Well, I’d be lying if I said I’d seen that coming.

It might perhaps have been said that Shokugeki no Souma was at risk of becoming a little same-y.  The formula with this show is a good one, but it had certainly cycled through a few times with relatively minor changes.  Even the (false) ending of this arc – Souma and Kuga’s duel effectively ending in a draw – was comfortably in-line with what we’d seen before in situations like this.  Souma didn’t win the bet by winning in total earnings, but he proved his point by winning one day.  And Kuga didn’t get what he set out to – total domination, and a chance to challenge the #1 seat on the Elite ten to a revenge shokugeki – but he did win the overall earnings battle.

My goodness, though – things certainly took a sharp left turn after that.  The red-haired girl finally makes her presence felt – her name is Kobayashi Rindou (Itou Shizuka, no less), and she too is on the Elite Ten.  She immediately imposes her superiority over Kuga (she is his sempai) and promptly invites Souma and Megumi to dine at the Yamanote establishment of the #1 chair, Tsukasa Eishi (Ishida Akira, no less).  He also happens to be the student that Kuga wanted a rematch with, after having been crushed a year earlier.

Tsukasa’s food is predictably elite – he’s neurotic as hell (limiting himself to three tables because he won’t let anyone else touch his food) but a peerless artisan at honoring ingredients and shaping them into a seamless multi-course tasting menu.  The idea of highlighting the ingredients rather than seasonings or the chef’s personality is the essence of Japanese fine dining, and it’s actually been somewhat underrepresented in the narrative so far..

Even Tsukasa, though, is not the MacGuffin in this plot twist.  That would be Nakiri Azami (Hayami Show, no less), who as you’d likely have guessed already from the OP/ED is Erina’s father.  Azami crashes her reservations-only “pop-up”, and immediately begins spouting off on what he sees as the true nature of fine dining – something that can and should only be enjoyed by those with the “class” and education to appreciate it.  It seems he was exiled from Tootsuki, and it’s very obvious that Erina (and Hisako) is by no means glad to see him.  Things are looking grim until Souma-kun shows up (the grin on Hisako’s face says it all) and stirs the pot so much that Azami leaves in disgust.

This was certainly an unexpected turn of events, and that’s a fairly uncommon state with Shokugeki no Souma.  It seems as if Azami has engineered a coup with the support of six of the Elite Ten (including Rindou) and ousted his father as director, with the intention of booting out the riff-raff and restoring Tootsuki to the elitist island it once was.  This could potentially be interesting, but if we do effectively end up with class warfare between Azami-san and Souma (repping the plebs) it could also potentially get pretty heavy-handed.  I’m encouraged to be headed into uncharted waters, but wary that rough seas could be ahead…