Warning: the following contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 7 of "Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Soma has defeated Sarge in a cooking duel, but that isn't the only high-stakes culinary battle taking place in the tournament's first round. Asahi Saiba has stepped into the kitchen, facing a truly worthy challenger. Tsukasa Eishi was once the Council of Ten's first seat, known as "The White Knight of the Table." He is at least as talented as Soma, and he'll need that incredible prowess to stand a chance against Asahi Saiba.
Saiba Is Legion
This is a high-profile match, and everyone who's someone at the BLUE is watching Saiba go head to head with the esteemed Tsukasa Eishi, from Soma's group to WGO officials who fawn all over Tsukasa. The cooking battle begins and chicken is the theme, and both chefs are getting to work. As usual, Tsukasa is using his sword-like grater, living up to his reputation as the knight of the dining table. But Asahi Saiba isn't just using one fancy trick to cook; he's using several on top of each other.
Right after Sarge's loss to Soma, Saiba had met with his elite Noir chefs and asked them all for a certain favor. The results are clear: Saiba is borrowing the technique and tools of Marcanta, Sarge, Claude de Ville and Bunny Hare, using them all to create a unique and master-class chicken dish. He even adds blood sausages with Claude de Ville's style, cuts the chicken with Sarge's chainsaw, then wraps it up with Marcanta's juggling style to cook the meat evenly. He presents a dish that simply blows the judges away, combining chicken with blood sausage to create a dish whose flavor shouldn't even be possible, but it is. Now Tsukasa has to defend himself from that.
On The Defensive
Even though Tsukasa and Saiba presented their chicken dishes at the same time, Tsukasa finds himself on the back foot, and he needs every ounce of his talents as the White Knight to face Saiba's multi-chef technique. This is what the "crossed knives" style is capable of, and Saiba is imagined as standing atop a mountain studded with other chefs' knives and techniques. One knight must face that alone.
Tsukasa takes his turn with Poussin Chicken Rotir, an elegant flavor-packed dish that simply melts in the mouth. He rubs the meat with herbs and recommended feijoa mousse, derived from a particular South American fruit. Once again, the judges are dazzled, but something is wrong. They give Tsukasa a few compliments, then turn their attention right back to Asahi Saiba's dish, suddenly torn between the two. It doesn't take them long to deliberate and realize that Saiba's was indeed superior, and sure enough, Saiba is the match's winner. Not even the White Knight can stand up to Saiba's crossed knives style, and as per the match's terms, Saiba claimed Tukasa's sword-like grater to add to his extensive arsenal. Now he's even stronger than ever, and that's the kind of monster Soma will have to defeat before long. Tsukasa faces Soma and urges him to win at all costs.