A Spice in Life (Shokugeki no Soma x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 8- No Misteak About It

(Name)'s POV

"We've all slept on it. I've given it a lot of thought." Soma, Megumi, Konishi, and I were all in the Don RS room discussing our plan for the Shokugeki. Konishi and Megumi were standing out of the four of us, the former sharing his ideas.

"Nikumi's a specialist in meat. Beef, in particular. Then I don't think we need to go for beef. For example, we could go for chicken-and-egg don. Chicken still fits the theme. We should try to differentiate ourselves from Nikumi as much as possible."

"Okay, so an off-beat choice." Soma looked at the ceiling thoughtfully then turned to Megumi. "What kind of don do you like Tadokoro?"

"Well, I don't know if you can call it a don, and it's not meat-based, but I like taking scallops that've been lightly grilled in the shell, then seasoned with a bit of butter and soy sauce. It's godly on piping hot rice!" She gushed.

"Ooh, that sounds good." I drooled a bit, imagining the deliciousness of the described dish.

"You're right." Konishi responded. "We could've gone with a seafood don, but you just had to go ahead and say we'll do meat." Tears streamed down his face as his hair seemed to droop, the doom-gloom aura making its appearance once again.

"It's a done deal. Quit complaining!" Soma answered.

"You don't know how strong Nikumi is." Konishi protested. "If we get slammed with her A5 beef, we're done for!"

Soma and I stared at him in confusion. "'Eigo'-what?" Soma asked and I tilted my head.

"English?" I blinked.

"'A5' is a meat grade for beef, right?" Megumi asked.

"Yeah, that's right." Konishi picked up a marker and turned to the white board. "'A' refers to the yield grade: the yield ratio from a beef carcass, which ranges from A to C." He wrote the letters A-C on the board.

"Then, there's marbling! The firmness and texture of the meat! The luster of the fat, and so on! Those characteristics determine the quality grade, which ranges from 1 to 5!" He quickly wrote said numbers on the board.

"Only beef that meets the highest qualifications for both grades receives an A5 rating!" He wrote A5 where it fit on his drawn chart.

"I've eaten one of Nikumi's steaks at an academy event. At that level, you can... You can drink the meat!"

Wait, did he just say 'drink the meat'!?

"Drink it?!" The three of us all stared in shock.

"That's right!" The upperclassman confirmed. "The moment you bite into the meat, it transforms into a mass of umami that slips down your throat. If you were to order that kind of meat at any store, you'd have to throw down several Benjamins." He stated. At first I was imagining some sort of meat drink.

"And another thing to keep in mind is, any ingredient you use in a Shokugeki must be prepared by you, yourself! Procuring ingredients is considered an essential skill for chefs! The Mito clan operates a large-scale meat wholesale business, and has close to a monopoly on a segment of the beef market. They have the finances, the facilities, and the distribution. All of this lies behind Nikumi's premium-quality cooking." Slowly, Konishi's tone of voice lowered to a hopeless one as the doom-gloom smack-whacked right back into him.

"He's bringing himself down with his own talk." Soma muttered from beside me.

"Can we really beat meat like that?" Megumi worried.

"Y'know... You know what?" Soma said. "Don RS should go with beef, too."

"Well, if you really think you can do it..." I trailed off, shrugging.