Using cooking as a way of competition, at a school so strict you could be expelled for using scented shampoo, makes the concept of this show interesting in itself. It does get slow sometimes, especially at the end, where I found myself skipping forward to "get to the point" during the loooong explanations of what a dish is and what the characters used to make it, but once you get through those, it's really fast-paced and exciting. The downside of it being fast-paced really hurts the many minor characters, though.
The art is really good, there is nothing I can complain about. The characters look amazing, the dishes look amazing, the buildings, rooms and other backgrounds also bring out the depth of situations well.
The opening and ending themes are great, really fitting and, in my opinion, really good songs. The background music... I didn't take much notice of it, so it wasn't distracting, at least.
The characters are overall pretty good, all of them have distinct personalities and their own roles in the main character's development. The anime does fail to bring out the background stories of the minor characters, though, probably because of the limitations of screen-time.
It is definitely an anime worth watching, though I don't feel like it does the story justice. Getting so far in the story in just 24 episodes was never supposed to happen, which can be seen by how the anime ENDS right before the final of the tournament. It literally has the whole tournament, except for the finals. Why?
Overall I would say it's good, I really liked it, seeing the various dishes is really interesting. I'll also just casually throw in here that you can find a lot of the recipes in the manga. So should you watch it? Yes. Is it going to be an amazing, life-changing experience? No. Does it have potential as an anime in the future? Definitely. Now go watch this.
