Chocolate Croquette - Best Episode Ever

Air Date: 09/14/2003

Contestants: Ogura Yuuko (小倉優子), Abiru Yuu (あびる優), Sawajiri Erika (沢尻エリカ)

Guest Judges: Yamasaki Hosei (山崎邦正)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Potatoes (Hokkaido) / Croquettes and Fish Fry

Recap: This has to be one of the more classic episodes of the show, notwithstanding Yuuko as one of the contestants. There was a nice little bit at the beginning where all the contestants responded quite cutely when asked their age, and then Joushima turned an asked Emi-chan and she responded in kind. (At this time, she was 26, just for you Emi fans out there). While potatoes were the theme ingredient, the Aji/Fish fry required live fish, which is where teh hilarity began.

All the girls had problems with the live fish, but managed to get them out of the their tanks and onto the cutting board. Yuuko then faced a major problem, she couldn't cut the head off the live fish. While talking to Erika about her mother's restaurant, Yuuko found a solution to the problem. She put the fish in a metal bowl and microwaved it. You could see the fish flopping around in the bowl as Yuuko nearly had a breakdown, and then the fish ended up cooked in the shape of the bowl.

The Yuuko fun didn't stop there, as she only half-cooked her potatoes for the croquettes. Sawajiri and Abiru were also having problems, but nothing could compare to what happened next. We all know that Yuuko loves her chocolate and has put it in some pretty strange things. Joushima knew what was coming, but Yamasaki was a bit unprepared as Yuuko drops and entire bar of dark chocolate into her beef and potato mixture.

The deep-frying came next, and it was amazing that Yuuko's concoction managed to not disintegrate in the oil. Abiru didn't have a problem because she ended up just dipping the entire potato in panko and deep-frying it. Sawajiri ended up getting burned by the old, but managed to complete her dishes.

Abiru was up first, and her Fish Fry was well received. Though Joushima found a few bones in his, and then Yamasaki realized that a bone was stuck in his throat as well. He was having some problems getting it out, but they proceeded on with the tasting. Abiru explained that her croquettes should be eaten by putting the ground beef on top of the potato, and every liked it as well (even though it really wasn't a croquette). The amusing thing was the potato knocked the fish bone out of Yamasaki's throat.

Sawajiri was up next, with her mega-croquette and fish fry. She didn't have luck with either dish, but being a first-time entry it wasn't that surprising. They didn't like her fish fry, and the croquette was really bad. She wasn't off to a very good start.

But the main attraction was Yuuko and her chocolate-croquette. She garnished her dish with ketchup just to make the combination complete. Something went wrong with her fish fry, probably the result of microwaving the fish whole. The focus then turned to the chocolate croquette, which Yuuko thought looked delicious. Everyone else went nuts as Yamasaki tried to choke it down, but ending up making the bucket run instead. Even Emi, who liked her Chocolate Gratin before, ended up hitting an 8 on the wrinkle meter. They then had Yuuko try it, and while as she put it "It's not delicious, but it isn't terrible either". Everyone was amazed again.

Then it was Judgement Time. Abiru leapt up to 10th spot, landing in the Top Epu ranking. She was very happy. Sawajiri found herself getting dumped in a pot of used oil, ranked 109th. While Yuuko dropped further down the charts, ending up in a stairwell near the building exit.

Ranking ( out of 133 ):
Abiru Yuu: 41 -> 10
Sawajiri Erika: 109 (New Entry)
Ogura Yuuko: 111 -> 126