Akira Hayama

Akira Hayama is a former 92nd Tōtsuki Generation student and Jun Shiomi's assistant. He is proficient in the usage of spices and is known for his incredible sense of smell and mastery of aroma. He is the former 9th seat of the Elite Ten Council. Akira has dark skin and long, white hair that is mostly tied in a ponytail when he is cooking. His bangs are neatly swept to the right. He also has green eyes and is considerably tall and handsome. He often wears his school uniform unbuttoned with a shirt inside and a loosened tie around his uniform collar. When Akira cooks, he wears a dark chef's uniform. In his youth, Akira's hair was shorter but still retained his side-swept bangs. His clothes were much dirtier considering the living conditions of the neighborhood he grew up in. Akira is a confident and calm student in Tōtsuki. Due to his sharp sense of smell which rivals Erina's God's Tongue, Akira proudly displays his ability and is not afraid to say that he is the best chef in the school. Like many of his classmates, Akira firmly believes that he will stand on top of Tōtsuki thanks to his abilities and is one of the few people who will stand up to Erina, declaring that he will claim her spot. Akira tends to stay in a neutral mood, rarely showing any sort of shock when confronted by any opposing force, even the likes of Subaru Mimasaka and Ryō Kurokiba. It is stated by Fuyumi Mizuhara that he only thinks about winning, never considering the possibility of losing. He is extremely diligent, always covering up for any sort of mistakes that Jun Shiomi forgets to do around the seminar room.

Much of Akira's drive comes from Jun, who found him in the streets of an unknown country. She brought him to Tōtsuki to expand his horizons. Since then, Akira has been thankful and has served as her assistant. He has stated that Jun is the reason why he continues to cook. As such, he even denied a lucrative job at the Haubi Food Company solely because his only purpose is to help Jun and refuses to stand at the top of Tōtsuki without her help. However, he is not above scolding her for being neglectful and even lectures her when she is irresponsible despite the fact that she is an adult while he is still only a student. His feeling of debt to all she has done led him to join Central despite his initial rejection of its ideals. Since being blackmailed into becoming a member of Central it seems Akira has become far more arrogant, egotistical, and seemingly callous, but still regretfully betraying his friends and even Jun. However, his bond with Jun still remains his strongest connection. Akira was orphaned at a very young age and has no memory of his parents. He lived many years in the slums of an unnamed country, often scavenging through trash for food only to be subsequently beat up by adults. During one of his outings, he headed to a local marketplace and saw a young girl attempting to buy spice from a merchant.

However, before she could buy them, he warned her that he could tell from his acute sense of smell that she was about to buy a weak blend. Although it greatly upset the merchant, Akira escaped with the girl and told her that a little girl should not be in such a shady marketplace alone. To his surprise, she introduced herself as Jun Shiomi, an adult lecturer at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. Impressed by his smelling abilities and learning that Akira was an orphan, Jun immediately adopted him, taking legal custody of him. Aromatic Cooking - Akira has mastered the art of aroma cooking which is heavily based on the smell that his dishes give off to perk up the taster. Akira firmly believes that this art helps to further engross eaters into his food, concentrating on their olfactory senses to truly immerse the eater into his world of cooking. While the dishes smell wonderful, they do not lack in taste, bringing together a harmonious blend of smell and taste. Akira's cooking has further improved since joining Central and becoming the 9th Seat of the Elite Ten Council. Acute sense of smell - Akira's most defining feature is his acute sense of smell, which is somewhat similar to Erina's God's Tongue. He is able to cook his dishes "blindly" as he can detect any minute changes in his dish just by the changing aroma coming from the pot, thus he can cook without having to look into his pot. His sense of smell is so sharp, that he can pick out and name all spices on a plate from a distance blindfolded and can name their position on the plate in relation to each other. His sense of smell has been shown on multiple occasions, one such, where Akira was able to pick the best Pacific Saury from the fish market without looking at all. Spice Mastery - Akira has a particular affinity with spices, displaying a wide variety and vast wealth of knowledge of their properties. He is also well aware of how certain preparations of spices during the cooking process can change the overall flavor of a dish, even if the spice preparation was the only change. He has easy access to rare spices including Holy Basil, which normally is hard to care for and is not grown locally in Japan, thanks to his job as Jun's assistant, which he has no problem maintaining on his own. He has shown to be able to use a lot of spices and create cohesion, and inversely, use just a single spice to make a powerful dish. Doner kebab - A doner kebab is a Turkish dish made by stacking meat then roasting the meat on a vertical spit. After the dish finishes cooking, the chef carves off any excess meat. The process melts the fat and spices throughout the meat. Akira used this device for his Tōtsuki Autumn Election Main Tournament Quarterfinal Match. Kozhi Varutha Curry - Akira's signature curry dish that uses water instead of coconut milk to cook his curry chicken. Referenced from Tamil Regions of India, Akira's version of the Tamil-Nadu dish would consist of some fresh spices inside the dish. Advanced Kozhi Varutha Curry - Akira's improved version of the Kozhi Varutha Curry and this time the curry is actually made with water to make the curry drinkable without tasting the tense spice upon it.

