The story takes place in 19th century China during the Qing Dynasty, where the Emperor was weakened and the country was close to chaos. It is also during a fictitious era called "The Era of the Cooking Wars". It was an era in which top chefs with different cooking styles tried their best to improve their skills and to become the best chef in China. It is a country where insulting a high-grade chef or fooling around with cooking could land a person in a jail, and impersonating a top-chef is as good as usurpation of authority. Chefs compete with each other in order to gain respect and even power, but also with the risks of losing everything. The country of China has four major regions: Beijing, Szechuan, Shanghai, and Guangdong. The beginning of the story takes place in Szechuan, Mao's birthplace. After the death of Mao's mother, Pai, who was called the 'Fairy of Cuisine', Mao becomes a Super Chef in order to take the title as Master Chef of his mother's restaurant. However, before he takes his mother's place as Master Chef, he continues to travel China in order to learn more of the many ways of cooking, in the hopes of becoming a legendary chef, just like his mother. During his journey, he meets great friends and fierce rivals who wish to challenge him in the field of cooking.
Maoxing Liu
Meili Zhou
Feihong Lan
Silang
Xielu
Leien
Qing Dynasty, Imperial China, a small restraunt in Szechuan Province is messed up by a first grade cook, Shouan.To defend his deceased mother's restraunt, Liu Mao Tsing ('Mao') has a cooking match with Shouan, the judge being General Lee. The dish: fried rice. Shouan cooks a seafood fried rice using the most yummy seafood while Mao cooks 'golden friend rice' which is basically fried rice and egg yolk to make the rice a gold colour. Lee finds Mao's dish far superior to that of Shouan's. Shouan, upset he had lost to a kid declares a rematch. Lee agrees but only on the basis that if he loses, he'll lose his first grade level and never be allowed to cook again. Similarly if Mao loses he will lose the restraunt to Shouan. The two agree and Lee declares the dish to cook be 'Five Flavour Ma Por' tofu with an extra flavour they must decide to put in.
In the on-on-one cooking match Mao easily defeats Shouan. Shouan, shamed that he was beaten by a little boy, runs away from the restraunt. General Lee congratualtes Mao on his smart thinking in his cooking of 'Ma Por' tofu. Instead of using beef, Mao substituted it with beans. This gave the lovely taste General Lee remembered when he was just a soldier at war and there was no beef becasue all the cows had died. General Lee, seeing Mao's talent orders him to go to Guangzhou and build up his skills so he could enter the Special Grade Cooking test.
Mao arrives at Guangzhou and goes to the Yang Spring Restraunt. At first he is ignored by the master chef of the restraunt, Choyu. Mao shows him the letter of recommendation from General Lee to which Choyu becomes a bit suprised but just chucks the letter away and tells Mao to cook bakchoy (white chinese cabbage) for the chefs to eat for lunch. Mao cooks the bakchoy but the dish is turned down by all the other chefs. Later Choyu tells him that Guangzhou's water contains a lot of dirt so when Mao cooked the bakchoy all the dirt flavour went into it. Mao, being the talented cook he is immediately goes to work finding a way to get rid of the dirt taste. After just one day, Mao works out how to get rid of the dirt taste and begs Choyu to allow him to prove his skills. Mao cooks the bakchoy again, this time using an oil which prevents the cabbage from absorbing the dirt taste. Mao is congratualted by all the chefs for his smart thinking and is accepted Choyu promotes him to'fourth grade chef' for his achievement. Of course, this makes the other resident cooking master boy, Sanche, a little jealous.
Sanche, also a young chef in Yang's Spring Restraunt, becomes jealous of Mao's talent and tries to spoil Mao's cooking. However when Sanche is asked by Choyu to chop some vegetables, he is unable to chop them finely (due to a tragic childhood where he was taught to cook by his strict father) and so all the customers become unhappy about the restraunt's cooking. Choyu kicks Sanche out of the restraunt for his poor cooking ability. Sanche runs away and tries to get on a boat to return to Shanghai. Mao stops him and offers to help him in showing his skills to Choyu so he can be cook for the restraunt.
Mao, Sanche and Meili open up a store to attract customers away from Yang's Spring Restraunt. They make 'stir fry capsicum and pork strips', but want to add something else to create a unique flavour. As the night wears on, Meili gets frustrated and kicks a tree, making all the ripe 'chi' (a type of fruit) fall to the ground. Mao gets an idea to use the 'chi' as the special flavour they needed. The next day, Yang's Spring restraunt is empty thanks to the store Mao and the gang made. Mao chops the vegetables, Sanche stir frys the dish and Meili serves it to customers making them the ultimate team. Choyu and Ruoh find out about Mao's store and goes to have a little taste test. They are so amazed at the short amount of time they took to make this new delicious dish that they allow Sanche back into the restraunt. Sanche, happy Mao had helped him, got his confidence back in chopping vegetables and again leaves for Shanghai where his father's restraunt is. Mao tries to stop him after reading Sanche's leave note but is too late.
