食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20] Quotes

“By the way, there's one more benefit to freezing eggs... that I neglected to tell you earlier.
Y'see...
by freezing them, the robust flavor of the yolks gets even richer!"
"The flavor of the yolk... changes?!"
"When you freeze a chicken egg, its proteins condense into a jelly... which gives it a tender and creamy consistency when you cook it. The flavor of the yolk in particular becomes deep and rich! Basically, freezing the egg is the biggest reason this tempura rice bowl is as delicious as it is!
Plus, I made sure to pour on plenty of Yukihira Family Restaurant's special savory and salty house sauce! It's soy sauce and mirin added to bonito stock. I made sure this batch was extra rich! There's no way it wouldn't par perfectly with the rice and egg!
The thing is, luxury-brand eggs all tend to have strong flavors from the get-go. Using them would make the entire rice bowl taste heavy and cloying."
"Wait. Is that why...?!"
"Yep! Since the sauce I use is thick and heavy, and freezing eggs makes their flavor richer...
... a blander egg is the best choice!"
"Oh! He had a legitimate reason for using those cheap eggs!"
"That's Soma for you!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“Chestnuts have always been an ingredient that goes well with gamy meats. And in French cuisine, chestnuts are often seen in combination with venison.
But the mildly sweet flavor and tender texture of these sweet chestnuts makes them melt in the mouth! That flavor combined with the smoky aroma of the charcoal grilling, makes the juicy meatiness of the venison stand out in stark contrast!
This flavor isn't something that could be created with regular chestnuts.
It's a deliciousness made possible precisely because he chose to use sweet chestnuts!
"He minced some of them and added them to the sauce as well! Doing that spread their mild sweetness throughout the whole dish!"

Soma's Chestnut Sauce
Starting with a base of Fond de Veau (a brown stock usually made with veal), he added a cinnamon stick, orange zest and minced sweet chestnuts and then set the sauce to simmer.

"Wait a minute. How odd! Charcoal grilling usually adds a unique and very distinctly bitter taste to ingredients. A taste that is decidedly outside the canon of French flavors!
Yet this dish has taken that bitter taste and somehow made it fit seamlessly! Is there some secret to it?!"
"That would be the coffee."
"What?!"
"Coffee?"
"Yep! You guessed it! That's the Divine Tongue for you.
One of the things I learned at Master Shinomiya's restaurant is that cacao goes really well with game meats. I've never used cacao much, though, to be honest...
So instead I grabbed some instant coffee! The bitterness of coffee is similar enough to pure cacao that it paired up nicely with both the charcoal grilling and the gamy venison...
... resulting in a deeply rich and astringent flavor that's perfect for a truly French sauce. I added both coffee and chestnuts as secret ingredients to my sauce!
This is a Yukihira Original and a brand-new French dish. I call it...
... Charcoal-Grilled Venison Thigh with Chestnut Sauce."
In formal Japanese cooking bowl dishes, such as soups and rice bowls, are constructed from four elements: the main ingredient, the supporting ingredients, the stock and the accents.
Similarly, the French dishes are constructed from three different parts balanced in harmony: the main ingredient, the sauce and the garnishes.
But this dish... this is eccentric and novel and entirely unconventional while still remaining undeniably French!
It's almost as if it's a nugget of flavor found only by cracking and peeling away the shell of common sense...”
― Yūto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“But will this really help, Nakiri? The Administration might try to rig things again."
"If there are assignments, then by hook or by crook there must be a way to pass them. We simply need to find it.
Just like you have always done.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“This is just my personal opinion, but...
... people who think there's only one right answer...
... probably won't go on to discover something better.
But the biggest reason is..."
"Um, excuse me? May I ask how you came up with these combinations? Every one of your dishes is superbly made and truly original, in spite of being so eccentric. How do you know they would turn out to be so delicious?"
"Huh? I didn't."
"What?"
"When I try out a new recipe, it's always half educated guess and half total gamble. Heck, even today you grandfather was my guinea pig for a handful of new dishes."
"But... why would you do that?"
"Easy.
Because it's no fun if you already know what you're going to get”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“Why eggs? Why use those for this dish?"
"Because the theme you gave me that day was egg.
Don't you think this is the perfect dish to settle things between us?”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“The moment I tasted it, it was clear that the egg you used was neither a silky egg nor any of the many other luxury-brand eggs I know. You're dish isn't fit for a gourmet table. At best, this is a dish meant for commoners.
So why...
why does it have such a delicate yet full-bodied flavor?!"
"Whoa! He did it!"
"But with super-cheap eggs?! Yukihira, what did you do?!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“I can still remember how moved I was by Chef Saiba's dish. But...
... I can also understand how much truth there is to my father's ideal!
The culinary world of today is flooded with trite and uninspired dishes that call themselves Gourmet. I have experienced that for myself to a nauseating degree for as long as I can remember.
I simply don't know anymore.
I don't know what cooking is to me
I feel... lost. Confused. I don't know who to trust or what to rely on anymore.
I'm sorry. I came to your room before I knew what I was doing. It was rude of me to babble on about my personal problems like that. I'll leave you alone now."
"Whoa, whoa. What's the hurry?
Sounds like all you need is to taste it again. How about I make some for you?
Some real Yukihira Cooking...
... right here, right now!
You wait right there...
... Miss Erina Nakiri!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“It's decided!
Technique. Knowledge. Creativity. And most of all...
...the strength of will to stand by one's own cooking in the face of all comers!
In all of those things, these two dishes stand a cut above!
THE HOMECOOKING RESEARCH SOCIETY WINS! THEY SURVIVE!
THE DONBURI BOWL SOCIETY WINS! THEY SURVIVE!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“On the right is Sauce Poivrade, a sauce made from beef or venison stock and lots of pepper. It has a rough bite with a lingering and clear aftertaste. Poivrade comes from the French word poivre, which means "pepper." This heavy and strongly flavored peppercorn sauce gives the mild and light venison a sense of weighty volume, you see.
Then I took some of the sauce and added various berries to give it some tangy and refreshing sweetness, making the sauce on the left- Sauce Poivrade au Baie The berries I used are-"
"Blueberries, blackberries, and red currants. You also used black currant liqueur, red wine, blueberry vinegar and raspberry jam. Correct?"
"Amazing! You got them all. Not surprising, I guess, considering it's you."
But that sauce is not nearly as simple as it sounds! It uses liqueur, wine, vinegar, jam and raw fruit... five different forms of fruit actually, all painstakingly and precisely added together. It's what gives the sauce such a deep and complex flavor.
But make even the tiniest mistake and the flavor will get muddled or overly bitter! Keeping everything in correct proportion is a tricky balancing act! It can't be done without a full and nuanced knowledge of all of the particular traits and compatibilities of each individual ingredient!
It is a superhuman dish only someone like Eishi Tsukasa's skill and knowledge could create.
With the two different sauces, he has beautifully expressed both the delicate elegance and the untamed wildness of a deer!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]

“You are correct that simply charcoal grilling a cut of venison would not qualify as a French dish.
That means, in the midst of this contest...
... he intends to invent a new French dish.
One that only Soma Yukihira could make!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 20 [Shokugeki no Souma 20]