Erina Nakiri

Erina Nakiri is one of the heroines and was a primary antagonistic rival to Sōma Yukihira in Shokugeki no Soma. Wielding the best palate in the world, "God's Tongue" and a member of the illustrious Nakiri family, Erina stands above everyone in her class as the top prospect of the 92nd Tōtsuki Generation and is a former 10th seat of the Elite Ten Council. Erina has purple-pinkish eyes and long honey blonde hair that flows just above her lower back. Her side bangs partially cross her cheeks and go down all the way to her neck. She has a large bust and is considered by most of the students in Tōtsuki to be extremely beautiful. According to her fans and followers, this trait coincides with her status. She wears whatever Tōtsuki uniform corresponds with the current season. Whenever she cooks, she wears a standard white chef's uniform and occasionally wears a chef's hat. She has never been shown in casual clothing except for a cotton jacket and a bikini during her pool outing and a simple nightgown when sleeping. Her measurements are: bust 88cm, waist 56cm and hip 87cm (35-22-34). On the surface, Erina is a typical privileged, pampered rich girl, used to getting only the best in her life. With her status as a Nakiri family member on top of her rare ability "God's Tongue", Erina deems almost everything and everyone as plebeians in her "perfect world". Despite her young age, she is a prominent figure in the culinary world and is a cooking prodigy. Erina's cooking skills are on par with most professional chefs, if not better than most, something that started as a young girl.

Using her God's Tongue, she has earned a bit of infamy in the culinary industry, as any dish that she deems unsatisfactory shall spell the end of any chef's career. Her reputation is so well known, her name alone is able to scare off amateur chefs within seconds. At the same time though, Erina's influence attracts many in her class due to her beauty, prestige, and unrivaled skill. Due to her prodigious skills, she is confident, never showing any sort of fear and has completed every event in the school thus far with ease. Erina's father subjected Erina to a particularly brutal regimen as a child, causing her personality to become cold and ruthless towards any sort of dishes that use cheap ingredients or use "plebeian tactics." She is not above criticizing others the minute they make a mistake or treat her unjustly in her mind. This also makes her prone to making hasty judgments about simplistic dishes without ever considering them worthy of her time. Even if the said dishes are delicious, Erina's immediately denies them from her "perfect world." Much of this stems from her father's "teachings" in which any dish with poor taste is considered garbage. She has spiteful tendencies as any person who ruins her image and demeanor immediately becomes a target for her. Erina likes to flaunt her titles and status over her less privileged classmates, mostly towards her main rival and antagonist, Sōma Yukihira. Still, Erina is more than willing to listen to others' advice and opinions and is generally polite to people unless they annoy or insult her.

