The following morning was Soma and Megumi's turn, as the Polar Star gang once again made their way together to the competition arena, parting ways with Soma and Megumi as the two of them heading to the contestants' entrance. Once inside, the rest of the Polar Star group staked out a section of the stands where they would be able to see all the action and all sit together, making sure to save seats for Ikumi and the Aldini brothers, as well. Soon, the arena began to fill as the entire crowd began to anticipate that day's matches.
The first match of the day featured Soma, who was introduced first and met by a smattering of boos and jeers from most of the audience, who were still miffed both at his diner background and the speech he made at the opening ceremonies, and were rooting for his to lose. Only the Polar Star section, it seemed, was rooting for his success. Next, Soma's opponent was introduced, and the crowd cheered as Alice Nakiri entered the main arena, looking as confident as ever. As the two stood face to face in the middle of the main stage, the same judges from the day before were brought out and placed at the judges' table, with Senzaemon taking the center seat as the head judge. With Urara once again serving as the emcee, the theme for the match was announced as Bento. The gong then sounded, and the cooking began.
As Soma and Alice were going about with their initial dish preparations, Daniel could hear some of the commentary going on in the immediate vicinity outside of the Polar Star group. He heard some of the usual stuff he expected by now, especially given how Alice was the headmaster's granddaughter and a genius when it came to molecular gastronomy. However, a couple of comments really rubbed him the wrong way. He heard a couple of people bind him comment disparagingly against Soma with quips such as, "That diner loser is finally going to get the beating he deserves," and "It'll be so much fun to see that transfer student lose," and "Yeah, he needs to learn his place."
It got to be so that Daniel turned to them and stated, "You guys have no idea what you're talking about. He's got more skills than you'll ever realize." One of them then responded, "Oh, really!? You think you know better than us!?" Daniel then got an idea and replied, "Yeah, I do. Do you care to put your money where your mouths are?" As the group of disparagers looked at Daniel quizzically, he continued, "I'll bet any one of you 1000 yen that Soma wins this match – any takers!?" Daniel ended up getting 15 people to take him up on his bet as they all sat down and continued to watch. His Polar Star friends, though, asked Daniel what he was thinking. "I'm not worried," he said. "I know Soma – he'll win this." He then grinned and said, "Just think of the party we can throw with that money after this is all over."
As the cooking continued, the crowd was enthralled by the techniques and equipment that were being utilized by Alice. Soma, meanwhile, was using seemingly ordinary techniques in his cooking and was not getting much attention. Before people knew it, Alice had completed her dish and was ready to serve the judges. She served her bento in a domed container that had liquid nitrogen mist in it to keep the contents cool and fresh. When she opened the dome, it was revealed to be a Tamari Sushi Bento, with various types of sushi lined up in neat little rows. Alice then instructed the judges to eat them in a specific order, starting with the top-left corner.
The top row was a seafood course of sushi, and included abalone, sea urchin roe, salmon roe, and amberjack – a couple of which included a kombu seaweed foam. The middle row was made up of vegetable sushi, with vegetables cut into paper-thin pieces and tomato jus infused into the rice (having been extracted from a centrifuge) for a boost of umami. The last row had three pieces of cured beef filet sushi with wasabi, and the last piece was a sushi version of a sea bream chazuke, with the sea bream on top of the mound of rice and an orb of hardened dashi stock included.
The judges were both intrigued and impressed with the presentation and the taste of the sushi, with each piece building on and complimenting the flavors of the last. As expected, Senzaemon bore his chest, indicating that he found Alice's offering to be extremely delicious. The judges even described the dish as like a perfectly organized jewel box filled with precious gems. As the judges were commenting, Daniel could feel the grins of those he had taken bets from bearing down upon him. Even his Polar Star friends were worried that Soma wouldn't be able to match the skill Alice had just shown.
Daniel, however, wasn't worried about Soma. In fact, in his mind, Alice had just created a massive opening – one that Soma was unlikely to miss. "The people here don't realize it, but Alice just made a huge mistake," Daniel commented in a low voice that only his friends could hear. "What makes you say that?" Ikumi asked. Daniel smiled and said, "Her dish may have been extraordinarily delicious, but she didn't really follow the theme of the challenge." As the Polar Star group looked at him in confusion, he added, "Think about it – was what she made really a bento? She could have made essentially the same thing if the theme had been something else, like sushi or kaiseki."
As the Polar Star gang gave this some thought, Soma indicated that he was ready to present his dish, looking as confident as ever. When Soma began his presentation, he announced his offering as a seaweed bento, which immediately caused consternation and confusion amongst most of the crowd, as a seaweed bento was generally considered to be very basic and not what would generally be considered appropriate for a competition like this. Daniel wasn't concerned, as he said, "Soma may be simple-minded at times, but he knows what he needs to do. There's definitely more here than meets the eye." Sure enough, Soma followed up on his original pronouncement by clarifying that it was actually an "Evolved Yukihira-Style Seaweed Bento."
