Soma and Alice begin the first round of their battle with Bento as the theme of the competition (Food Wars!, Vol. 8). In this volume, they continue with their battle and both prepare their unique bento which represent their ultimate skill and culinary knowledge. Soma’s bento is just like a treasure chest whereas Nakiri Alice’s bento is a systematically arranged jewelry box. Who will be the best bento to win their first round competition?
The story continues with other finalists competing among each other. The matches will be decided by lottery, based on the results of the preliminaries.very match will have a different theme, which will be decided randomly.
I liked the pairings in every tournament as each of them have different outstanding skills. Although some of the skills seem unsuitable with the theme but the idea is brilliant of applying their skills into the theme defined by the judges. For example, Arato’s speciality is medicinal cooking and the theme is burger. Will Arato able to utilise her speciality to prepare a burger with unique taste?
Rating: ★★★★
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: Food Wars!, Vol. 9: Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma #9).