If you’re a foodie like me, your algorithm on social media apps like TikTok is filled with over-stylized cooking videos from influencer chefs endeavoring to broaden your cooking horizons. While these overly-produced videos make for helpful slap-dash references whenever I put on my big boy pants and fuck shit up in my kitchen, their lightning-fast-paced editing kind of harshes the mellow that comes with painstakingly eating some mouthwatering dishes. Luckily, we still have anime, the old gods of making drawn food look more delicious than real-life food, to insatiate our hunger into action (i.e. cooking ourselves or ordering food).
In the interest of today’s special herb-based holiday, I’ve assembled a shortlist of anime you should watch if you’ve succumbed to the late-night munchies. While I could have included popular anime films like Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away or any number of Makoto Shinkai’s animated films for their tantalizingly brief scenes of scrumptious foods, I’ve decided to select shows that literally “show you how the sausage was made.” That way, if you have the brain capacity to retain these anime chefs’ loving steps, you too can cook up your own delectable anime dish.
Read More: The Top 30 Best Anime Of The Decade, Ranked
Flavors of Youth
Studio: CoMix Wave Films
Where To Watch: Netflix
What’s It About: Flavors of Youth follows three different people’s lives as they cling to the bittersweet memories of their childhood and make strides toward the bustling adult city life in China. Although these disparately dissimilar people are adjusting to adulthood in different ways, they all share fond memories of the steaming bowl of noodles that got them to where they are.
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill
Studio: Mappa
Where To Watch: Crunchyroll
What’s It About: This isekai anime follows a 27-year-old named Mukouda who is mistakenly teleported to the fantasy Kingdom of Reijseger as its hero. Instead of using his fists to vanquish his enemies, Mukouda uses his magical ability “Online Supermarket,” to teleport ingredients from the real world and cook up delicious meals modern-day from Japan. Mukouda’s ability, which was regarded as useless to the denizens of the kingdom, helps pay his way as an adventurer and gets him a doggo familiar with the legendary giant wolf Fenrir.
Restaurant to Another World
Studio: Silver Link
Where To Watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation
What’s It About: Loyal customers of a popular restaurant in Tokyo have been led to believe that the eatery is closed on Saturdays. It isn’t. Turns out Saturdays are the day the delicatessen serves otherworldly patrons. Elves, fairies, mages, and dragons come from far and wide to this special bistro to have a legendary chef known only as “the master” serve them their favorite dishes.
Toriko
Studio: Toei Animation
Where To Watch: Crunchyroll, Hulu
What’s It About: The world has entered the “Gourmet Age.” In this world of excess, hamburgers grow from the ground like plants and mounds of ice cream carve out the horizon of mountain ranges. In this delectable age, a “gourmet hunter” named Toriko, battles against cadaverous monsters and wicked organizations in his pursuit to discover all of the world’s finest ingredients so he can complete his “Full Course Menu of Life.”
Food Wars
Studio: J.C.Staff
Where To Watch: Crunchyroll, Hidive, Hulu
What’s It About: Instead of following in his father’s footsteps by packing up his bags and traveling to New York, a prodigy sous chef named Touma enrolls in a prestigious school called Tootsuki Culinary Academy. It’s here where Touma tests his mettle against the school’s elite students in a flurry of cooking tournaments. While his classmate views cooking as a means to win food-related squabbles, Touma sees cooking as an art form and aims to perfect his craft by graduating from the academy with flying colors.