is a Japanese manga series written by Yūto Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from November 2012 to June 2019. Its chapters were compiled in 36 tankōbon volumes published by Shueisha. The series follows an aspiring chef who enrolls in an elite culinary school where students take part in cooking competitions. Yuki Morisaki also works as a contributor, providing the recipes for the series. The manga is licensed by Viz Media in North America, who has been releasing the volumes digitally since March 2014, and released the first volume in print in August 2014. The manga series received sales of over 20 million. An anime adaptation by J.C.Staff aired between April and September 2015. A second season, titled Food Wars! The Second Plate aired between July and September 2016. The first cour of the third season, titled Food Wars! The Third Plate, aired between October and December 2017. The second half aired between April and June 2018. A fourth season, titled Food Wars! The Fourth Plate, aired between October and December 2019. The fifth and final season, titled Food Wars! The Fifth Plate, aired between April and September 2020. The series has also had a pair of video games released in 2015. The series has received mixed reviews, with positive reactions to the narrative and genuine recipes depicted, whilst many critics panned the overuse of fan service. Synopsis Setting The series is set mainly at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy (Tōtsuki Saryō Ryōri Gakuen), an elite culinary school located in Tokyo, Japan, where only a handful of students graduate from each year. Its students mostly come from Totsuki's junior high school, but transfers are taken provided that they pass the entrance exam. The campus is a wide-ranging resort with many research societies (clubs), cooking classrooms, and large arenas used for competitions. Housing varies, but the most affordable is the Polaris Dormitory, where students have to impress the dorm matron with a dish in order to secure residence. Tōtsuki also runs a chain of resort hotels, with the biggest being the Tōtsuki resort run by Gin Dojima, which is visited during Soma's first year at Tōtsuki. The top student chefs occupy seats on the Council of Ten Masters, the highest governing body in the school aside from the school director. Students can initiate a shokugeki (anime: food war), a cook-off with stipulations on the line,