Mie - The Other Pink Returns

Air Date: 06/21/2006

Contestants: Mie (未唯), Mori Kumiko (森公美子), Nakazawa Yuuko (中澤裕子), Miss Debbie (デヴィ夫人), Aoki Sayaka (青木さやか), Yinling (インリン)

Guest Judges: Ootomo Kouhei (大友康平), Maino Umi (舞の海), Sekine Tsutomu (関根勤)

Theme Ingredient/Recipes:
Shrimp / Mixed Tempura Bowl and Egg Custard

Recap: This week, the episode revolved around the return of Mie (of Pink Lady fame) to the show. While she has been a regular on many of the specials, her appearances as a normal contestant have been rare. However, the few times that she has been on, she has always had the number one ranking. But since it's been quite some time since she had been on, she has slowly slipped down the ranking board to 8th. Which may have been acceptable, if not for the fact that Aoki is now ranked above her in 7th place. She was quite amazed. Also present was Mori Kumiko, who while a celebrity, had a good reputation for her cooking (even writing a cookbook). It was setup as the battle of these three versus the demon cooks (which was a bit mean to call Nakazawa that, because she was new to the show).

As expected by now, Cooking Time flew by, with most of the focus on the three top chefs. Which was nice, because it's fun watching the 'pros' go at it. They started talking rivalry, and Miss Debbie was asked who her chief rival was. She presumed that it was Yinling. Interesting was the new camera angle they had on Yinling, basically a 'down epu' shot.

Tasting Time as it has lately, had Aoki up first and just as before everything went smoothly. Aoki is steadily improving across the board, and it's really paying off. She did fine with both dishes, and once again Emi-chan had to throw in that one little comment that really irritated Aoki. Nakazawa was next, and although her custard was a bit soupy, it still tasted good. She appeared to have the same problem with her tempura, as it was a bit soggy.

Miss Debbie was next on the block, they were going to get through all the poor cooks before the final showdown between Mie and Mori. I always feel a bit sorry for her, as she tries and just can't get it right. They actually tried training her on how to cook a bit late last year and early this year, without much luck. Her custard was doomed from the start, as she forgot to turn on the oven. Which meant that it was raw and not going to pass. Her tempura was extremely salty, and resulted runs to the bucket. It turns out she made her sauce using nothing but wrong ingredients. To follow up that disaster, it was Yinling's turn. When everyone saw her custard they shouted out 'shiroi' (white). She used the entire egg rather than the yolks, so it was like fried egg custard. When it came time for Joushima and his reaction, Sekine suggested that he just imagine Yinling in one of her 'cheesecake' photos. Joushima responded that it didn't work. I don't think I even need to describe how bad her tempura was, it as a huge mass of ingredients and a complete mess. Bucket runs began anew.

Mori was next up, and having some experience as a chef, everyone was looking forward to her dishes. Before the tasting, they played a 'good luck' video from Shimatani Hitomi (島谷ひとみ). Hitomi is a well-known pop-singer with several hits (Perseus, Falco, Angelus, etc). I couldn't pick up the connection, but I would presume that they are good friends. Her custard was a big hit, in fact both of her dishes were. Even Aoki and Mie agreed that both were very good.

Before they started judging on Mie, they gave a brief background of her history. She has been appearing on the show almost since the beginning. Back in December of 2000, she hit the Special Ranking (and may have been the first to ever reach that mark). I'm still not clear how she fell out of the Special Epu ranking, but there may be a rule that there can only be a certain number of Special Epu's. Looking over the history, I don't see anytime that she wasn't scored as the Number One Epu after competing. I would presume that as people are ranked above you, you can eventually be pushed out.

Her custard was perfection, nobody had anything but good things to say about it. The thing that really clinched her dishes came with the tempura, where she had the sauce on the side with what I believe was sesame seeds to dip the portion in as well. Everyone was also impressed with the 'crunch' that went with eating it. It was so good, the last two judges didn't want to pass it down.

Judgement Time was a relatively easy decision. Nakazawa actually ended up in the Bottom Epu ranking, not bad for a first timer. Meanwhile, Debbie and Yinling ended up far outside in the rain. They are now on the street corner outside the studio. Oddly, there are a couple even further away. As for the three best cooks, Mie easily regained her #1 Special Epu ranking, tied with Pinko and Peter. Aoki now is placed halfway into the Special Epu category (She did lose a spot, but it was only because Mie moved ahead). Mori is right in the middle of the Top Epu ranking.

Next Up: The Apron of Love Cup Special

Ranking ( out of 118 ):
Mie: 1
Aoki Sayaka: 8
Mori Kumiko: 18
Nakazawa Yuuko: 60 (New Entry)
Miss Debbie: 114
Yinling: 114