Anime has given its audience the keys to jam-packed action, sweet romance, and even mesmerizing fantasy worlds. But is there anything for hardcore food lovers? The answer to this question is: Absolutely! Food anime, especially with mouth-watering animation, isn’t anything new to fans. Best believe, there are many options with entertaining storylines, delicious food, and professional displays of culinary techniques.
The genre is usually set in culinary schools, cooking competitions, and restaurants—all boasting delectable dishes to the fans. But don’t be fooled, the main premise of food anime is to showcase the love and passion put into meals, even simply through steaming rice, kneading dough, or sizzling pans with some fatty oil. Keeping all that in mind, let’s embark on a culinary adventure through this list of anime recommendations that will leave you with an empty stomach and an unavoidable craving for tasty dishes.
10. Cinderella Chef
Cinderella Chef follows Ye Jia Yao, a modern-day culinary whiz who dies while tasting her own cooking and gets whisked back in time to ancient China. Now, armed with nothing but her intuition and exceptional cooking skills, she must navigate a series of bizarre old-timey ordeals. Despite this, Ye Jia Yao is still as spirited as before—welcoming this new life with all the challenges that it has got. After all, no challenge can take away the joy that she gets from meeting a certain special man who falls in love with her and her cooking.
A Chinese production, Cinderella Chef zooms in on traditional Chinese cuisine combined with Ye Jia Yao’s creativity and culinary knowledge. The animation is so good that it can put the best cooking ASMR videos on YouTube to shame. The accurate depictions of dishes, including mapo tofu and hot pots, and full-course meals make the isekai series shine amongst the rest in the genre.
9. Yakitate!! Japan
If you’re a food lover and particularly love your bread, then we have just the anime for you. Yakitate!! Japan focuses on a young boy named Kazuma Azuma who is dedicated to creating the national bread of his homeland. He is aided by his naturally warm hands that assist him in the bakery—allowing him to ferment bread faster.
The series makes making bread look very cool. Despite being lighthearted and even comedic at times, the details that go into the baking process and the ingredients are so meticulous that it could pass as baking tutorials you see circulating the internet. Bread being the centerpiece for an anime is unheard of, and Yakitate!! Japan has pulled it off amazingly.
Brian Auxier of Anime Herald said, “Yakitate!! Japan has the perfect degree of dramatic spice to keep its viewers invested in the experience. Bread puns are rolled out with reckless abandon, and the tight storytelling leaves the viewer kneading to see more. Fans who can cut through its comedic crust will find a classic struggle of broken families, financial hardships, and bitter rivalries.“
8. Food Wars
What’s a food lover’s anime list without Food Wars? A series that has become the epitome of shonen-food anime, it follows the story of Souma Yukihira and his hesitant journey at Totsuki Culinary Institute where all budding chefs test their culinary limits. Through multiple food battles, Yukihira proves his talent against high-class chefs and rises to the top.
Food Wars is a top-tier anime for food lovers. Not only does it put delicious food on the table, but also intense rivalries and food battles to binge on. The culinary originality, phenomenal visuals, and high-stakes competitions will leave your mouth watering for more Food Wars.
Brittany Vincent of Otaku USA Magazine said, “There’s nothing else quite like it, despite the droves of cooking anime out there, and it’s a cut above your typical shonen epic. It’s nearly as if you had taken the shojo classic Kitchen Princess and cut it with a healthy dosage of Shonen Jump for good measure.”
7. Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World
Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World follows the story of Nobuyuki and Shinobu who open up a traditional izakaya, an informal bar in Japan, called Nobu. Following their prayer at the shrine in the restaurant, their door opens a portal to a parallel fictitious world of soldiers and monsters called Aitheria. Now, the team must work their way through serving delicious dishes to different kinds of medieval personalities.
Though the series is about food, it also offers lessons on which alcohol is best served with each dish—giving it that unique kick amongst other food anime. Besides the great storylines and interesting characters, the selling point of Isekai Izakaya: Japanese Food From Another World is how episodes end with cooking, recipes, and Japanese restaurant recommendations from a live-action segment called “Nobu Plus.”
