食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28] Quotes

“Her sense of artistry reached even as far as her plating and presentation...
arranging her tarts in a woven basket like a bouquet of flowers.
The sight of her bringing them to us was like a scene straight out of a fairy tale!
Yes... she too...
is like a character straight from fantasy.
A fairy godmother who casts her spells on ordinary ingredients...
... turning them into beautiful and delicious princesses of food!
All who take a bite of her apples...
... fall under her spell...
... and are transported into a land of dreams!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“I just let the apples soak up the roses' scent."
"You what?!"
"This takes a teeny little while to do, but... first, you take the petals off the damask's and wash them gently. When you've washed a whole big fluffy pile of petals... you dump them all into a big pot of water! Let that boil down, and you get a sweet, pink rose syrup!
While that was reducing, I lightly heated thin apple slices in an extract I made from boiled apple peels. Then I poured the rose syrup over them and let them soak for 30 minutes. That way the delicate pink color and sweet scent of the roses gently seeped into the apples.
Just boiling the lot of them together into a mush like a barbarian is hardly royal, you know.
An elegant and relaxing bath in rose-scented water. That is much more fitting for the Queen of Roses. If I had to give a name to perfect my new dessert, I'd call it...
The Queen's Apple Tart!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“ Let the apples soak in rose syrup. It is easy enough to say...
but to make it work requires a huge amount of very delicate, very exacting work.
Even just making the rose syrup is a delicate task. The petals must be set to boil in water that is just below the boiling point.
Only when the petals are added at exactly the right moment will they reduce down into syrup this pure.
Also, when she soaked the apple slices in the syrup, she used no heat at all, meaning none of the flavor was lost.
As a result, her apples retained the whole of their fresh and tart flavor, becoming a solid cornerstone of the entire dish.
But she did not stop there. She even brushed the finished tarts with more of the apple extract she made.
For her cute and delicate dishes, she will not scrimp on a single step! ”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“The tofu pocket is soaked with butter, every bite of it drenching the lips...
... sending rich waves gushing through the mouth. Just one taste is enough to seep both tongue and mind in a thick flood of butter!
"The tofu pocket is so juicy it's nearly dripping, yet it hasn't drowned the filling at all. The rice is delectably fluffy and delicate, done in true pilaf style, with the grains separate, tender and not remotely sticky. Simmered in fragrant chicken broth, the prawns give it a delightful crunch, while ample salt and pepper boost both its flavor and aroma!"
"The whole dish is strongly flavored, but it isn't the least bit heavy or sticky. The deliciousness of every ingredient, wrapped in a cloak of rich butter, wells up with each bite like a gushing, savory spring! How on earth did you manage to create this powerful a flavor?!"
"Well, first I sautéed the rice for the pilaf without washing it- one of the major rules of pilafs! If you wash all the starch off the rice, the grains get crumbly and the whole thing can wind up tasting tacky instead of tender. Then I thoroughly rinsed the tofu pockets with hot water to wash off the extra oil so they'd soak up the seasonings better.
But the biggest secret to the whole thing...
... was my specially made Mochi White Sauce!
Normal white sauce is made with lots of milk, butter and flour, making it really thick and heavy. But I made mine using only soy milk and mochi, so it's still rich and creamy without the slightest hint of greasiness. In addition, I sprinkled a blend of several cheeses on top of everything when I put it in the oven to toast. They added some nice hints of mellow saltiness to the dish without making it too heavy!
Basically, I shoved all the tasty things I could think of into my dish...
... pushing the rich, savory flavor as hard as I could until it was just shy of too much... and this is the result!"
Some ingredients meld with the butter's richness into mellow deliciousness...
... while others, sautéed in butter, have become beautifully savory and aromatic. Into each of these little inari sushi pockets has gone an immense amount of work across uncountable steps and stages.
Undaunted by Mr. Saito's brilliant dish, gleaming with the fierce goodness of seafood...
each individual ingredient is loudly and proudly declaring its own unique deliciousness! ”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“The salmon is perfectly cooked. The trace amounts of sugar contained in the wheat flour have combined with the butter in a chemical reaction that's creating a wonderful fragrance. It was all fried together for precisely the right amount of time to create a superb Meunière."
"The squid liver was quickly sautéed in a dollop of butter as well, taking a bite of that with the Meunière is sublime! The butter's flavor gently wraps around the salty and pleasantly bitter taste of the liver, giving it a beautifully mellow body."
"He added pomegranate seeds and tonburi to the soy sauce marinated roe! Those three completely disparate flavors meld into a seamless whole thanks to butter! Not only does it have an amusing texture, the roe doesn't have its typical greasiness either!"
