The food gives no special effects, the protagonist won't randomly be allowed to cook for kings. This story is, in a word, "boring". It's a fairly realistic tale of how a man, educated in the culinary arts, joins a tribe of barbarians without any real food culture and tries to teach them the joy of truly good food. But the protagonist has no special powers, he's not "one of a kind". This really is just a story about a chef that just happens to move to an underdeveloped place. We have strong warriors and smart strategists. But the protagonist, he really is just a chef.
Story: Every civilization has some types of food that they refuse to eat, not due to religious beliefs, but simply because it's "weird and gross". In my country, we don't eat horse, eel, or rabbit, and the only reason is "we don't want to". The point is, this story is about trying to take one of those types of animals, and making people like eating it. It's a slow story with huge amount of world building. And when I say slow, I mean that the first full arc lasts 14 volumes. And yet I love it.
It's a surprisingly realistic story when it comes to the parts that characters have to play out in the story. The protagonist cooks food, and that's really all he's good for. Fighting bad guys, talking to nobels, figuring out the best path for the people to take, that's all done by other characters. Our protagonist simply feeds the important people and pray that everyone thinks it's delicious.
Characters: This author, he can describe characters in such a way that it feels like he's looking at a photo of someone, and tries to describe them as detailed as possible. Not only that, we have a huuuge cast here. And every personality is different, making it easy to connect with this story. Fat old people, sexy young women, strong well trained men, and cute 30 year old mothers. To put it simply, we have characters that seems real. Absolutely amazing. For example, my favorite character is a dark skinned merchant named Shumiral, he doesn't talk much, and he comes from a land where you are not allowed to show emotion, and yet I know he is surprisingly protective of his dear friends.
Art: The women can have minimal clothing, like typical "sexy barbarian girls". But the art somehow manages to make it look more beautiful and cool, rather than sexy. As someone who doesn't like too much ecchi, I really enjoy this art style. The darker skin + strong women, I like those type of girls. But we get illustrations for every type of character, beautiful girls, yes, but also of grown men, cute animals etc.
Overall. It's all about the writing style, and it's perfect. I enjoy the story, not because of the food plot. Not because it's isekai. I like this story only because it's written in a way that creates emotional connections to the characters and the world as a whole.
Of course I realize that people will think this story is boring. The descriptions are long. This author loves details. It almost feels exaggerated, but if you want a detailed world. A good mental image of what's happening, then you should give this story a try. You don't have to enjoy "gourmet stories", because I have no interest in food and yet I like this story anyway.
PS: This story is slow moving. 10 volumes cover about 70days. That's one week per book. And the "main antagonist" is always doing stupid stuff, but nothing ever happens. After all, this is a tale of a simple chef. Our protagonist is simply cooking his food, hoping for the best.