Despite her proud demeanor, she does have a soft side, which was more apparent in her childhood. In more recent times, this has only been shown whenever her idol, Jōichirō Yukihira, is on her mind. She lacks common teenage girl behaviors, such as romances and relationships. She considers a girl walking home together with a boy and even a couple holding hands as "shameless". She does not know how to handle free time as a "normal girl" would and, as Alice would say, she lacks common sense. For example, she has no clue where to buy shojo manga because Hisako always buys them for her and they are not found in her grandfather's study. Erina does have some traits of a normal girl, including her liking towards shōjo manga, playing card games, and othello. In her first days in Polar Star Dormitory, Erina experienced a bit of culture shock as simple everyday tasks such as doing her own laundry were new to her. Through her time at Polar Star Dormitory, she learned how to perform most basic home chores such as laundry, even memorizing the various laundry symbols that can be found on tags.  Though she is normally confident and often haughty, Erina has only showed strong fear when in the presence of her own father. This fear has caused her to be extremely submissive in his presence, unable to vocally stop any of his actions that impact her, no matter how much it upsets her. This includes claiming the table she had kept in reserve at her Moon Banquet Festival booth just for Jōichirō as well as firing Hisako from her position as her secretary. Though she had nearly ten years without her father's brainwashing and exposure to much more kind individuals, her father's grip on her heart was retained when he returned years later. However, it seems that this grip has lessened thanks to her time spent in Polar Star, enough so for her to willingly defy her father and fight to take down his regime with the help of her fellow 92nd Generation standouts. Erina has no particular cooking or cuisine specialty. Instead her cooking is based upon using high quality ingredients and incredible creativity with the feeling of regality. Erina's cooking and skill easily allowed her to acquire the 10th seat of the Elite Ten Council at the end of her third year of middle school, signifying that she is indeed the best chef of her class and one of the best chefs currently in Tōtsuki. Despite being no more than a mere high school girl, Erina's skill level is already on par with most professional chefs. The clearest demonstration of Erina's cooking prowess came during her Stagiaire assignment where a French cuisine head chef, who single-handedly built the reputation of the said restaurant almost to their first Micheline star, submitted and gave Erina full command of the kitchen in just a few short hours. God's Tongue - Erina's tongue is considered the best in the world, able to taste a dish to the highest degree. Thanks to this ability, Erina has been a culinary prodigy since she was no more than 4 years old.

Takumi Aldini

Takumi Aldini is a 92nd Tōtsuki Generation student and the twin brother of Isami Aldini. Hailing from Italy, Takumi is the self-proclaimed rival of Sōma Yukihira. Takumi has blue eyes and short blonde hair with a fringe that parts to both sides and one long bang in between the two. After the Stagiaire, Takumi's hair has been slightly shortened; making it somewhat messy and unkempt, though is still relatively the same. In the anime, his eyes were given a lighter and greener shade. As noted by many individuals, Takumi is very handsome, so much that he has a fan club dedicated to him. Often, any woman who sees him for the first time instantly notes his handsomeness. He wears a standard Tōtsuki School Uniform depending on the season. He also wears a customized chef's uniform that was made when he used to cook at his family's restaurant. The name of his family's restaurant, Trattoria Aldini, is stitched onto his left sleeve. His chef's uniform in his youth is exactly the same as it is now, but smaller. Takumi is also very fashionable during non-schooling hours, wearing a well coordinated, stylish attire instead of normal clothes. Takumi states that dressing up fashionably is a way of loving one's self.

Takumi is a hot-blooded student who holds a strong rivalry with Sōma Yukihira, though this rivalry is somewhat one-sided with Takumi pursuing this rivalry much more intensely than Sōma, though Sōma does acknowledge Takumi as a rival. Like Sōma, he hails from a family owned restaurant, which he holds with pride and will defend its name when a challenge presents itself. Takumi hates to lose and is rather bitter in defeat. He is also easily flustered and embarrassed when he makes a mistake or when someone glazes over his declarations. He also speaks Italian and has his own catchphrase, "buon appetito" or sometimes "grazie", which he says after someone eats his dishes. He has a particularly close bond with his younger twin brother Isami. Though Takumi is a superior chef compared to his brother, he is always there for his brother and helps him become a better chef so that they can run Trattoria Aldini together. However, Isami tends to laugh a lot when Takumi faults himself, causing Takumi to snap at him. Nevertheless, the two work together through most challenges. If anyone were to insult Isami because he is inferior to Takumi, Takumi takes it personally and will do his best to silence all critics no matter who they may be. Takumi can also hold intense grudges when he is wronged, best exemplified during his match against Etsuya Eizan where he spent much of his match quietly, but intensely observing his actions, making sure that he stayed one step ahead of him. For Takumi, the match was his revenge for Etsuya fixing his quarterfinal match against Subaru Mimasaka. Born to Japanese-Italian blood parents, Takumi and his twin brother, Isami Aldini, grew up in Florence, Italy with their uncle, the owner of Trattoria Aldini, and their father who was the head chef. Takumi started learning how to cook at the age of 5 from his father and eventually mastered Italian cuisine.

