Apron Boys Special - Ninja Cooking

Air Date: 05/10/2006

Contestants: Hashimoto Tooru (橋下徹), Satou Hiromichi (佐藤弘道), Koumoto Jun'ichi (河本準一), Umezawa Tomio (梅沢富美男), Kyoumoto Masaki (京本政樹), Tsuchida Teruyuki (土田晃之)

Guest Judges: Ken Naoko (研ナオコ), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Beef and Seafood (Squid and Fish) / Hamburger and Seafood Fry

Recap: This week was an Apron Boys special, which means the ranking will seem a bit off because it looks that the men are now being ranked separately from the women. The recipes were pretty basic, nothing too complex. Which is why not having a lot of 'Cooking Time' may not have been such a big deal this time around. The majority of this episode featured the results of the 'Win a Tuna with Ishihara Corp' contest that ran along with the Ai Epu vs. Ishihara Special that aired in April. (Before the episode aired, you could enter a contest to win a very expensive tuna and have it carved up and served to you by members of Ishihara Studios). Throughout this episode they would show segments from when they delivered the tuna to the various winners.

Hashimoto Tooru was the first up and there was a nice moment when Joushima read a letter from Tooru's son. He did very good with the hamburger steak, but he knew that he was in trouble with the seafood fry. It looked really bad and was apparently very greasy. Next up was Tsuchida Teruyuki, and they didn't even judge his hamburger onscreen it was so good. However, he too had problems with his seafood fry, mainly due to the bones still being in the fish.

Umezawa Tomio (who I believe is a well-known kabuki actor) was next, and turned out to be a very skilled cook. He spent quite a bit of time preparing the hamburger steak, cooking it in a sauce and preparing a side of spinach with it. He also spent the time deboning his fish and preparing the seafood fry. Which resulted in nothing but compliments as well (many comments about how totally different it looked from the previous ones). Kyoumoto Masaki was not going to fare as well. I believe that he was the star of a ninja TV series, because they kept on flashing back to that. Much like the others, his best dish was the hamburger but that wasn't saying much. It looked like he was about to cry during the critique, but at least it was much better than his seafood fry. He did what so many of the contestants do, and mistook baking powder for flour. This resulted in many a run to the bucket, including himself when he tried his own creation. It was fun because they would show shots from his show whenever someone made the bucket run.

Satou Hiromichi (a host of a kids show), decked out his hamburger with cheese, bacon, and an original sauce. Everyone liked it very much. Once again, the seafood fry was his downfall, as it was poorly cooked and still had bones in it as well. The amusing thing that was occurring now, is that Masaki was constantly adding asides. So when a bucket run was needed, he actually cheered that he wasn't the only one. Last up was Koumoto Jun'ichi, and his hamburger was good enough to not be judged on TV. But once again baking powder came into play. So another Apron Boy taken down by the seafood fry.

The last segment before ranking finished out the tuna delivery. Probably the best bit was when a little league team discovered that Ying-Ling would be carving their tuna. Then is was Judgement time, and most of the men ended up in the middle ranks. However, there was one clear winner and loser. Masaki found himself out on the street, with Aoki encouraging a passerby to step on his nameplate. Meanwhile Tomio found himself alone in the Special Epu ranking.

Ranking ( out of 17 ):
Umezawa Tomio: 1 (Special Epu ranking)
Tsuchida Teruyuki: 6
Koumoto Junichi: 8
Hashimoto Tooru: 9
Satou Hiromichi: 14
Kyoumoto Masaki: 17 (Worst Epu ranking)