Isekai / reincarnation / fantasy mangas have been huge these past couple of years. There are many interesting mangas with various topics and themes out there, but “cooking” is one theme that I can’t get behind.
I love cooking mangas in general. I’ve read Mister Ajikko, Chuuka Ichiban, Yakitate Japan, Shota no Sushi, Oh! My Konbu, Shokugeki no Soma, and many more. In these mangas, no matter how ridiculous it gets, it is usually based on real world ingredients. The final product is often exaggerated but the flavor is something I can actually imagine. I’ve actually attempted to make some of them and read about others who have done the same.
But this is often untrue for cooking scenes in fantasy mangas. For example, cooking is a major part of Drifting Dragons. They would make dragon meat dishes that are similar to real world dishes and go into details about how it tastes. In Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Mukoda would make real-world dishes but isekai monster meat, and how great they taste. But… so what? No matter how much you describe the taste to me, I don’t know and will never know how a dragon or orc taste.
I’m not saying those mangas are boring. I actually really enjoy both Drifting Dragons and Campfire Cooking, but I just can’t get into the food part of it. I would probably enjoy them even more if they glossed over the food and spend more time on other things.
I always thought of cooking in cooking manga more as a plot device, rather than something specific to eat. Although Tis Time for Torture, Princess certainly made me prepare a few dishes.
Still, what about Gensou Gourmet? It goes in an entirely opposite direction - each dish tries to be as far away from a normal/realistic/earth dish as possible. There’s no pretense of orc meat being a pork substitute at all. I feel like it really helps to develop the fantasy world atmosphere. Also Sylphin is a treasure.
Tis Time for Torture rarely uses fantasy ingredients so it’s fine to me. This one I’ve been following.
Gensou Gourmet is the type that I have no interest in. Only read 2 chapters but the story or characters did not appeal to me. The food aspect I cannot relate to.
Just started reading Dungeon Meshi and I think they did it right. Instead of constantly focusing on the dish itself, it’s more about the adventure and how food/cooking help them along the way.