Takumi was notably more talented than Isami and was constantly requested by the Trattoria Aldini patrons for him to cook their meals. After Isami altered an order in the hopes of surpassing Takumi, Takumi later consoled Isami and told him that he needed him in order to be the great chef that he was. The two vowed to combine their strengths and help make Trattoria Aldini the best restaurant in Italy. When Takumi and Isami reached the middle school level, their uncle recommended them to attend Tōtsuki Culinary Academy, a world renowned cooking school famous for its high quality graduates despite the low graduation rate. Takumi and Isami took up the challenge and departed to Japan to become the top students in the most prestigious cooking academy in the world. Before they departed, their father gave both of them a bottle of Aldini Olive Oil to be a memento and protective charm as they headed to Japan. Takumi and Isami successfully enrolled in the academy and had made it through the middle school section. Italian Cuisine - Hailing from Italy and raised in his uncle's restaurant, Trattoria Aldini, Takumi has mastered Italian cuisine. Between the Aldini twins, Takumi is a far superior chef as many patrons of Trattoria Aldini would specifically request for Takumi to cook their meals. Overall, Takumi is the best first year Italian chef currently enrolled in Tōtsuki. Mezzaluna Mastery - One of Takumi's most notable skills is his mastery over a mezzaluna, a crescent shaped and double-handle knife which requires an extreme amount of skill, precision and control to operate. Takumi, from his first appearance, has shown incredible finesse and speed as he has been shown reducing some ingredients into a paste during the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp. During the 43rd Autumn Election preliminaries, Takumi used the knife to uniformly cut dough into fettuccine in a matter of seconds, showing just how skilled he is with the knife. Cuisine Fusion - Another trait of Takumi's cooking is the fusion of techniques of other cuisine types. Though his dishes remain heavily rooted in Italian Cuisine, he has used Japanese and British cuisine techniques and ideas to give his Italian dishes a fresh, new twist.

Rindō Kobayashi

Rindō Kobayashi is a 90th Generation student of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy and the current 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council. Rindō is the tallest female Elite Ten Council member. She has long flowing scarlet hair that reaches down to her shoulder blades while her bangs cover her left eye. She has a lot of cat-like features having yellow eyes with vertically slitted pupils and pronounced, cat-like teeth. She wears a standard Tōtsuki uniform but not the standard tie. She also wears a beige sweater under her uniform coat. The cuffs of the sweater pokes out of her uniform jacket and covers the palms of her hands. While cooking she wears her blue chef outfit with an apron and her hair tied in a ponytail. Rindō is a cheerful girl preferring to enjoy things from the background during events and doing things at her own pace, even at the detriment of her fellow Elite Ten seated members. She is playful, and enjoys teasing Terunori Kuga after losing in sales to Sōma Yukihira's stand during the Moon Banquet Festival. She is extremely whimsical and carefree, choosing not to participate in the Festival despite the fact that all of the Elite Ten members each normally run a booth of their own simply because she would rather sample food from all 120 festival stands, a feat that she managed to accomplish in the five days of the festival. She dislikes doing paperwork, complaining about having to do so much extra work because of Terunori and Etsuya's absence. However, she didn't think much of leaving Eishi to do both his and her own work load while she went to watch Sōma and Etsuya's Shokugeki, showing a lack of responsibility.

