6 Of The Biggest Life Lessons To Be Learned From Food Wars

What would happen if you turned Dragon Ball Z into an anime about food?

You’d get Food Wars of course.

It’s the DBZ of food. Without the ridiculous Supernatural powers and inhuman characters.

Because of this, the life lessons you can learn from Food Wars are unique, but similar enough for fans of Shounen anime.

Here are 6 of the biggest takeaways…

6 Life Lessons From Food Wars:

1. The importance of self confidence

The main character: Soma Yukihira is bursting with self confidence. And that’s in spite of him being an amateur in the very beginning.

It’s the one reason he’s able to literally climb from the bottom and make his way up to the top of the food chain for expert chefs and cooks.

Megumi Tadokoro is another good example

She starts off shy, timid and so nervous you could say “BOO” and she’d jump out of her skin.

But as Food Wars progresses, it’s ultimately Megumi’s gained self confidence that carries her further than she ever could have without it.

Why self confidence matters

Without it:

Almost everything you do will be LESS effective without confidence.
You’ll never reach your fullest potential.
And most of all, without confidence you’ll either never take a chance or you won’t take enough chances to achieve your goals.

Food Wars shows that without confidence, you won’t even make it to the ring. Never mind stepping inside of it.

Everything starts with how you feel about yourself. And that determines what you end up with.

Relevant: 31+ Anime Quotes About Self Confidence

2. There’s no talent without hard work

There’s almost no character who’s more hard working than Soma Yukihira. Some characters will claim he’s got natural talent, that’s why he’s so good at cooking.

But in reality: Soma developed his skills during childhood.

His father also mentored him from young. Teaching him the ins and outs of what it means to be a great chef.

So Soma’s got years of experience, knowledge and expertise when it comes to whipping up a good meal in the kitchen, and memorising his customers who take a bite.

Talent is an excuse

Soma wouldn’t be half the chef without relentless hard work and staying up late at night while the competition is sleeping.

If there’s no hard work and years of dedication to your craft, business or career, then talent is overrated.

Food Wars does a good job of highlighting this fact.

3. Learn how to adapt to any situation

What do you do when things don’t turn out the way you wanted? Or the way you expected them to?

Soma Yukihira is forced into a situation like this during the “buffet” style type food episode.

It’s something he has no experience with. And it turns out to be even more difficult than he thought.

But he adapts to the situation.

Soma doesn’t succeed with flying colours this time around, but because he stayed calm and adapted to the situation, he was able to “pass” and move on to the next round in Food Wars.

The same is true in life

Learning how to improvise when you’re put on the spot, and adapting to any situation no matter how unfair it is… That’s a skill in itself.

And it’s one of the most necessary skills you can have.

Erina Nakiri, one of the characters in Food Wars is an expert chef for someone her age. Given the nickname: “god’s tongue” because she can literally “taste” the difference between a professional meal and one that’s lacking.

She was also born into a wealthy family, so she has a high social standing compared to other students like Soma Yukihira or Megumi Tadokoro.

But that doesn’t mean much

Soma, in Erina’s own words, is a “piddly low-life diner cook”.

Most of his life has been spent in a small diner with his father, Junichirou, where he developed all his skills.

And yet… his social status doesn’t stop him from rising above the ranks and breaking people’s preconceptions of what a “low-life” is capable of.

Because the reality is: that social status is just an ego stroke. And it doesn’t have as much influence on what you’re capable of as people like to believe.

5. Being underrated is a good thing

Soma Yukihira is doubted from the moment he steps into the academy compete.

After all, unlike a lot of the competition, Soma doesn’t have a prestigious family background in the food business.

But he doesn’t care either way. That’s just another obstacle that needs to be smashed into pieces, and overcome with hard work, effort and innovative ways of cooking.

That’s how Soma sees it, and that’s why he succeeds and stays focused, even when the pressure is high.

Being underrated has its perks

How can it be a good thing to be “underrated” you might ask.

And the answer is simple.

When you’re underrated, people doubt you. Which can be used as fuel.
Being “underrated” just means you’re doing something right.
Having a certain level of “hate” or “doubt” can be healthy to balance things out.
And once you shatter people’s doubts and exceed expectations, the level of respect you get goes through the roof.

And there’s no better proof of this than watching Soma’s journey in Food Wars.

Don’t you just love being underrated? I know I do. Because like Soma, I just don’t care either way. And it’s always fun to see the reaction on people’s faces as their “doubts” wash away.

6. You have to do the things others aren’t willing to do

If you’re in a room full of people who can’t cook to save their lives, and they’re not willing to change their approach, you can guarantee they’ll never succeed.

The reason is simple: you have to do things others aren’t willing to do.

Soma Yukihira stays up late, trying to figure out how to make his next meal successful.

He’s always experimenting, testing, and trying to figure out the best approach to cooking, all while everybody else is asleep, lazing around or wasting time.

His competition is lazy and unwilling to go the extra mile or 2.

But not Soma, that’s why he turns heads and makes tons of professional progress as a chef.