Rindō Kobayashi

Rindō Kobayashi (小林 竜胆(こばやし りんどう), Kobayashi Rindō^?) is a 90th Generation Tōtsuki Academy alumna, and the former 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council.

Appearance

Rindō is the tallest female Elite Ten Council member. She has flowing scarlet hair that reaches down to her shoulder blades with her bangs covering her left eye. She has a lot of feline features, having yellow eyes with vertically slitted pupils and pronounced, cat-like teeth.

She wears a standard Tōtsuki uniform but not the standard tie. She also wears a beige sweater under her uniform coat. The cuffs of the sweater pokes out of her uniform jacket and covers the palms of her hands.

While cooking, her hair is tied in a ponytail and she wears a dark blue chef's jacket with an apron.

Personality

Rindō is a cheerful girl who prefers to enjoy things from the background during events and doing things at her own pace, even at the detriment of her former fellow Elite Ten seated members. She is playful, and enjoys teasing Terunori Kuga after losing in sales to Sōma Yukihira's stand during the Moon Banquet Festival. She is extremely whimsical and carefree, choosing not to participate in the Festival despite the fact that all of the Elite Ten members each normally run a booth of their own simply because she would rather sample food from all 120 festival stands, a feat that she managed to accomplish in the five days of the festival. She dislikes doing paperwork, complaining about having to do so much extra work because of Terunori and Etsuya Eizan's absence. However, she didn't think much of leaving Eishi to do both his and her own work load while she went to watch Sōma and Etsuya's Shokugeki, showing a lack of responsibility.

She sided with Azami Nakiri's proposal to become the new director of Tōtsuki simply on a whim and for no other reason. She has shown no particular agreement with Azami's doctrine other than a belief that it brings new excitement to the academy and has mostly remained neutral in terms of the rebelling 92nd Tōtsuki Generation students who are openly opposing the new curriculum. She has shown a particular interest in Sōma as a result, offering to take him to experience the booth run by Eishi Tsukasa, the former 1st seat in Tōtsuki. Similarly to Satoshi Isshiki, her jovial demeanor hides incredible cooking skills, given that she was the 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council and the former best female student attending Tōtsuki.

History

Five years prior to the plotline, Rindō was a first year student in the middle school section of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy. In that year, she encountered another first year, Eishi Tsukasa, whom she found interesting and forced him to become her friend after learning of his reputation for driving teachers mad by constantly having them check his dishes.^[3]

Rindō enrolled into the high school section of Tōtsuki Academy as part of the 90th Generation. As a third year student, Rindō completed the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp, Stagiaire, and Promotion Exam events in her first year and all subsequent events afterwards. By her second year, Rindō was a member of the Elite Ten Council and would later attain the 2nd seat by her third year.

Before her debut, she alongside other members of the Elite Ten gathered and selected the participants of the 43rd Annual Tōtsuki Autumn Election.^[4][5]

Plot

Moon Banquet Festival

Main article: Moon Banquet Festival Arc

As a member of the Elite Ten, Rindō and the other Elite Ten Members attended the Autumn Leaf Viewing ceremony so the first year students who participated in the 43rd Annual Autumn Election Main Tournament could formally meet them. Throughout the event, Rindō did not say anything, opting to eat snacks and smile as she watched the event unfold.

During the Moon Banquet Festival, unlike the other Elite Ten Members, Rindō opted to not run a stand of her own and spent most of it wandering around the festival trying out different foods with the ultimate goal of trying food from every single stall at the festival. On the fourth night, Rindō found out that Sōma Yukihira's booth had outsold Terunori Kuga's that day.^[6] Curious, Rindō decided to pay their booths a visit. Rindō teased Terunori for losing to his kouhai. Though Terunori acknowledged that he had lost the challenge to Sōma, Sōma himself did not feel that he had won yet as he had not exceeded him in sales for the entire week, much to Rindō and Terunori's surprise. Rindō praised Sōma for his hard work, but informed him that he was unlikely to achieve his goal given the time left for the festival to conclude.^[7] Rindō decided to sit at Terunori's booth, reminiscing with him about his own Shokugeki declaration at the 91st Generation's Autumn Leaf Viewing. Afterwards, Rindō invited Sōma and Megumi Tadokoro to go to Eishi Tsukasa's booth in the Upper Area after he closed his booth so he could try the food that the current 1st seat made.^[8] At Eishi's booth, Rindo, Sōma, and Megumi were treated to Eishi's multi-course set. During their meal, Eishi came out to make sure that their environment was okay, but Rindō had to remind him that his excessive worrying was souring their meal a little. Nevertheless, Rindō was impressed by Eishi's meal, but wished that he put a little more "of himself" in the meal. Eishi brushed her off, saying that eliminating his presence in his dishes is his style, hence why his dishes are so good.

After their meal, Sōma and Megumi parted from Rindō to go off to Erina Nakiri's booth. However, after seeing an entourage of Tōtsuki cars heading towards her booth, Rindō decided to go and see what was going on. At her booth, she saw Azami Nakiri and Senzaemon Nakiri in a heated debate about their respective visions for Tōtsuki. As Senzaemon attempted to remove Azami from the campus, Rindō spotted Sōma and asked him who he would follow. Unaware of the situation at hand, Sōma stated that he was unsure. Suddenly, Azami brandished an official document signed by the Elite Ten Council, demanding that Senzaemon step down as headmaster of Tōtsuki and have Azami reinstated as his replacement. Among the 6 votes from the Elite Ten who voted in favor of this decree, Rindō was one of them, simply because she wanted something exciting to happen at Tōtsuki.

