Food Wars! The Advent of Sunset Shimmer!

by ratedoni

Dish 06: The Bounty of Japan

Dish 06: The Bounty of Japan: Entrance to the Polar Star

Looking at the gawking teenagers around the table made Sunset even better about her introduction. If there was something that had been missing from her life after starting the road of the kitchen was those small moments when she was capable of leaving others completely awestruck or so utterly terrified that they could do nothing. For what she had been told of the school by a very supportive Principal Celestia, she would be able to do both of those things so many times that it would look like routine –and all without breaking the law which was a plus.

Leaving everyone behind, Sunset walked into the very modern looking kitchen of the dorm. For a place that seemed out of a Victorian Drama from the BBC the kitchen was almost out of place completely but she understood exactly the reason for that. All the people living here not only had a passion for cooking, it was their whole lives so it was only logical that they needed a place where they could show that passion.

The redhead heard movement behind her as she put her grocery bags in the counter. Turning around, Sunset observed the different members of the dorm still gawking at her as if she was an apparition, which wasn’t that far from the truth considering her doppelganger somewhere in the school. Sunset had to contain her giggles just remembering the shocked face of Erina; thankfully she had a photo of that in her cellphone.

In another building not too far away from there, the blonde girl known as the God’s Palate sneezed just as the moment she was about to taste another horrible attempt to impress her . The liquid from the soup went flying from the spoon due to the sneeze impacting against the face of the Soup RS member making him cry in pain. Erina didn’t even glance at the boy currently rolling on the floor due to pain; she only wondered who was talking and making fun of her at the moment.

Sunset -meanwhile- watched the teenagers in detail, noticing their hairstyles and how striking in appearance they were in comparison with most members of the school she had met, which seemed so bland and uninteresting for some reason. Sunset decided that it was just like in Canterlot High where her five friends back home seemed also extremely weird in comparison with others. Maybe it was a curse on Sunset, to meet people as bizarre as her.

“So you think that you will be part of this dorm? You won’t be the first one to feel confident enough to say something like that neither the last. Now you have to back that attitude.” The older woman told Sunset returning the same king of smirk the redhead had at the moment. It was a challenge written in that expression and Sunset was eager to accept it.

Turning around to her ingredients she began to put everything in order before thinking deeply about what she could do. Meanwhile, the rest of the Polar Star inhabitants peered closer at Sunset and her bags.

“Can someone please tell me that I’m not dreaming?” the young girl with her hair in two buns exclaimed still surprised at the entrance of the redheaded girl. It had come as a the worst kind of surprise to see someone looking so much like Erina that it shook her to the core. At her side, the taller girl put a hand on her shoulder.

“You were not the only one, she also scared me.”

“To think that there is another woman that looks like Erina-sama is not something that I thought I would see.” One of the buffed guys said to his friend who was equally buffed. If both of them didn’t have different hair color someone would have thought that they were part of the same family.

“Not only that, but she seems to be eager to take Fumio-san’s test.” The boy with hair covering his eyes peered closer at Sunset’s cooking station as she began to wash different products for her acceptance test into Polar Star. At his side, the boy wearing glasses also put all his attention to what the redhead was currently doing trying to see what she was preparing. Meanwhile, none of them watched the short blue haired cute girl stay on the back completely terrified due to the presence of Sunset and the attitude she was showing.

From all of them, the man who seemed to have perpetual closed eyes continued smiling at what was going on. He loved the idea of more people coming to live to Polar Star, the idea of all those students sharing the passion of youth together, and just like Fumio, he was interested in the assorted number of vegetables that the girl was using.

So far he couldn’t see even the hint of meat in whatever the girl was preparing. He saw onions, leek, daikon and eggs but so far no meat. Nothing beyond a bag of commercial Katsuobushi that seemed to be used for dashi but Satoshi knew that with that amount of confidence she would not prepare a simple dish like miso. Fumio had been the den mother of the dorm for decades and she had seen some of the greatest cooks on the world grow up and be nurtured in front of her. She had tasted great cooking so the redhead wouldn’t gain access to Polar Dorm with simple dishes.

Satoshi, alongside the other members of the dorm paid close attention to the way Sunset worked around the kitchen, how she seemed to move with amazing flow around the skillet and pots. Soon a great array of aromas permeated the kitchen letting everyone remember that their breakfast had been interrupted, but by the looks of it there would be enough food for all of them. Was that Sunset’s plan from the beginning? Then she turned around with the same smirk on her face.

“Do you guys have a torch?” She asked to Fumio making Satoshi finally open his eyes knowing why she was asking for that tool. The kitchen torch was the tool used by chefs for the well-known technique of Gratin. Delicately burning the surface of the dish it created a brown crust that added another layer of flavor and texture to many recipes. Gratin de Pommes de Terre among other dishes asked for that kind of finish.

