Kitchen Princess

Name: Serina

Grade: 12+

Title: Kitchen Princess

Author: Miyuki Kobayashi

Artist: Matsumi Ando

Najika Kazami has a dream to cook good food that puts a smile on everyone's face. After growing up in a humble foster home in Hokkaido called Lavender House, Najika sets out to complete her chef parents' dream, as well as her own by joining Seika academy, a prestigious school for the rich and talented. Najika is certainly not rich, and at first the other students think she has no talent, either. However, after witnessing a young girl try and confess her love to a boy by giving him her handmade flan, only to have him refuse it and knock it out of her hands, Najika steps in to help the girl make flan that the boy will have to eat. After making the perfect flan, it is discovered that Najika has a very special gift that allows her to cook amazingly delicious food: an absolute sense of taste, meaning Najika can eat anything and know the ingredients in it as well as how it was made, and can remake it to perfection. The director's son, Sora, sought Najika out because of this talent, and guided her along through the school and her trials, to the anger and jealousy of the other female students. Najika also learns that the boy who refused the girl's flan earlier, Daichi, is also the director's son, and that the two brothers do not get along. Najika tries to bring them closer together by them both enjoying her food, and soon the two are a bit enamored by her, though Daichi would never admit it. While Najika mostly thinks about making the best food in the world, she also dreams about her flan prince, a young boy who saved her as a child from drowning in a river and then gave her flan to cheer her up, along with a silver spoon with the Seika academy logo. Najika has a suspicion that Sora is her flan prince, but doesn't know how to ask him. Will Najika be able to get both her dreams? Only the comic will tell.

While I initially avoid shojo manga like the plague, I was quite curious about Kitchen Princess. The delicious illustrations and the included recipes at the back probably helped, but I have to admit that I got a bit caught up in the plot as well. Najika, while the terribly cliche shojo lead with her large eyes, long hair, and upbeat personality that somehow all the handsome guys in the school fall for, she also had a lot of things that the other shojo manga protagonists didn't. She was awfully positive, even when the other girls in her class treated her horribly and kept trying to get her to leave the school. It was obvious to the reader that it upset her, but she was strong enough to not let it get in her way, and she even fought back a bit instead of running to the nearest male character to cry in his arms. The whole series had its ups and downs, and some of it I hated, but some of it I actually liked. Now I can honestly say that I have read a decent shojo manga that I appreciated rather than disdained. Kitchen Princess is a great manga for shojo fans, as well as for food fans. My suggestion would be to try out some of the recipes at the back of each book and see if you have the makings to be a kitchen princess as well.

I picked this book up because of the yummy looking pictures.

I finished this book because I got sucked in along the way.

I'd give this book to anyone who likes shojo manga or who likes cooking, or who likes food, or all three.

*** Liked it