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I'm familiar with some other cooking shows, but not all of them are nearly as experimental as Food Wars. With something like "Yakitate!", being a baker, there's a lot of truth behind the recipes and some of the crazy things Azuma and some of the other bakers did. Not being a chef, I can't tell if some of the cooking/recipes in "Food Wars" actually work like they claim in the show. For example, in a recent episode Soma used some crushed something (I can't remember) as the breading for fried fish, or the use of honey to tenderize meat; how accurate are these things from the show?

Jon Lin
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    i am unfamiliar with the term "breading" but google searching breaded fried fish and my first result was [this](http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/06/perfect-pan-fried-fish-from-jasper-whites-summer-shack-cookbook.html). keep in mind also that in real life [Heston Blumenthal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heston_Blumenthal) does do some crazy things such as making a chocolate waterfall which un-mixes itself, editable dirt and in one experiment he created orange flavored flares and set them off inside a chicken or duck in order to infuse it with flavor – Memor-X Jun 02 '15 at 22:10
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    The manga has a "food consultant" (Morisaki Yuki), for what it's worth. – senshin Jun 02 '15 at 23:15

2 Answers2

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Like with Yakitate! Japan, the recipes in the manga are supervised by an actual professional, in this case, chef Yuki Morisaki.

As for the cooking techniques you mentioned, the crushed "something" breading for fish is "kaki no tane" (柿の種), essentially soy-flavored rice crisps made to resemble Japanese persimmon seeds. When crushed there are more or less like breadcrumbs or panko crumbs, the only differ is they have a distinct soy flavor to them. Koromo-age is an actually popular batter frying technique in Japan.

As for honey being a tenderizer, the food science behind it is not very well explained. While cooking with honey is a technique that spans back to the middle-ages, where they did honey-cured ham and baked gammon coated with honey and mustard. I don't believe the proteins are actually broken down by the honey. While honey is said to contain enzymes that help digest both protein and carbohydrates, such as amylase, sucrase, and proteases (a group of enzymes that break down proteins into amino acids), there more of something that helps your body break down the proteins than have an active process in cooking.

You see, honey is extremely hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture really well. If you pull water out of a piece of meat, that meat will end up less stiff and seem more floppy, but the collagen and tough tissue aren't actually affected. It's common to find marinades containing honey and vinegar that make meat more tender and supple.

So while the recipes are actually recipes developed by a professional chef, the food science behind them might be a bit questionable. Such things aren't explained well in the anime and manga as the intended audience is supposed to be Japanese. Some terms and techniques are probably more commonly understood to native audience than ones overseas. Such as "A5" meat being pure Wagyu beef from the Kagoshima Prefecture, such a designation does not really exist in other countries.

кяαzєя
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Besides all the info already mentioned by the top answer and comments, someone tried the kaki no tane breading here:

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/11/23/we-test-out-a-new-way-to-make-fried-chicken-the-prison-school-way-%E3%80%90rocketkitchen%E3%80%91/

and basically said throw out your old breading.They used it on chicken though, and got the idea from the Prison School manga. It was the google search link that showed up right under yours.

(Just wanted to comment, but wouldn't let me with my new sign up rep)

Sparkie075
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