As Sunset got her hands on the small torch she began to gratin the top of the dish and the moment the flame made contact with the surface of her dish they all were assaulted by a storm. The smell of cheese and vegetables hit them all at the same time making their stomachs grumble in hunger. If Sunset wanted to create the best scenario for her dish then it was the perfect strategy to use such a strong attack by focusing their sense of smell.

“Well, dig in.” Sunset said placing four different things in front of Fumio who was sitting already in a clear display of how impatient she was to begin the tasting. Satoshi himself was also impressed by the array in display. He knew that it seemed rather ordinary what Fumio-san was about to taste but by the different aromas coming from them he knew that there were lots of secrets in it.

In front of Fumio there were a plate, a bowl, a deep dish and a cup of tea all waiting for her judging and decision. One was the target of Sunset’s usage of a torch due to its crispy cheese surface. Next to it a combination of shredded vegetables like a salad accompanied by a bowl of miso soup and tea.

First she tested how crunchy was the surface of the gratin dish from Sunset but she found out that besides the satisfying crunch of the melted cheese Fumio found out how elastic the inside were. Taking a bit of the dish Fumio was shocked at the amount of flavor that was present. It was the right amount of chewy with a great combination of flavors, all being surrounded by the cheese. The ‘Madonna’ of the Polar Star dorm then took a sip of the miso soup and the salad well beyond its simple look in terms of flavor and complexity.

When Fumio opened her eyes after enjoying the flavors presented to her she found herself far away from the Polar Star dorm. She was standing on a hill, the green plains extended far beyond her eyes as the majestic presence of Mount Fuji reigned over all. At the next blink Fumio came back to the kitchen being completely stunned by the amount of flavor and complexity in the dishes.

“How did you… how were you capable of adding so much flavor to a breakfast that looks so simple?” Fumio asked while the Totsuki students present stood with their mouths salivating at the display of food.

“Is rather simple, you can call it Mochi au Gratin,” she said stunning everyone in the kitchen.

“You are telling me you used mochi in the main dish?!” Sunset wasn’t sure who have been the one that had asked her that question, but she was ready to explain the dishes she had prepared.

“I used mochi after slightly browning it, and then I grated daikon, put nori alongside eggs and cooked them with soy sauce, ponzu and sake. Finally I topped them with cheese and I used the torch to melt it.” The girl with the two buns then pointed at the bowl.

“What about the soup? Isn’t that just miso?”

“Well, it started as miso. I made stock based upon tuna, the one you call dashi in Japan,” Sunset said explaining the miso soup that Fumio-san was currently enjoying in silence while the rest of the students continued watching the scene “then in a skillet I grilled leeks, onions and shiitake mushrooms with some soy sauce. I then put them all alongside the juices with some miso in the mix and boiled an egg and daikon slices to finalize it. I suppose it has more in common with Udon than with Miso at that point.” Sunset said surprising everyone present more and more.

“What about the vegetables?”

“Oh, that’s daikon, jicama and carrots sliced with a vinaigrette made with tomato, soy sauce, ginger and some of the leftover juice from the grilled leeks, onion and shiitake mushrooms. Finally, is daikon tea with a dash of peppermint as a final touch. What can I say? Is just one more to the grill.”

Satoshi was more than amazed at the dishes the young redhead had made, but even more so with the theme she had created. From the daikon, mochi, leeks and the sauces, everything used by Sunset had been Japanese ingredients, as if showing her respect to the country and its cuisine. It was no surprise when Fumio laughed aloud and congratulated Sunset into being accepted into Polar Star. They all celebrated even harder when Sunset showed them that she had made more of everything, enough to feed the other residents in the dorm much to their joy.

The seventh seat of the Student Council knew that this was just the beginning and that there would even more chefs with incredible abilities in the school. There was something telling Satoshi that a revolution in Totsuki would soon start and Sunset would be at the center of it all.

Author's Note:

And she is in.
I had to have a full stomach just to be able to write the chapter.

Comments

[Gpizano]

YES! I LOVE YOU RATEDONI FOR MAKING THIS IT'S OWN THING!!!

[Fetch]

one error spotted: 'mother den' should be 'den mother'

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

what is this a crossover of?

[ratedoni]

7499949
Shokugeki no Soma

[Sonic Rainboom Dash]

7499961 thanks

[Isumo1489]

Ok, it's official, you have me as a fan of this fic, and I'll be looking into the anime. Well done indeed!

[TheArquius]

Oh man, I love this anime!

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

I can't help but wonder if ponies (besides Sunset) will make an appearance in this story. This is a Sunset Shimmer that, from what I'm reading, didn't return to steal the Element of Magic. Her 'redemption' was from something completely different, and occurred far sooner.

[darkmagician41]

To be honest I only looked up this story because of another Shoukugeki no Soma story called "Shokugeki no Soma: Heaven's Recipe" by Fenikkusumaru 2.0 on fanfiction.net. This was the first and only one to pop up so I decided to read it.

You have caught my interest. Carry on good sir!