Indeed, Soma's bento was very different from the one Alice presented – starting with the container he used to serve it. Instead of the domed tray encapsulating liquid nitrogen mist like Alice, Soma used a multilayered metal container in order to keep the dishes within nice and hot. The first layer contained several dishes, including an Isobe Age fried fish cake – using a beer batter for the fry, a fried cod that had been cooked in a maguro tuna fish flake dashi before being fried (making the fish very tender and leaving the outer coating nice and crispy), and fried burdock root with a balsamic mayo. The judges were incredulous at how crispy the items were, as well as how flavorful and hot they turned out.
The next layer was the miso soup portion – though Soma made this one using bacon and green onions, as well as the usual ingredients for a miso soup. These extra ingredients gave the soup an extra umami flavor that the judges couldn't get enough of. In fact, the judges seemed to like the bento so much that they appeared to be casually enjoying each other's company during that time – like they were all old friends.
While Alice thought the concept of Soma's dish using a metal container to keep the food hot was kinda neat, she still insisted that her dish was much more sophisticated and better thought out, with her having used the latest molecular gastronomy techniques to make it. The judges then opened up the third layer of the bento to find that instead of a regular sheet of nori over rice, there were a bunch of green-colored granules covering the layer of rice. As they sampled some of the granules with the rice, they found that they were concentrated beads of nori, each providing an intense burst of flavor. In addition, they found a layer of cooked maguro tuna flakes in the middle of the rice layer to provide even more umami.
Alice seemed particularly surprised at the nori portion of Soma's bento, as she asked him how he came up with that. Soma answered simply, "I got it from the candy I got from teaching a kids' cooking class with Megumi and Daniel the other day." He then handed Alice a bag of said candy to show her what he meant. Back in the stands, Daniel began to reminisce a bit at Soma mentioning the class Isshiki had asked them to oversee. He remembered how great it felt to see the kids enjoy themselves so much. "Oh, yeah," he commented. "That was a good day." Back on the stage, Alice looked at the listed ingredients of the candy and found that it contained calcium chloride and sodium alginate, which allows you to turn certain liquids into solid spheres, like Soma did with the nori.
Soma then quickly stopped the judges before they finished the rice layer, asking them to save some and pour a sauce he had placed in a hidden compartment over the rice. When they opened the hidden compartment, they found a kudzu sauce, which contained an extra concentration of flavor from tuna maguro flakes as a part of it. When they poured it over the rice mixture, the umami bomb that went off inside their mouths was incredible – almost too much for them to comprehend.
As Alice once again began to lecture that Soma was relying too much on emotions to create his dish, Senzaemon suddenly interrupted her to contradict her. When she turned, she suddenly noticed that his shirt was now missing, indicating that he found Soma's dish to also be incredibly delicious. Senzaemon then pointed out that Soma's dish took an entirely new approach to bento culture and was an evolution of said culture. By contrast, he said that while Alice's dish was very delicious, she could have served the same thing if it had been a sushi battle, and asked her if her dish was truly a bento. As the crowd gasped at Senzaemon's words, stunned at what he had said, Daniel just grinned as he commented to his equally surprised friends, "Called it."
Soma then presented a portion of his bento to Alice for her to taste herself, saying that he agreed that it had to taste good, but that there should be something more. As Alice tasted Soma's dish, she was overwhelmed by its deliciousness as she began scarfing it down right there. Moments later, Senzaemon announced that by unanimous decision, Soma had won the match. At this, Soma removed his headband with his usual, "You're welcome!" to the judges, while Alice, devastated that she had lost, began to sob as she was flat on her back on the floor of the stage.
As the Polar Star section was cheering on Soma's victory, Daniel watched as Soma offered his arm to Alice to help her off the floor, and said something to her before she got visibly upset and huffed off the stage in a tantrum. Daniel then turned around as the people in the surrounding sections were still stunned in disbelief that Soma had beaten the master of molecular gastronomy and granddaughter of the demon of food. He then grinned and held out his hand as he shouted to them, "Alright you jerkwads, everyone who made a bet with me better fork it over now." Grudgingly, each of the fifteen handed over a 1000 yen note. After counting it out to make sure he had it all, he placed the wad of bills securely in his front pants pocket.
As they waited for the next match to begin, Yuki brought out a few items she had made specifically for Megumi's match. She made a pink kimono for herself with a cheer for Megumi printed on it, and gave out pink fans with Megumi's face on it along with a cheer printed, which everyone in the section took. Before long, Soma found their section and joined them in rooting Megumi on for her match, even taking a fan from Yuki as he sat right in front of Daniel.
Soon, it was time for the second match to begin, as the first contestant to be introduced by Urara was Megumi's opponent, Ryo Kurokiba, who was the favorite to win this matchup. Finally, Megumi was introduced as she entered the arena, being touted as a dark horse, having been a surprise to take the fourth slot out of Block B during the preliminary round. As the two contestants stood center stage, the theme for this matchup was announced as Ramen. Moments later, the gong sounded and the cooking for the final quarterfinal matchup began.