Ep. 1: Ohara kündigt das Ultimate-Menu-Projekt an und stellt das Personal mit einer Wasser- und Tofu-Herausforderung auf die Probe.

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To commemorate its 100th anniversary of the newspaper Touzai Shimbun, President Ohara announces a plan to publish the "Ultimate Menu". The assignment will be allocated to the reporters with the best taste in food and as a test, the assembled staff must distinguish the difference between three samples of water and tofu. Yamaoka is badly hung over and arrives late, so instead of carefully sampling, he drinks all the water and eats the tofu. When the results are examined, only Yūko Kurita, who has just completed her reporter training, and Yamaoka have correctly identified the samples, which means that they will be to ones to implement the project. Ohara gathers Japan's most famous gourmands to devise the dishes that will go into the “Ultimate Menu”, but Yamaoka insults their pretentious international choices such as foie gras. He spends the following week with fishermen who catch a Monkfish. Yamaoka skillfully removes the liver, washes it in sake and steams it, creating ankimo as the ship returns to port. At the tasting, Ohara declares that the fresh ankimo tastes better than the canned foie gras and dismisses the gourmands. (Source: Wikipedia)