Prince Of Cooking

As a wooden bang sound enter his ear, Lovin's eyelids flutter, then another one sounds off, forcing him to be completely awake from his sleep.

After another moment of absent-minded without any thought going through his head, the bang sounds again, which is a knock and he finally noticed someone is on his room door.

Standing up, Lovin walks forward with uneven steps. Oping the door, he discovers his red-haired dormmate on the other side, "What...is it?"

"You want to go to the fish market with me and the other for the election final?"

"What other?"

"Oh, the slive hair Nakiri and Kurokiba came to see if you want to go to the fish market together since they were going there."

Right after Soma finishes his sentence, the friend in front of him lightly pushes him to the side and makes his way toward the bathroom.

"Tell them, I coming in a few minutes."

***

The group of students walks through the active and busy fish market, following Ryo as he seems to know where he going.

"So much fish!"

Lovin exclaimed, eyes scanning around like a child. Why wouldn't he, this is his first time in being in a fish market like this.

"Oh, you seem excited. Is this your first time here, Lovin-kun?" Alice who was beside him asked.

"Yeah."

Hearing that, Soma speaks up, a bit surprised that Lovin neven been here since he seems to know so much.

"Does that mean you not good at picking out what the best fish is? Because I'm pretty confident in picking Pacific saury since it was alway our fall menu at Yukihira Diner."

"Well, I wouldn't say that. I'm pretty good at knowing the quality of the ingredients."

Listening to the conversation between his two opponents in the final, Ryo dismisses their words and lighted them on some bits of knowledge.

"Yeah right, You need a certain amount experience to be able to gauge fish's freshness and umami. Also, you can't just spring for the freshest one either, otherwise their umami hasn't fully developed yet."

Ryo finishes his speech just as the group makes it to where the Pacific saury is being sold and the red hair went up to a crate, full the said fish.

"But it not just about gauging with eyes, there's a way to tell by feel, too!" Soma pulls out a firm, standing straight up Pacific saury that don't even have a bit of blemish, "The eyes and belly look fresh too. Without a doubt, this is the best Pacific saury this shop has to offer today."

"Oh wow, it didn't bend even when you holding by the tail," Megumi said in awe, have to agree with with the red hair assessment.

But Ryo didn't share their opinion as he takes hold of the said fish, "You're wrong."

"I take this one" he turns to another crate of Pacific saury and took out a smaller and less impressive one than the one Soma has.

Still seeing the doubt in Soma's eyes, he proposes a challenge, "Since you don't look convinced, why don't we make sashimi with those two fish so we can tell which one is of higher quality?"

"Alright," Soma nodded and look toward the other person who is final with him and Ryo, "Lovin, you want to join us?"

"N-" Lovin was about to replies no but suddenly pause, "On second thought, yes. I would like to join."

All his past dishes don't request much use of knife skill but the dish he going to make in the final demand one the best knife skill around so he might as well start the practice he needs now and the ten-day limit should be enough.

With a short moment of searching, Lovin holds a Pacific saury that looks more or less the same as the boy with the dark under his eyes.

Seeing his choice of fish, the first one to question him was Ryo, surprised at how Lovin fish was just as good as him, "Did you lie when you said you never been here before?"

"No, I did say I was good at knowing the quality of ingredients."

"If you don't want to tell, fine" Ryo put his headband on, taking on his more aggressive personality.

Standing with the other girl, Alice comments, "It looks like Lovin-kun is also quite good at picking out fish."

She knows first hand how good Ryo is at judging what the best fish is. So if he said, Lovin is as well, she has to believe it true.

With their knife and fish ready, the three students begin to cut their fish and attracting the attention of people in close vicinity.

the crowd watched in awe as the three of them swiftly and skillfully turn the Pacific saury into a beautifully decorated sashimi in just a matter of minutes.

"Try them, Tadokoro Megumi"

Doing as she told, Megumi taste test the three sashimi plate laid out in front of her, starting out with Soma.

When she got to Ryo's sashimi, she was surprised to discover it has, "Soma-kun's Pacific saury...is less firm than Kurokiba-kun..." she paused and move on to the last plate and the firmness and taste was the same as Ryo, "Lovin-kun too, it's firmer, but why?"

In answering her question, Alice starts to explain the breakdown of fish's flesh after a certain amount of time pass when it was killed in a specific way to maintain the quality of its meat.

"Well, that how it is. Between the three of us..." Ryo said, eyeing both of his opponents, "Yukihira, look like you are far behind and will have to play catch up."

"It doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of thing if you cooking skill is better," Lovin said, cutting the tense atmosphere, "Anyway, I gonna to visit Jun's lab to pick up some herb and spices. Anyone wanna come?"

Instantly, Alice jumps on his arm and drags him away with Ikumi following after them, "Oh! Let go, I always want to see what Shiomi Jun's lab look like!"

"You coming, Ryo-kun?" Alice stops and looks back at her aide since he not following after them.

"No, I have things to do," Ryo replies and walks off in a different direction, he wants to start preparing and testing his dish for the final.

***

"My nose can detect the volatile compounds released as a precurse to that process. It can also detect the stench of blood, and how much umami has developed."

As Hayama answer the group of student reporters, the door of the lab was open and a voice shouted, "Hayama, Jun! I'm here to visit!"

Hearing the familiar voice, Hayama's expression turns into a frown. Every time that guy here, he always takes something and he couldn't stop it since he got Jun got playing in his hand.

"That sounds like..." the reporter stop as the door of the room was open and Lovin, along with another girl walks in.

"Oh, were you in the middle of an interview?" Alice looked around the room and asked.

With the opportunities present themselves, the reporter immediately shifts their attention to Lovin and starts to bombing him questions.

While Jun was calming down a bit since the attention wasn't on her anymore, the boy beside her was in deep thought. Hayama's nose picks a lingering Pacific saury's scent in Lovin's hand and it was of the highest quality. He thought his chance of winner might be higher with the theme being fish in season and Lovin wouldn't be knowledgeable about what best in fish.

***

While his opponent was already preparing their dishes, Soma gathers all his friends who knowledge about food aging and asks for their help in aging the Pacific saury to make up for the lack of umami.

Lovin on the other hand, he was cutting a bunch of fish into sashimi while Ikumi watched.

Stopping for a moment, he asks the tan skin girl for a request, "Hey, can you ask some knife smith to make an ice knife by the time before the final?"

"What, why?" Ikumi question, not seeing any use for it at all.

"For my dish in the final."