One Redditor said, “The series was way too good in it’s own genres of Gourmet and Isekai. Great looking dishes, fun and loveable characters enjoying them along with a subtle sense of plot progression in it’s last quarter. The live action portion was a great balance between fiction animation and real life food locations and dishes.“
6. Cooking Master Boy
Cooking Master Boy is set in 19th-century China during the Qing Dynasty and was dubbed the start of “The Era of the Cooking Wars.” The era showcases different chefs with different cuisine techniques who want to hone their skills and become China’s greatest chefs. The series follows Mao Xing, a gifted Chinese chef, still grieving his mother’s death. To honor her, he promises to follow in her footsteps in becoming a world-class chef—traveling across the country to learn different culinary techniques and food recipes.
Mao spoke to the audiences’ hearts as he took the spotlight in every episode with his skills and drive to rebuild his family’s heritage. Cooking Master Boy has masterfully showcased Chinese cuisine and traditions while letting viewers enjoy front-row seats to dishes like soup dumplings and roast ducks. The series was so well-received that it warranted a reboot after decades of waiting—continuing the original anime released in 1997.
5. Yume-iro Pâtissière
Yume-iro Patissiere is the perfect anime for all the sweet teeth out there. The lighthearted series follows Ichigo Amano, a 14-year-old girl who finds her passion for dessert at a buffet after meeting Henrie Lucas. After recognizing her talent in making delectable sweets, Lucas offers her a chance to attend an esteemed culinary school at St. Marie Academy. Though the school is highly competitive with talented students like her, Ichigo still gives her all to achieve her dream of becoming a skilled pastry chef.
Yume-iro Patissiere is an easygoing anime well-received by viewers of all ages. The series is loved by many because the protagonist welcomes her mishaps and clumsiness in the kitchen. In return, Ichigo creates tasty and pretty treats that will leave you longing for Japanese sweets.
4. Ristorante Paradiso
Ristorante Paradiso is a breath of fresh air for all food lovers. Unlike usual food and cooking anime, the series centers on Italian cuisine and Nicoletta—a 21-year-old who travels to Rome to find her mother who abandoned her. She strikes in with a mix of anger and unresolved feelings. However, upon discovering her mother’s thriving Italian restaurant, Casetta dell’Orso, she suddenly finds herself unexpectedly inspired to stay in Rome and cultivate her own culinary skills.
The series is crammed with drama and relationship troubles, atypical of the lighthearted anime of this particular genre. However, viewers are spoiled with beautiful scenes of Italian cuisine that bring them closer to Rome than ever before.
3. Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits
Cooking for humans is overrated anyway. Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits is a fun food anime to watch if you want something out of the ordinary. The series follows Aoi Tsubaki who inherits her ability to see and interact with spirits from her grandfather. However, her grandfather’s large debt in the spirit world looms over her and the only way to repay it is by marrying an Ogre—to which she refuses.
Instead, Aoi decides to open her own restaurant, Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, and make enough money to pay her grandfather’s debt. There, her skills and expirements bear fruit—understanding each species’ palettes and giving fellow restaurants a run for their money.
2. Oishinibo
Oishinibo is a classic in the genre of food anime—but not everybody knows about it. The series follows food journalist Shiro Yamaoka and partner-in-crime Yuko Kurita as they traverse Japan to assemble recipes for their newspaper’s “Ultimate Menu” food section. Each episode features an iconic Japanese dish, breaking it down to the process and ingredients needed.
The food anime aired from the ’80s through the ’90s—becoming an instant classic and an important piece in building up the genre. What made people love this vintage anime is how educational food can be. From important life lessons and healthy habits to cooking properly and liking what’s usually unwanted food, Oishinibo will offer you more than just the best dishes around Japan.
1. Mister Ajikko
One of the original cooking animes out there, Mister Ajikko deserves to be respected and on this list. The story follows Ajiyoshi Yoichi, a cooking prodigy, as he goes from working part-time at her mother’s family restaurant to becoming one of the most esteemed chefs in the world. In his journey to becoming the best chef, he meets and beats his rivals in tight cook-offs with his creativity in the kitchen.
Mister Ajikko, despite being released over two decades ago, has set the bar for food and cooking animes of today. Its recipe (no pun intended) for success emphasizes how dishes are prepared, the addition of dramatic effects, and even intense cook-offs are still done in food anime of the new generation. If you want to be inspired to be more creative in the kitchen, this series is suited for you!