*Tonburi, also called land caviar, is the seeds of the summer cypress plant. It's texture is similar to caviar.*
He's used mounds of butter in so many different facets of the dish, but it somehow hasn't made the flavor heavy at all. The secret to that lies in the bed of special sushi rice hidden underneath the seafood!
"This sushi rice was made not with vinegar but with orange juice and lemon juice!"
"So that's why he was squeezing that mountain of oranges!"”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“Salmon Meunière, piping hot and steaming with the rich aroma of butter!
Sautéed squid liver, boldly fragrant with the scents of garlic and soy sauce!
And a gleaming mound of glittery salmon roe marinated in soy sauce!
"It's a parade of the ultimate in gourmet ingredients!
Somei Saito senpai has created a brand-new culinary gem with his Buttered Seafood Rice Bowl!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“Ah, now I see. It was in the center of the dorayaki! Right there underneath the insignia...
she added apple confiture to the filling!"
Confiture!
What the heck is that?!
"Confiture is the French word for jams and marmalades. It seems she's made her own special apple jam blended with a hint of ginger!
The tart juiciness and fruity richness of the jam melds seamlessly with the ginger's flavor. When tasted together with the apple chunks and dorayaki crust, it jumps out at you in a brilliant flash of deliciousness!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“Wasanbon sugar, honey and tofu. Together, they make a silky-smooth pastry crust that gently caresses the lips... while the fluffy, sticky white bean paste melts on the tongue. Its mellow and robust flavor wafting up to tickle the nose! And with every bite, the crisp tartness of apples pop like fireworks, glittering brightly and fading, only to sparkle once again.
Its sweet deliciousness ripples from the mouth straight up to the brain...
a super-heavyweight punch of moist, rich goodness!"
"Yeeah!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, all the judges have looks on their faces! What on earth could have created a flavor that rapturous?!"
"The biggest secret to that flavor is right here, brushed on the underside of the pastry crust...
apple butter!"
"Apple butter?!"
"Hmm..."
It's as simple as its name- grated apple, lemon juice and sugar added into melted butter. The distinctive tang of fruit is melded together harmoniously with mellow butter, creating a spread that can add acidity, saltiness and rich body to a dish!
"Yet making something like this is no mean feat!
Two completely disparate ingredients must be not just mixed but perfectly emulsified together! It's a task akin to perfectly melding oil with water!
Even pro chefs have difficulty bringing out the butter's smooth shine without accidentally letting it separate! Managing it all requires mastery of a very specific cooking technique!"
"Yes, sir!
I did use Monter au Beurre.
It's a technique for finishing sauces...
... common in French cooking!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“A sweet aroma blooms in the mouth like a fresh flower, while the tongue dances with delight at the crispy crunchiness of the apple! Just one bite and I've already fallen into a fantasyland!"
"Not only that, this fragrance! It's precisely what I thought! It's 'Damask Rose'!"
"Damask rose? Like, actual roses?"
"Yep! These roses right here. They're one of my favoritest flowers. They have such a pretty scent."
Even out of the many thousands of rose varieties in the world, the Damask is renowned for its beautiful fragrance! In fact, some people even call it the 'Queen of Roses'! An ancient strain, it's said even Cleopatra enjoyed damask roses, sprinkling their petals in her bath.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“At first glance, they do indeed look like roses. But on closer inspection, each blossom sits on a tart crust.
These roses are her dish! She made Apple Rose Tarts!"
Aah! Picking it up makes the scent waft ever closer! What a decadent yet delicately sublime scent!
I've yet to take a single bite, but already I feel as if I'm in a dream!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“There are four cheeses! It's a 'Quattro Formaggi' Pizza!"
"A 'Four-Cheese' Pizza? Well, duh. That's a standard pizza topping, even in Italy. There's nothing special or even unusual about that! So why the big reaction?!"
"Because the four cheeses were blended together and balanced with absolute perfection!
The deliciousness of most cheeses is rooted in their mellow richness and sharp saltiness. With those flavors as his baseline... he took four cheeses and balanced them so that their quirks and strengths play off each other brilliantly! That sharp, salty battle is a stark contrast to the thick sweetness of the shigureni beef- the gap between them creating a full-bodied and indescribably delicious flavor!
Then there's the texture contrast of the gooey cheese and the crisply fragrant crust..."
"And you can't forget the tingly bite of the black pepper sprinkled across the top. What a marvelous accent! All the various flavors blossom to their full potential inside the mouth, each making the salty cheese stand out more and more..."
We came out of the blocks with the bitterness of the artichokes...
then we jumped to the cynarine-boosted sweetness of the shigureni beef...
... and ended with a leap to a salty Quattro Formaggi Blend!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]

“I knew Soma would win!"
"Tadokoro...
we all won together as a team. Your efforts played a large part in Yukihira's victory.
And you can be sure he's aware of that.”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 28 [Shokugeki no Souma 28]