
Maoxing Liu
main character



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.
Cooking Master Boy has been well received, with an average AniList score of 70/100 — 44% of 1,198 ratings are 8/10 or higher.
It ranks #8 highest-rated anime of 1997, and #11 most popular anime of 1997 on AniList.
Of the 2.6K AniList users who started it, 8.1% dropped it, so it is dropped at a typical rate; 1.8K have finished it.
At roughly 19 h 56 min in total, it is a long commitment — about 3 weeks at an hour a day.
Best for viewers who enjoy Action, Adventure, Drama — especially shounen, historical, foreign, food.
Availability, audio and subtitles vary by region and service.
52 episodes are listed.
Theme data from AnimeThemes.moe.
Cooking Master Boy has 52 episodes of about 23 minutes each, roughly 19 h 56 min in total.
About 19 h 56 min back to back. At two episodes a day it takes 26 days; at one hour a day, about 20 days.
Yes. Cooking Master Boy has finished airing — the final episode aired September 13, 1998.
No sequel is listed for Cooking Master Boy as of October 2026. You can continue the story in the original manga.
Yes. Cooking Master Boy adapts the manga by Etsushi Ogawa.
Cooking Master Boy was animated by Nippon Animation and directed by Masami Annou.
The opening, "Sora", is performed by Maki Ohguro.
Cooking Master Boy is listed on Bilibili TV. Availability varies by region — check the streaming links on this page.