Shonen action stories can be based on nearly anything, not just fistfights, and Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma helps prove that. In this story, the heroes are competing in an elite culinary academy, where only the most creative and daring chefs can reach the heights of cuisine and wow the judges (and their teachers).
Among the many colorful characters in this series is Alice Nakiri, the cousin of Erina Nakiri. She is an expert in gastronomy, the science of food and digestion, and that means Alice can carefully engineer the perfect lab-grown dishes to create dishes impossible to make ordinary kitchens. Alice has a scientist's eye for food, which is a serious advantage, but some chefs are even more talented than her. How does she measure up?
10 Better Than Her: Tsukasa Eishi
This third-year student is the first seat of the Council of Ten, and even when he graduated Totsuki and moved on to the big wide world, he was still learning and growing. He was even more talented when he appeared in the final storyline, during the BLUE tournament.
Tsukasa is known as the White Knight of the Table, a noble servant of his ingredients (which can be thought of as a princess commanding him). Since he can communicate with the ingredients so well and cook them so precisely, he's definitely more talented than Alice is.
9 Worse Than Her: Megumi Tadokoro
Megumi Tadokoro, a first-year student, is a good friend of Yukihira Soma's and knows all about seafood. Megumi grew up in Japan's Tohoku region, in a fishing town, and she got used to seeing fishing boats and nets of fish all over the place. She is a bit like Naruto's Hinata Hyuga: A timid girl who learned to be brave and use her talents for good.
Megumi learned from her mother and even knows how to carve up and prep a monkfish, which says a lot. Megumi's home-style cooking is warm and lovely, but it hasn't yet outstripped Alice's wildly creative and innovative science-based dishes. But Megumi might pull ahead someday, based on her steadily-improving track record.
8 Better: Somei Saito
This third-year student is a specialist chef, unlike generalist chefs like Soma Yukihira. Somei grew up learning how to make sushi from his family, and cooking-wise, it's all he's ever known. He was practically born to be a sushi chef.
Somei likens himself to a samurai in the kitchen, a disciplined and focused culinary warrior who has honed his abilities to an incredibly fine edge. With his extensive training, experience, and love of sushi, he's overall a better chef than Alice, pound for pound.
7 Weaker: Ikumi Mito
Ikumi Mito is a chef who knows all about A-1 beef and how to cook it, and she's a bit of a tsundere who has a thing for Yukihira Soma (he greatly impressed her when he defeated her in a shokugeki early in the series).
As her nickname, Nikumi, suggests, Ikumi is greatly skilled at using high-quality beef and similar meats to create strong, richly-flavored dishes that bring out the true potential of all things meat. But she hasn't accomplished a lot on her own; she's more of a support chef. Alice Nakiri has done more.
6 Better: Rindo Kobayashi
Rindo Kobayashi could take on and defeat many of the other students at Totsuki, and truth be told, she could probably defeat Alice Nakiri, too. She was once the 2nd seat of the Council of Ten, and she earned it in a peculiar way.
Rindo's cooking style is based on exotic ingredients from around the world, and she once butchered a small, live crocodile to prepare a dish, and even used acid from ants to create her dishes. If she can beat nearly anyone with wild ingredients like that, and be the Council's 2nd seat, she's certainly a higher-caliber chef than Alice.
5 Worse: Zenji Marui
This boy is a resident of the Polar Star dormitory, and he earned his place in that selective Totsuki dorm by studying every word there is to read about cuisine. He hasn't traveled the world in person like Rindo, but through books, he's explored every corner of the cooking world.
It's great to have all that reference, but Zenji's technique is only average by most standards, lacking fancy or unique cooking equipment and techniques. He hasn't made anything even half as impressive as the creative, carefully-calculated dishes of Alice Nakiri.
4 Better: Soma Yukihira
It's time for the hero himself to join the list, and he has fought many cooking battles to prove his worth. Soma isn't pigeon-holed like many of the other chefs; instead, he has learned universal and vital lessons from cooking in his family's diner.
Creativity, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a good attitude make up the recipe of Soma's success, and he can use absolutely anything to create a dish and get the edge on his complacent or ultra-focused opponents. Alice Nakiri can't match that, even with the most expensive lab equipment.
3 Worse: Etsuya Eizan
The 9th seat of the original Council of Ten was a second-year named Etsuya Eizan, who has a distinct mobster theme about him. He likes to use bribes, espionage, and intimidation to get the edge on his opponents and prepare a dish to defeat theirs long ahead of time.
That's a rather sneaky way to cook, and in a regular cooking battle, Eizan is skilled but otherwise unremarkable. His "thing" is based on backroom deals, and without them, Eizan is easily outclassed by the complex formulas and ultra-precise methods that Alice can offer with her lab equipment.
2 Better: Akira Hayama
This boy has the sharpest nose in all of Totsuki, and he is the master of fragrances and spices. It might be said that Akira has the God Nose, if there is such a thing, and he makes full use of it every time he enters a cooking battle.
Akira won one of the most intense shonen-style tournaments in the story, the Autumn Elections, with this cooking style. He defeated both Ryo Kurokiba and Soma Yukihira with his ultra-fragrant Pacific saury dish, and Alice doesn't quite have that kind of talent.
1 Worse: Yuki Yukino
This excitable girl is another member of the prestigious Polar Star dormitory, proving that she is among the best students in her class. She doesn't get many scenes to herself, but her theme has made itself clear: Wild game.
Yuki is stilled at raising, butchering, and cooking wild game and farm animals, making her loosely similar to Ikumi Mito, but with less emphasis on beef. Yuki knows her stuff, but her cooking style is only passable compared to her other classmates, and she has no notable achievements to speak of. Alice, meanwhile, has progressed much further and has a more distinct cooking style.