Either way, you probably realize cooking isn’t all that simple. I nearly burned my house down with baking paper, somehow. But fear not, for anime has all the amazing cooks we can look at (and pretend we’re anywhere near their level). So while we’ve already ranked some of our favorite cooking-related anime, let’s now delve into some of the best chefs that anime has to offer.
15. Brock
Anime: Pokémon Brock may not be a fancy restaurant chef. But man does he know how to adapt and overcome. He only carries around that backpack, and yet is always capable of keeping all of his companions full and happy. And when I say “companions” I don’t mean just Ash and Misty. Even the Pokémon get a slice of this pie. To top it all off, he prepares all of these dishes with his eyes closed, I think. So honestly he might not prepare caviar for you, but he’s the most reliable chief a person could ever need on a journey to be a league champion.
14. Rikido Sato
Anime: Boku no Hero Academia When your quirk is tied to food, you already know that you’re maxing out that cooking talent tree. Sato needs sugar in order to power up. But I guess he got bored of snorting MnMs so he learned how to make the most delicious cakes, cookies, and everything else that packs those sweet calories. His classmates all seem to enjoy his creations. And having a muffin on hand in a tense situation should just be the way of the world, with or without sugar powers.
13. Charmy Papittoson
Anime: Black Clover Charmy has the appetite of a small African village. So learning the ways of a chef was a must for her. She’s rather short and childish, so you might not pin her down as an amazing cook. But luckily Black Clover is a world of magic. Charmy can summon her fluffy chiefs to do all the work for her. And since there is quite a few of them, her food output is no joke. Plus she’s constantly on the lookout for new ingredients so she can prepare the very best dishes the Clover Kingdom has ever seen. She won’t share them, but my point still stands.
12. Bols
Anime: Akame ga Kill I know I just said that Charmy doesn’t look like your typical chef. But Bols pushes that stereotype even further. As a person who wears a scary/kinky mask and has burned literal villages to the ground, not to mention his bulging muscles, you would never imagine him preparing you dinner. But there he goes, doing it with a smile. At least I would like to think that he’s smiling. And my reasoning for putting him on this list is that no one from his team has tried to kill him yet. I mean, it is a group of assassins with more than just one screw loose. So I would imagine that if the food wasn’t top-notch quality then someone would have gone after our kind-hearted murderer.
11. Senku
Anime: Dr. Stone This one might be a little out there, but hear me out. Senku is a top notch scientist and basically knows everything that there is to know about everything. We have seen him dabbling in food, first making ramen, and then even Coca Cola. And considering he did all of that from scratch with no tools already available, I would guess that a normal dish wouldn’t be outside of his comfort zone. I don’t care what you say, Gordon Ramsey could not prepare Coca Cola if his life depended on it. That might be a weird benchmark to have but I’m sticking to it.
10. Souma Yukihira
Anime: Food Wars We all knew Food Wars was coming up sooner or later. And as the poster boy of the show, Souma just had to be here. Even though he still has room to improve and has not reached the very top just yet, we all know it’s coming. Plus his cooking seems the most genuine and won’t break your bank. Most chefs can serve Wagyu and it’ll taste amazing. But you have to be a real maestro to take ordinary meat and make it desirable, even to the high-brow pallets of the world.
9. Ryuuji Takasu
Anime: Toradora! This pick is probably the most “unbelievable” on this list, as we don’t really get direct confirmation of his ability to cook. But I’m sure he’s a pro. Being that his mom(although best mom-girl) isn’t of much help when it comes to chores, Ryuuji just does everything himself. And if you’ve seen how much dedication he cleans the floors with, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that there’s no way he slacks off when it comes to cooking. He’s the ultimate stay at home mom and dad. And has superior cooking skills as a result of that.
8. Kotori Iida
Anime: Sweetness & Lightning Just like Ryuuji, Kotori is a very down to earth cook. No food battles or universal praise but definitely some skills. Being that her parents owned a diner, Kotori was exposed to the process of cooking and the love for food from a young age. It also resulted in a fear of knives, but that’s a topic for another day. So when Kouhei and the little munchkin of joy start becoming regular guests and express their willingness to eat with Kotori, her passion is cranked up a notch and she produces some banger dishes.
7. Sanji
Anime: One Piece Now Sanji is a true master when it comes to cooking. And he has flexed his superior skills many times throughout the show. The most important thing to note with Sanji is that he’s very creative and can make a delicious meal out of just about anything, in a very similar style to Souma. He has literally taken scraps from other chefs and prepared a whole buffet out of them, with each meal being more delicious than what the chef had prepared. And this type of ingenuity is definitely vital when you spend so much time at sea.
6. Jouichirou Yukihira
Anime: Food Wars Speaking of Souma, let’s not forget what has to be his greatest ambition in life: surpassing his old man. Jouichirou almost seems like a deity in the Food Wars universe, with people willing to travel across half the globe just to get a taste of his cooking. The monk breaking his fast was probably my favourite demonstration of his die-hard fans. Even with Souma’s talent, he can’t seem to really score a convincing W against Jouichirou. Even after 500 clashes. Because besides raw talent, the old man has also traveled across the world and knows food far beyond just Japan.
5. Kimihito Kurusu
Anime: Monster Musume Jouichirou might now food outside of Japan. But Kimihito knows food outside of the human race! Since he’s at the centre of a multi-species harem, Kimihito has brought it upon himself to keep all of his waifus well-fed. This does occasionally backfire, as his food is so delicious that the girls end up gaining weight and becoming self-conscious about it. Typical. And in a similar style to Sanji, Kimihito can take things you wouldn’t even consider food and still make a delicious meal out of it.
4. Shirou Emiya
Anime: Fate/stay Night Speaking of harem feeders, Shirou is quite the cook himself. It has been said that it’s impossible to feed Sabir, and yet the madlad did it, in three different routes. And it’s not even just cooking. Shirou is just amazing at all house work. However, his other skills are less entertaining, so he got a cooking show spin-off called Today’s Menu for Emiya Family. It’s a manga parody series, but still… to branch out from Fate into cooking you have to be quite the expert.
3. Ryou Machiko
Anime: Koufuku Graffiti If there’s one thing that cooking desperately needs, it’s moe. Just imagine it: Ryou looks adorable while cooking, Kirin gets to look adorable while eating, spotlight back to Ryou as she looks adorable feeling humbled that her cooking is good. For god’s sake, even the food is kind of moe! Sure, she might not be a top rated chief in the world. But she has won my heart, and that is all I really need.
2. Susanoo
Anime: Akame ga Kill This man can create a home wherever you go. He will literally build a house from scratch, make sure that it’s as clean as a whistle at all times, prepare the most amazing meals, make sure you’re always safe, hold you while you cry, everything. He’s the Bols of the Night Raid, only with a pretty face. Okay and he didn’t commit genocide, that’s also a big plus when looking for a good chef.
1. Itachi Uchiha
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden Speaking of Susanoo, smooth transition. Do you remember that one OVA where Itachi wanted to cook Sasuke breakfast, but he was a perfectionist about it and just kept starting from scratch? And then he ended up wearing his full Anbu gear and used his Mang-eggyolk sharingan in the hopes that he would finally achieve success? But then it just looked like Sasuke was tripping on LSD or something? Search it up on YouTube it is absolute gold. Enough to win this guy a top spot as a notable anime chef.