Apron Of Love

Blog covering both the new and old episodes of the Asahi Television show 'Ai no Apron' or 'Apron of Love'

Saturday, March 02, 2002

Ogura Yuuko - Queen of Choco!


Air Date: 03/02/2002

Contestants: Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Kanbe Miyuki (神戸みゆき), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり)

Guest Judges: Kurosawa Toshio (黒沢年雄)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Pasta (Italy) / Macaroni Gratin












Recap: This episode featured the first appearance of Ogura Yuuko, who although would not become a regular like Nori-chan, still managed to make her mark each time she was invited. She is infamous for usually trying to work a certain ingredient into every dish, and her first time was no exception.

After the introduction where all the girls seemed a bit thrown off by the theme ingredient, Cooking Time began and Yuuko wasted no time in whipping out her secret weapon. Watching her prepare the sauce for the macaroni gratin, Emi had a hard time figuring out what she was melting in the pot. Hattori thought it was cheese, but no... it was white chocolate. Meanwhile, Kanbe was carving up a squash for her dish and Nori was in general confused. Yuuko then discovered one of the key problems the contestants faced. None of the ingredients were labeled (and before you jump to that conclusion, she definitely knew it was chocolate and not cheese). So she asked Kurosawa which one of four containers of white powder to pick, and he suggested tasting them. She had good luck with Container Number 4, but then bad luck with Container Number 2 and had to wash out her mouth.

Kanbe made it known that she was shooting for the Special Epu ranking, while Nori was busy squeezing lemons into her gratin sauce. The judges encouraged Yuuko to try her sauce, and were shocked when she gave it the 'Delicious' OK sign. She then proceeded to pour that over the pasta and even added some chunks of banana to it. Kanbe went in a different direction entirely, using milk, sour cream, heavy cream, cheese, squash, onions and asparagus. Not to be outdone, Nori also used similar ingredients, but added lemons, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Kanbe topped off her dish with raw egg, then proceeded to make a desert dish with white chocolate and bananas mixed with pasta (I think she was peeking at Yuuko). Nori decided to make a drink to go with her dish, combining things like brandy, milk, bananas, pineapple, and other things to create it. You had to feel a bit sorry for Nori-chan, as she was being 'out-cuted' by the other two. She got very chirpy in the final stages of cooking, pointing out every little thing she was doing, down to her smile having dimples.

Kanbe was up first, hoping very hard to make the Special Epu ranking. She was so excited, she almost took out a cameraman. However, her gratin wasn't that great. She also kept insisting that people try the squash which was the worst part. The pasta was delicious, but the rest was only passable. Her dessert wasn't much better, and Nori-chan definitely thought she was going to have an edge over Kanbe with her dish.

Kurosawa enjoyed looking at her dish, it looked impressive. But then he had to taste it, and it was really sour. Probably because of all that lemon juice which curdled the milk and sour cream. Nori encouraged him to try her drink, but they instead decided to have her taste it first. Of course, she was the only one who found it delicious. A Kurosawa put it, it was sour, salty, bitter, and crunchy. Everyone else had a hard time eating her gratin. When it was Emi's turn, the wrinkle meter kicked in (back then, they would relate it to things in the natural world. This time her face looked like a fox). Joushima decided she needed some of Nori's drink to wash the sour taste out of her mouth, which brought on another face that looked like a mandrill.

Finally, it was time to Yuuko. Everyone knew what was coming, because there was no secret that she had used chocolate in her dish. It tasted like pancakes and it wasn't really a question if it tasted good or not, it just tasted odd. But the pasta wasn't fully cooked and I believe they were equating it to chewing gum. The amusing part that everyone had a hard time eating it, even Joushima had to go for the bucket (which had to be explained to Yuuko by Nori and Kanbe). But I think that he was acting it up, because Hattori said that as a dessert it wasn't terrible. Then they had Emi taste it and she really liked it, which confused everyone. Yuuko tried it herself and agreed, so I think women just has a taste for sweet things.

Judgement Time was not kind to Kanbe, as she dropped from 7th in the ranking all the way down to 52nd. Nori-chan was already just outside the studio under a garbage can, this time she got tossed in but didn't lose any places. Yuuko found herself just off the ranking board in 57th, not bad for her first time on the show.

Ranking ( out of 81 ):
Kanbe Miyuki: 7 -> 52
Ogura Yuuko: 57 (New Entry)
Horikoshi Nori: 77 (no change)