutting noodles is best learned through muscle memory.
Even if you spent every day from dawn to dusk cutting noodles,
it'd take around six months to get it down.
This one time, beating you won't make you learn any faster.
Right!
Here we go. This is how I make noodles!
What the hell?
Amazing.
Head Chef... Wh-What is he doing?
That's daoxiaomian...
The boy is making daoxiaomian!
Jan...
This is unbelievable.
He knows how to do that?
Hell of a trick to have up your sleeve!
I've never heard of a Japanese that could make daoxiaomian!
Listen well, Jan!
Once you've learned how to do it, you'll need to practice daily.
Even if it's only for one or two minutes a day.
Because if you break the habit,
you'll lose the knack for it.
Just look at me now, old man!
I've mastered this amazing trick, just like you said!
Each noodle is uniform in thickness and length.
And now, I can make 150 of them every 30 seconds!
It's perfect!
Plus...
Wha—
H-Hey, look!
H-He's rotating!
He's filling the woks with noodles as he spins around!
That's why he laid them out like that!
This is how you make the ultimate noodle dish!
An Akiyama Jan original technique: High-Speed Rotating Daoxiaomian!
I would've never guessed he knew how to make daoxiaomian...
I didn't think there were any Japanese chefs who could do it.
What?! Not even you, Head Chef?!
There are many varieties of noodle in China!
DAOXIAOMIAN
Among them, daoxiaomian originates east of Beijing, in Shanxi Province!
You add water and salt to flour, then knead it thoroughly.
No need to submerge it.
It got its name from how the noodles are shaved off the finished dough.
It was first introduced to Japan in the mid-1980s.
It was a special dish that only chefs from Shanxi could make.
And this dish, which had yet to gain notoriety in Japan...
was featured in the original manga, as yet another example of its foresight!
One of the interesting facets of daoxiaomian
is in the shape of the noodles.
When carved with that distinct blade,
the noodles take the shape of a willow leaf.
Their thickness in particular is notable.
The thinner ends mingle wonderfully with the soup,
while the thicker parts build the backbone of the noodles.
It's considered one of the finest of China's noodle dishes.
One of the finest noodle dishes...?
That's right! I'm gonna use this daoxiaomian to clinch the championship!
Akiyama Jan really knows his stuff.
But... that won't be enough to beat me.
What is that?
Some kinda black gyoza?
What did she mix into the wrappers?!
From the looks of it... she mixed minced shrimp and squid for the filling.
And the blackness of the wrappers comes from squid ink!
It reminds me of ravioli! The shape and coloring both give an Italian vibe.
Correct. But that dish has another impressive factor: the sauce.
The sauce?
She used gochujang. Basically Korean miso.
She used Korean miso in her Chinese dish?!
The girl really is an incredible chef.
It's almost cheating, but at the same time,
not being tied down by existing conceptions of Chinese food is impressive.
Our noodles dishes ain't your typical Chinese food.
They're free-spirited and free-wheelin'. This is Celene Yang's nouvelle chinois!
This ravioli is gonna win it all for me.
I'll blow the traditionalists outta the water.
Some dish that's whole appeal is that it's "new" can't beat my cooking.
I'm gonna beat him and win this thing!
I'm gonna beat her and win this thing!
The two of them are really standing out.
Meanwhile, Kiriko-san seems to be steadily working on her prep...
Is she gonna make it in time at this rate?
Huh?
Look at that...
Her noodles... are red?
This is what I'm going to use.
I'll fight with shanhumian!
EPISODE 9: INNOVATING FOR THE FUTURE