Judging from the flashback in episode 23, where Shiomi Jun meets a young Hayama in a spice market somewhere, I get the sense that Hayama was probably not born in Japan.
And given that Hayama is
I have a sneaking suspicion that he's supposed to be some kind of South Asian.
Am I right? What's his ethnicity supposed to be?
As someone who is from Tamil Nadu, I'd say it's very evident that he really is from South India. Was extremely surprised to see Kozhi Varutha Curry as one of his dishes because it's a purely Tamil-based dish. Even in one of the pages in the manga where they show him living in the slums, I could see a board at the edge of the panel that had Tamil writing, I think it's enough proof.
He cooks quite a few south Indian dishes, specifically dishes native to the states of Tamil Nadu (kozhi varutha curry) and Kerala, and I haven't noticed any of these dishes being very popular or even well known outside of India, so..... I'd say he's Indian, probably from South Indian.
Looking at the ethic side of things, I do agree that he must be of a South Asian origin. Doing thorough research into the main spices and dishes he specialises in are from Sri Lanka. So another option for his Ethnicity is Sri Lankan (Sinhalese). Judging by the amount of detail I gathered up about the character clearly states that Yūto Tsukuda did his research. His skin tone is faily light brown which suggests that Sri Lanka may be more of a valid option than Tamils (Indian). Some of his dishes are Indian based however being one of the highest ranks in the school, it is likely he is fluent in a multitude of dishes world wide. So my bet is on Sri Lankan.
But during the autumn election where they were fighting using their types of food, they called his sword an "Arabian Sword" and he was dressed like an Arabian prince. He also made common Arabic street food such as the Turkish Kabob and the Arabic Kebab Sandwich. They also never specified where the slums he is from is and Arabic are known for many types of spices, even many of the ones he uses.
I feel as though he may be Arabic. The music that always plays when he cooks is influenced from Arabic music and the Middle East where many Arabic people reside was also quite famous for spices. Just speculation though. There are other anime that have similarly designed characters which are speculated to be Arabic as well such as Sphintus Carmen from Magi.
Obviously from SOUTH INDIA he was in south Indian slum since I have seen women in salwar kameez in background additionally akira is master of spices and India is known as the land of spices and his background music was influenced by Bollywood music which is an Indian film industry additionally cooked many south Indian dishes, have tulsi patta in his hand always now some may say then y he is mastered in kebab it's because in India also kebab is extremely common since it was exported to India during Mogul empire who had some Persian, Turkish influence additionally Arabian prince dress is similar to medieval Indian prince dress...therefore from all the above proves it's extremely clear that he is from INDIA, SOUTH INDIA MAY BE PARTICULARLY FROM TAMIL NADU...