She also sided with Azami Nakiri's proposal to become the new director of Tōtsuki simply on a whim and for no other reason. She shown no particular agreement with Azami's doctrine other than a belief that it brings new excitement to the academy and has mostly remained neutral in terms of the rebelling 92nd Tōtsuki Generation students who are openly opposing the new curriculum. She has shown a particular interest in Sōma as a result, offering to take him to experience the booth run by Eishi Tsukasa, the current 1st seat in Tōtsuki. Similarly to Satoshi Isshiki, her jovial demeanor hides incredible cooking skills given that she is the 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council and the current best female student attending Tōtsuki as of the present. Five years prior to the plotline, Rindō was a first year student in the middle school section of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. In that year, she encountered another first year, Eishi Tsukasa, whom she found interesting and forced him to become her friend after learning of his reputation for driving teachers mad by constantly having them check his dishes. Rindō enrolled into the high school section of Tōtsuki Academy as part of the 90th Generation. As a third year student, Rindō completed the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp, Stagiaire, and Promotion Exam events in her first year and all subsequent events afterwards. By her second year, Rindō was a member of the Elite Ten Council and would later attain the 2nd seat by her third year. Before her debut, she alongside other members of the Elite Ten gathered and selected the participants of the 43rd Annual Tōtsuki Autumn Election. Exotic Ingredients - Rindō is a specialist at handling exotic ingredients. Though she had great knowledge of the unusual ingredients Japan has to offer, she used her power as an Elite Ten Council to travel the globe from the arctic to the amazon in her quest to find and use the most unusual ingredients for her cooking. One such ingredient was used in her very first duel shown in the series where she used a live alligator for the foundation for her dish. Knife Specialist - Rindō has shown extreme dexterity and precision using a wide plethora of knives within a short period of time. In mere moments, she completely skinned and bled out her alligator, leaving most of the rebelling students stunned. Even Eishi acknowledged her skill with knives.

As a member of the Elite Ten, Rindō and the other Elite Ten Members attended the Autumn Leaf Viewing ceremony so the first year students who participated in the 43rd Annual Autumn Election Main Tournament could formally meet them. Throughout the event, Rindō did not say anything, opting to eat snacks and smile as she watched the event unfold. During the Moon Banquet Festival, unlike the other Elite Ten Members, Rindō opted to not run a stand of her own and spent most of it wandering around the festival trying out different foods with the ultimate goal of trying food from every single stall at the festival. On the fourth night, Rindō found out that Sōma Yukihira's booth had outsold Terunori Kuga's that day. Curious, Rindō decided to pay their booths a visit. Rindō teased Terunori for losing to his kouhai. Though Terunori acknowledged that he had lost the challenge to Sōma, Sōma himself did not feel that he had won yet as he had not exceeded him in sales for the entire week, much to Rindō and Terunori's surprise. Rindō praised Sōma for his hard work, but informed him that he was unlikely to achieve his goal given the time left for the festival to conclude. Rindō decided to sit at Terunori's booth, reminiscing with him about his own Shokugeki declaration at the 91st Generation's Autumn Leaf Viewing. Afterwards, Rindō invited Sōma and Megumi to go to Eishi Tsukasa's booth in the Upper Area after he closed his booth so he could try the food that the current 1st seat made. At Eishi's booth, Rindo, Sōma, and Megumi were treated to Eishi's multi-course set. During their meal, Eishi came out to make sure that their environment was okay, but Rindō had to remind him that his excessive worrying was souring their meal a little. Nevertheless, Rindō was impressed by Eishi's meal, but wished that he put a little more "of himself" in the meal. Eishi brushed her off, saying that eliminating his presence in his dishes is his style, hence why his dishes are so good.  Ecology - Rindō has extensive knowledge of thousands of animals and plants from around the world. She has made countless personal trips around the world and goes into the field herself to search for her potential ingredients. Because of her own personal expeditions into the wilderness, she collects her own exotic ingredients.

Megumi Tadokoro

Megumi Tadokoro is a 92nd Tōtsuki Generation student, a Polar Star Dormitory resident, and one of the heroines in Shokugeki no Soma. Megumi has long dark blue hair with two braided pigtails and wears a flower hairpin on the right side of her hair. She has yellow colored eyes and a petite body figure. She wears a standard Tōtsuki uniform depending on the season. Her chef's uniform is a plain white chef's uniform, though she has also worn a long sleeved version from her first assignment until the end of the Friendship and Rapport Training Camp. During the Autumn Election, Megumi wore a short sleeved version. Most of her casual wear are simple blouses. Her measurements are: bust 79cm, waist 55cm and hip 81cm (31-22-32).Megumi is a clumsy, timid, thoughtful, kind, and honest girl who always speaks in a polite tone. She is a nurturing sort of person, always looking out for others and willing to assist them in any way that she can. According to Gin Dōjima, Megumi's greatest gift is her warm hospitality as she cooks for the eater to make them feel good. Her kindness, through her cooking, moved even the initially cold Kojirō Shinomiya into nostalgic childhood-fueled tears. Her main aspiration in life is to return to, and eventually run, her mother's ryokan. Because she highly idolized her mother and the work setting she was in, this eventually created her "hospitality" mentality. Megumi's mother taught her to think of someone special to her whenever she cooks and Megumi firmly believes that by doing so, she can create delicious dishes.

