It makes you hungry and then it makes you tense, which is not a combination most shows can pull off. This is 1997 battle shounen where the ring is a wok: Mao cooks with the desperate intensity of a kid chasing the ghost of his mother Pai, the Fairy Cook of Sichuan, and the judges detonate into pillars of light and rapture when the lid comes off. Then the Underground Cooking Society shows up and turns cuisine into an actual war, with the Legendary Cooking Utensils as the prize and knife work staged like sword duels. Meili trailing along keeps it warm, but the show never blinks at how brutal the Super Chef world is, where insulting a high-grade chef can put you in a cell. Twenty-plus years before Food Wars built the same church, this one laid the bricks. Watch it and try not to want mapo tofu at 2am.

In 19th century China, during the fading Qing Dynasty, a fictional age called the Era of the Cooking Wars pits top chefs against one another for respect and even power. Insulting a high-grade chef can mean jail, and a defeat can cost a cook everything. In Szechuan, young Mao loses his mother Pai, known as the Fairy of Cuisine, and becomes a Super Chef so he can one day succeed her as Master Chef of her restaurant. Before taking her place, he sets out across China to study its many styles of cooking, hoping to become a legendary chef like her. Along the way he gains close friends and meets fierce rivals eager to challenge him. The story mixes action, adventure and drama, with cooking duels where winning brings standing and losing carries real risk.