The annual Guangzhou dumpling festival is nearing, and this year Yang's Spring Restraunt is hoping to win again. However a new challenger has arrived - the Chinese Dumpling Brothers! Choyu breaks his arm after one of the Dumpling Brothers knocks into him and it is up to Mao to win in the festival!
The Guangzhou Dumpling Festival has arrived! The winner is the team who has the most eaten plates of dumplings. An old man wants to try the wonderful Dumpling Brother's dumpling but is told to go away becasue he looked like a beggar. Mao gives the old man dumplings and finds out the man used to be the Emperor's master chef. After this news, everyone flocks to Mao's store to eat his dumplings. When time was up, the plates were counted! Mao and the Dumpling Brothers were equal first with 1242 plates. The judge, under the old man's advice, announces a rechallenge the next day - But different dumplings must be made!
At night, the stronger Dumpling Brother tries to sabotage Mao's indgredients before the dumpling challenge but is luckily stopped by Choyu. Meanwhile, the other brother is quickly preparing his own ingredients for the challenge. The dumpling rematch has new rules: each taste tester gets two balls, a black one and a white one. After tasting each store's food (Mao and the Dumpling Brothers) they put either a white ball (for Mao) or a black ball (for the Dumpling Brothers) into large pots where they will be counted. The Dumpling Brothers make a beautiful prawn dumpling which looks like a dragon. Mao also makes a prawn dumpling which does not look as good but it has one special trick - It can lift its body up! - The 'Rising Dragon' dumpling' You'll have to watch the episode to understand.After the match is over, the large pots are smashed open and they are completely filled with white balls! Mao wins! General Lee arrives and tells Mao that he is now ready to take the Special Grade Cooking Test in Guangzhou.
Mao goes to the large castle which holds the Special Grade Cooking Tests. The tests are held every four years and only one person will pass the test (very strict!). In the first round, the first five people to have their dishes past will go on to the next round. The dish to be cooked is ramen (noodles) and the topic is 'Ramen without an equal' (something along those lines!). While the other cooks have already started, Mao is still thinking of what the topic phrase means. Feiyi - another young talented cook gives him a hint and straight away Mao knows what to cook! Unfortunately Mao forgot a vital ingredient and tells Meili to go back to the restraunt to get it. Mao waits as time goes by fast....
When Meili finally comes back with the ingredients, two people has already finished the noodles and qualified (3 left!). Feiyi makes 'dragon whisker' noodles which shocks the judges and also passes (2 left!). Meanwhile Mao is still making the dough for his noodles and crushing up the secret ingredient - a rock!. A mysterious green hair woman who makes a noodle with bats and scorpians also passes the test. (1 left!). Finally Mao finishes his noodles which do not need soup. He puts his hand up to say he is finished, but another chef beats him to it (because Mao is too short!).
There is only one more place left to enter the next round and somebody beats Mao in making the noodles. Luckily for Mao, the man's noodles are rejected and so Mao's noodles are tasted. Becasue Mao did not use normal water in preparing the noodles or when kneading it, the noodles were able to absorb all the ingredients which Mao had put into the noodles. Also the rock he used was a special rock which makes the noodles have a fresher taste. Mao passes the test and thinks it is over - but the real test is in the Special Grade Cooking arena inside the castle. The judges are replaced by a new judge, one of the greatest chefs in China and also a friend of Mao's mother. The dish announced is again noodles! which is a shock for Mao and the new topic is 'Not noodles'! (Of course it has to tricky! its the final test!) In the arena, the freshest ingredients from all around China are present which makes it a headache for Mao to decide what to make. Again, while the other chefs have started Mao is still thinking of what to make. Time is ticking away...
Mao decides to cook 'namazu noodles' (namazu is a type of fish, looks like a catfish). He quickly finishes and tells Meili to taste it. Meili rejects to the noodles finding them not fresh enough and having not enough bounce. Mao tries to find away to overcome his problem and finds it! - In octopus! Time is nearly up!
Mao finishes his noodles and is time is up! The judges must now taste the food..... But the judge tells the five chefs to taste each others dishes! The green hair woman presents her dish first - black noodles. However she is disqualified for using opium in the noodles which makes it addictive and also for using acupuncture on Mao to stop him from making his noodles. Next is the man with the 'cat ears' noodles. For the whole contest he had been doing pushups with his thumb so he could make cat ear shape noodles from the dough by flicking with his thumbs! But his noodles are disqualified by the other chefs because the 'cat ears' noodles was not in the shape of noodles and so failed. Finally, Feiyi, Mao, and another guy 'Han' is left. They taste each others dishes and are then told to give each other a score out of 10. The judge announces the total scores: Mao 9, Feiyi 9 and Han 10.
