Apron Of Love

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

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Kinpachi Sensei - Class 3B Battle


Air Date: 06/07/2006

Contestants: Kondo Haruna (近藤春菜), Mihara Junko (三原じゅん子), Kawakami Maiko (川上麻衣子), Sugita Kaoru (杉田かおる), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Horikoshi Nori (堀越のり)

Guest Judges: Takeda Tetsuya (武田鉄矢), Ijuuin Hikaru (伊集院光), Hori (ホリ)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Onions / Hayashi Rice and Onion Gratin Soup












Recap: This episode centered around the TBS Drama Series 'Kinpachi Sensei'. One of the judges was none other than Takeda Tetsuya, who played the role of Kinpachi Sensei. In addition to rounding up two actresses who appeared in the Drama (Mihara and Kawakami), it turns out that Kaoru-chan also was a former classmate. Facing off against them was Aoki, Nori-chan, and Kondo Haruna. It must be the time of year for these types of specials, I seem to recall last year there was one for 'Sukeban Deka'. The intro was amusing when Kaoru recalled who had a crush on Takeda back then. With the theme ingredient and recipes, you would presume that things would go rather smoothly. But I was semi-surprised by the looks of dismay from the regulars. As for the newcomers, Mihara apologized before they even got started.

Cooking time was a bit extended, to talk about the low ranks of both Kaoru and Nori. Also some chat about hairstyles, and Aoki was asked if she intended to keep striving for the Special Epu ranking. They then focused on how each of the former students were preparing their hayashi rice.

When it came to Tasting Time, Aoki was up first. They literally flew through her presentation. Both dishes were extremely good, though she still received some pointers from Hattori. I also discovered that Hori is apparently an impersonator, as he did the first of many impressions during this judging. The sparks also appeared to fly again between Aoki and Emi, I still feel there is another grudge match in their future.

After tasting some of the best that the Ai Epu's had to offer, Takeda now faced Nori-chan's creations. Which started off with Onion Gratin soup that had penne pasta as a major ingredient. Luckily, since she boiled everything together, there really was no taste to her dish. As Hattori pointed out, it really wasn't soup. Unluckily, she didn't have the same luck with her hayashi rice. Once again, she focused more on her rice presentation than the dish. Which meant that everyone watched with terror (again) as she poured her concoction over the rice. If that wasn't bad enough, she packed the rice so hard it was impossible to get a spoon into it. And I've run out of descriptive phrases to explain how it could get any worse and did. Curry powder apparently was her secret ingredient. Success would not find Nori-chan tonight.

Next up was the first of Kinpachi Sensei's class, Mihara Junko. Much like Nori's, there wasn't much taste to her soup. She actually did a good job with the hayashi rice. Though more amusing was Hori's impression of Joushima. Up next was Kaoru, who should have gotten the hang of this by now. Her soup looked more like udon, and by now both myself and the other judges had caught onto something. If Takeda didn't like something, he would just pass it down the table without commenting. So Ijuuin forced him to comment this time. It wasn't that good, but in comparison better than her hayashi rice, which like Nori's featured an odd ingredient... extract of plum. It was amusing because Takeda was holding back his reactions the entire night, so Ijuuin got caught out again. Emi's wrinkle-meter went off, and then as a clincher they had one of Kaoru's 'classmates' (Mihara) try it.

The rest was academic (pardon the pun). Kawakami did very well on both of her dishes, impressing everyone. Hori and Joushima did synchronized judging. Last up was Kondo, who didn't even have her soup judged on the air. Her hayashi rice looked really good, but was hiding an ingredient that proved hard to identify. They finally determined it was chocolate (guess they decided to get ready for Ogura Yuuko's visit early).

When it came time to judge, Hori dressed up like Kinpachi Sensei and ran outside to find Kaoru and Nori's nameplates. He ended up placing both of them on the outer wall of the studio. Meanwhile, Aoki stayed right where she had been, while Kawakami won the trophy for the evening.

Ranking ( out of 116 ):
Kawakami Maiko: 11
Aoki Sayaka: 16
Mihara Junko: 52
Kondo Haruna: 95
Sugita Kaoru: 112
Horikoshi Nori: 112

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home