WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 12 of Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
This is the big moment that everyone has been waiting for: Soma and Saiba facing off in one of the BLUE tournament's semi-finals. The theme is to create a dish that combines global cuisine's five major styles. Asahi Saiba is using his "crossed knives" technique to the max, using a medley of other chef's equipment and methods along with lessons he learned from expert chefs around the world. However, he is still missing a key piece of what makes a chef great.
Saiba's Cooking is Surface Only
Mana Nakiri had a strong reaction when she tried Asahi Saiba's dish, the Gifting. Then she tried Soma's peculiar "odorless fried rice" dish, and her reaction took things one step further. Mana reacted not only with the Gifting but also with the Bursting, which shredded not just her own clothes that but of everyone in the entire arena, save for Soma and Asahi. This combo strike is something that the Nakiris have never seen before and is proof that Mana liked Soma's dish better. The judges concur, and Soma wins the match, 3-0.
How can this be, Asahi Saiba argues? He has the perfect technique, and Mana had been counting on him to free her from the curse of the God Tongue by making the ultimate dish for her. The problem is Saiba is empty inside, and he only ever mimics the techniques of other chefs. There is no personality or human authenticity in his cooking, holding him back. This contrasts sharply with Soma Yukihira, who has relied on his friends to learn from them and be inspired by them, not just rotely borrow their techniques. The secret to proper cooking, as Soma already knew, was to cook for someone whom the chef loved and adored. Cooking has to be for the sake of someone else.
Soma Cooks With Heart
Soma's own flashbacks revealed his own cooking style in his youth, and how he was inspired by his parents to impress them and cook for his beloved guests. That's the lesson that his mother, Tamako, passed on despite being an iffy chef herself. And now, Azami Nakiri, of all people, is relating to this lesson on a personal level. Ruthless ambition and arrogance aren't the only driving forces behind his culinary quest. He was once in Soma's position, and it saved him from an empty culinary life.
As a student at Totsuki, Azami had been distraught when his friend and role model Joichiro Saiba departed, and his cooking and life felt directionless and hollow. Then he met Mana Nakiri, the bearer of the God Tongue, and did his best to impress her. Despite being on the Council of Ten, he failed to impress the queen of cuisine, and she remarked that Azami's cooking was purely mechanical, no soul in it. Spurred on by this critical assessment, Azami refined his cooking method and kept presenting new dishes to Mana, determined to find the key to winning praise from her. Mana meant everything to him, and in due time, Azami's cooking took on a personal edge, delighting Mana. They grew closer, eventually married and had a baby girl, Erina.
Things got complicated when Erina inherited the God Tongue. It was then that Azami's mission changed, and it steered him away from his quest to cook for the love of others. Today, Soma Yukihira is living proof that not everyone forgot this lesson.