The scores are announced, and Han believes that he had won. However the judge disqualifies him for using dirty tricks. Whereas Mao and Feiyi had judged each other fairly, Han only gave them each a '1' to lower their scores so to win. Finally the judge tells Feiyi and Mao to give a score for their own dishes. This is of course the toughest call a chef has to make. Mao gives himself a 10 because he thinks its the best dish no matter who you are. Feiyi also gives himself a 10. After the judge discusses with other officials, she announces that both Mao and Feiyi pass the test and become Special Grade cooks! Mao returns to Yang's Spring restraunt where he is greeted by General Lee who had heard of the great news. Mao tells Lee he will not return home to be the master chef at his Szechuan restraunt nor will he stay and learn more at Yang's Spring Restraunt. Instead Mao chooses to go around China learning new Chinese cuisines. Lee agrees and wishes him luck. Meili is so distressed about this that she runs away crying. Mao farewells his sister and the chefs at Yang's Spring. One of the chef's give Mao a handkerchief sewn by Meili since Meili couldn't see him off. On the ship, Mao is saddened to read Meili's goodbye letter. Luckily for him Meili sneaked on board as well to acompany him on his journeys!
Mao and Meili travel to Wunam province in China and along the way meet a boy who has fainted from starvation. Mao makes some food for him using igredients from the trees around him. When he is well, the boy tells him his name is Siro and he is a Special Grade Cook (which he isn't!). Since Mao is hiding his Special Grade cook emblem, Mao becomes Siro's disciple! The group go to Siro's village where a really fat Official is putting chefs into prison for making food he does not like. Siro, whose family owns a restraunt in the village also tries to satisfy the Official. With Mao's help they make a fried rice with a sour taste which the Official greedily ate. Mao reveals he is a Special Grade cook, to the suprise of Siro and everyone. Siro apologises for pretending to be a Special Grade cook and joins Mao's journeys.
Mao and his friends go to Wu Nam province to seek new Chinese cuisines. They enter a village where they are welcomed by a beautiful female chef, Ang. Ang finds out Mao is a special grade cook and seduces him to work out how to use a large ball and chain cooking instrument Ang's father had left to her. Mao almost instantly goes to work (to the jealousy of Meirii) at it with Siro. When they finally work out its uses, they tell Ang and she locks them up in a room. Ang then uses the ball and chain to create a dish* for the Official who has come. *The dish Ang makes is one of Wu Nam's specialties. It is called a 'bird's nest' and is made by frying taro powder in a shape of a bird's nest. Inside the nest is usually some stir fry vegetables and meat. The one Ang attempts to make is a sphere rather than a hemisphere like normal bird's nest.
Mao and Siro are found and untied by Meirii. Meanwhile the Official rejects Ang's dish because it does not taste like her father's although it looks the same. Mao appears and shows Ang how to really use the ball and chain instruments properly. Ang thanks Mao and his friends and they are off.
Mao is split up from Meirii and Siro in a forest at night. When they regroup they find a large house where they are served a very nice meal by the chef there. The sickly owners however only want to have red congee. Mao and gang try to find the secrets of this addictive congee and find it is made from a poisonous red mushroom. Also they find out the chef wanted to use this addictive red congee to force the owner's to sign a contract to give all their money and their daughter to him. And so Mao creates a herbal 'five colour' congee which he gives to the owners. This cures their addictiveness for red congee and the chef is forced to leave.
Mao, Meili and Shilou are eating in a restaurant, but when they were about to pay, they found out that Shilou lost all their money. They were thrown out by the head chef, Harry and his thugs, but a certain Igle, a third-grade chef stopped them. A fight ensued and it was stopped because the owner of the restaurant arrived with his daughter, Laia. Mao then asked the owner to let them work the debt off by working for the restaurant. It was also found out that Laia is engaged to Harry, and they were to be married the next day. Igle meanwhile carves a phoenix out of ice as a gift to Laia, then left the restaurant. While walking he found Harry (with two girls at his side!) planning to make the restaurant into a bar after he’s married to Laia. Igle was mad but Harry’s friends outnumbered him. Mao found Igle lying on the dirt, and decided to help him and thwart Harry. During the wedding, Mao used subtlety by making a galaxy soup, a completely black soup that kinda sparkles, (like the stars in the black sky) and tells everybody of Harry’s plans. Mao then showed Laia the pearl bangle that Igle promised her. Then they showed the ice carving Igle made. Laia ran off to find Igle on the bridge where they professed their love.
Mao's party stay at 'Chicken Town' a village in south west china. This village is the largest provider of chickens in China. After Mao spends all their money on cooking books, the owner of the Black Wing restraunt, Tia, gives them food and shelter. In return and after hearing Tia's tragic story of how her brother's breeding of black chickens led to his death, Mao competes in the annual chicken cooking contest held in Chicken Town, using black chickens.