Promotion Exams

Main article: Promotion Exams Arc

Rebel Purging

As a member of the Elite Ten and Central, Azami ordered Rindō and the others to directly challenge the rebelling students to expel as many of them during the Promotion exams as possible. Rindo was assigned to battle Takumi Aldini and Megumi. Unlike the others who decisively battled their opponents, Rindō merely tasked the two with creating any dish that satisfied her. Rindō sampled both their dishes and promptly gave them a pass, stating that Azami did not say they actually had to battle. Azami caught wind of this and forbade her from participating in the Promotion exams from then on.

Régiment de Cuisine

Instead of the final exam, a Régiment de Cuisine was created between Azami's eight remaining Elite Ten Central students against the five remaining rebelling 92nd generation students and the three deposed Elite Ten students in a battle for the Elite Ten seats or Jōichirō Yukihira's fealty to Azami's doctrine. In the first round, Central suffered a complete loss, losing three members of their team in the process.

Second Round

In the second round, Rindō was selected by Tōsuke Megishima as the former 3rd seat's opponent for the bout. Their selected theme was chili peppers. For her dish, Rindō brandished a live alligator. Despite accidentally letting it loose, Rindō recaptured it and promptly began preparing it. Using a multitude of knives, Rindo completely skinned, bled out, and prepped the alligator in mere moments, leaving most of the captured rebels and the audience stunned.

After cutting the alligator meat into bite-sized chunks, she seasoned it with a mixture of salt and pepper, added potato starch, then used a wok to start frying the meat. Like Megishima, she then uses a large number of chili peppers in her dish, causing Megishima to smile mysteriously. Upon Rindō's query, he answers that with Rindō's buoyant personality, he expected her not to bring out an elegant chili dish but rather a dish that utilized a lot of the ingredient, which is why he did the same, believing that he would not stand a chance if he did otherwise. Upon hearing this, Rindo smiles and comments that Megishima "sure does know her well."

Directly after this exchange, Rindō continues frying the alligator meat with increased intensity which infects the audience as well, and anticipation grows throughout the arena. Meanwhile, Megishima also returns to his cooking, and after peering at him for a moment, Rindō states that for once, Megishima is going all out. She then queries why he decided to form an alliance with Sōma when she has heard him say multiple times that he didn't care for showdowns, to which Megishima responds that he got struck by Yukihira's passion.

Cooking Style

• Exotic Ingredients - Rindō is a specialist at handling exotic ingredients. Though she had great knowledge of the unusual ingredients Japan has to offer, she used her power as an Elite Ten Council to travel the globe from the arctic to the amazon in her quest to find and use the most unusual ingredients for her cooking. One such ingredient was used in her very first duel shown in the series where she used a live alligator for the foundation for her dish.

Cooking Skills

• Knife Specialist - Rindō has shown extreme dexterity and precision using a wide plethora of knives within a short period of time. In mere moments, she completely skinned and bled out her alligator, leaving most of the rebelling students stunned. Even Eishi acknowledged her skill with knives.

Misc. Skills

• Ecology - Rindō has extensive knowledge of thousands of animals and plants from around the world. She has made countless personal trips around the world and goes into the field herself to search for her potential ingredients. Because of her own personal expeditions into the wilderness, she collects her own exotic ingredients.

Dishes

• Alligator Meat Dish - Rindō's dish for the 2nd Card of the 2nd Bout of the Rebels Vs. Central Régiment de Cuisine. Rindō used alligator meat to allow her to create an interesting dish in appearance. This dish uses freshly butchered alligator that was cut into rough chunks and seasoned with salt and pepper. Also the chili peppers were fried in the oil used to cook the alligator. Although its taste is unknown, but it is good enough to beat Tōsuke Megishima's African Ramen.

• Spear Squid Causa - A dish made by Rindō Kobayashi against Takumi Aldini during the 3rd Card of the 4th Bout of the Rebels Vs. Central Régiment de Cuisine. This dish consists of a fluffy squid hamburger that contains spear squid, egg whites, onions, lemon, mayonnaise and soy sauce which is lightly fried. For the mashed potatoes on the outside that act like pressed sushi she used irish cobbler potatoes that was dyed with aji amarillo. But, for the layer underneath the hamburger instead of using tuna rindō used arapaim which has the similar texture as chicken tenderloin. With Rindō's expertise of rare ingredients, she has tamed the flavors of the wild and turned them into a single dish.
• Mushroom Mille-Feuille~Stuffed with Duxelles~ - Rindō's appetizer for the 5th Bout of the Rebels Vs. Central Régiment de Cuisine. By using formic acid which was extracted from ants, Rindō was able to astringate the rich and mellow sweet flavors of the mille-feuille. From the confit of shiitake mushrooms to the duxelles which is made of button mushrooms, shallots, garlic, butter, stock, crushed chestnuts and formic acid. It is garnished with a dark colored sauce and sliced black truffles. And when combined with Eishi Tsukasa's White Armor Plate: Sauce Chevreuil it can take the consumer to The Gourmet Eden!

Clubs

• Elite Ten Council (formerly) - Rindō is the former 2nd seat of the Elite Ten Council.

Cooking Duel Records

Rebels Vs Central Régiment de Cuisine

Trivia

• The name Rindō means "dragon" or "gall". It is a Japanese word for "gentian", a type of flower.
• Rindō's surname Kobayashi means "small" (ko) and "forest" (hayashi).

References

1. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma volume 27 extras
2. ↑ Food Wars! Original Anime DVD Casts More Council of Ten Members
3. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma: Betsubara #6
4. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma chapter 37, page 19
5. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma chapter 40, pages 1-3
6. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma chapter 131, page 1
7. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma chapter 131, pages 5-10
8. ↑ Shokugeki no Soma chapter 131, pages 14-18

Navigation