Although Megumi is a capable chef, she does not fare well under pressure because she has stage fright. Because she is intimidated very easily, she makes simple mistakes when she cooks, causing many of her classmates to see her as a weak student. She is quick to panic when something goes awry and tends to over think situations when under pressure or stress, such as repeatedly packing and unpacking a suitcase to make sure she packed something, even though she did not need to pack a suitcase in the first place. She was also rather cautious, preferring to choose her words and actions carefully to avoid unwanted consequences and attention. She has a habit of tracing the kanji for "person" on her hand then motioning, as if to eat it, whenever she is stressed. When feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, she often reverts back to speaking in a Hokkaido accent. Initially, she heavily relied on Sōma's creativity to pull them both through tough assignments both in the academy and at the Training Camp. After her first Shokugeki, Megumi's confidence grew tenfold. Although she still retains her tendencies to panic and overreact, she has more confidence and thus, her cooking skills have been put on full display in front of her previously skeptical classmates who were used to her failures. Unbeknownst to her, she managed to even impress Senzaemon Nakiri who was the only person to truly understand the true untapped potential that Megumi possesses after eating her ramen. Overall, Megumi still feels that she has more room to grow and finally knows what its like to have fun while cooking, eager to face new challenges in the future. Even before Sōma showed up, Megumi had a serious side, but this generally only appeared whenever she played ping pong. She displays an unusual level of seriousness and concentration whenever she is in her "Hopping Hare" mode, though any sort of surprising news can easily snap her out of this persona. Even when not playing ping pong, her "Hopping Hare" state has appeared on occasion, though usually for brief moments.After the training and encouragement from Kojirō, she got this new persona called "Sports Shoujo Manga Mode".

Megumi grew up in a small port town in the Tōhoku region. In her childhood, Megumi idolized her mother and worked in the kitchen with her, hoping to be as skilled as her. Her mother was the owner and head chef of the Shōkeien Ryokan. Unfortunately, many of the staff grew old and were unable to prepare the inn's signature goosefish dish. To save the inn from falling apart, Megumi took it upon herself to learn the skill from the local fishermen. Though she had a bit of difficulty in the beginning, Megumi eventually learned the skill, allowing the inn to cook their signature dish again. Her mother was impressed of her skill at her age and recommended that she attend Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. Though Megumi wanted to stay and continue to help the inn, her mother persuaded her to go and improve her skills even further. As she prepared to depart from her hometown, Megumi was sent off from the train station by her mother, the ryokan staff, and the fishermen she worked with over the years. One of the people there gave Megumi an Omamori, a Japanese good luck charm, as a memento from her to take to Tōtsuki. Megumi held this charm whenever she is stressed or needs an extra boost of confidence. With her family and friends' high expectations and support, Megumi bid farewell to them as she departed to begin a new chapter of her life. Hospitality - Megumi has no particular style of cooking, but according to Gin, her cooking is founded in hospitality, which may originate from her background helping in her mother's Ryōkan. Megumi always cooks thinking of the eater in mind, looking for ways to make them feel better or to ease their stress. While most of her classmates rely on powerful impressions that overwhelm the eater's senses, Megumi's dishes give a soothing effect, calming and easing the consumer's mind. Megumi also believes that if you cook with someone in mind, the end product will be more delicious. Vegetables - Megumi's strongest ingredient affinity are vegetables due to the notoriety of her Tōhoku hometown's vegetables from all year round mainly to show others the beauty of her hometown. Seafood - Her hometown was also near a port and through her time spent at a fishery, she also developed a strong affinity for using various seafood. Her skill was notable enough to impress Ryō, the seafood specialist of her generation.