Soma proceeds to stage three of the advancement exams and he needs to prepare a bear dish and compete with Akira Hayama, the new Council of Ten's ninth seat (Food Wars Vol. 21: The Tōtsuki Train Moves On). This volume starts with a bear hunt trip with some tips are given by the hunter on getting rid the odor of the bear.
Soma feels surprised with Hayama's choice to side with the Central but he finally knows the reasons behind the choice after he hears from Chef Doujima.
On the competition day, Soma chooses the most strongly odorous and stinky parts of the bear to cook his dish. It was a huge gamble as one mistake will be ruined by the stinks of the bear. Hayama chooses to cook a fried bear in a similar way as Southern fried chicken. What will be Soma's competition dish to defeat Hayama so that he can avoid the expulsion?
In this volume, finally, we have the name or the term for the phenomenon when one's clothes are stripped off after tasting a true harmony dish. We will get more explanation about that from Chef Doujima.
I was slightly lost at the beginning of the volume but luckily, the competition brings back my interest and that will be the best part of this volume.
It's always makes you angry and disappointed when you have so much passion and effort into something to impress someone that you respect or admire all these time and you hope he will have the same thoughts or passion as you but actually he doesn't take you into account.
Rating: ★★★
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 22 (Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma #22).