Erina Nakiri

"She will become the greatest masterpiece since Tōtsuki Culinary Academy was founded."

- Gin Dōjima

Erina Nakiri (薙切 えりな) is one of the heroines and was a primary antagonistic rival to Taka Yukihira in Shokugeki. Wielding the best palate in the world, "God's Tongue" and a member of the illustrious Nakiri family, Erina stands above everyone in her class as the top prospect of the 92nd Tōtsuki Generation and is the current 3rd seat of the Elite Council. Her birthday is June 30.

Appearance
Erina has purple-pinkish eyes and long honey blonde hair that flows just above her lower back. Her side bangs partially cross her cheeks and go down all the way to her neck. She has a large bust and is considered by most of the students in Tōtsuki to be extremely beautiful. According to her fans and followers, this trait coincides with her status.

She wears whatever Tōtsuki uniform corresponds with the current season. Whenever she cooks, she wears a standard white chef's uniform and occasionally wears a chef's hat. She has never been shown in casual clothing except for a cotton jacket and a bikini during her pool outing and a simple nightgown when sleeping.

Her measurements are: bust 88cm, waist 56cm and hip 87cm (35-22-34).

Personality
On the surface, Erina is a typical privileged, pampered rich girl, used to getting only the best in her life. With her status as a Nakiri family member on top of her rare ability "God's Tongue", Erina deems almost everything and everyone as plebeians in her "perfect world". Despite her young age, she is a prominent figure in the culinary world and is a cooking prodigy. Erina's cooking skills are on par with most professional chefs, if not better than most, something that started as a young girl. Using her God's Tongue, she has earned a bit of infamy in the culinary industry, as any dish that she deems unsatisfactory shall spell the end of any chef's career. Her reputation is so well known, her name alone is able to scare off amateur chefs within seconds. At the same time though, Erina's influence attracts many in her class due to her beauty, prestige, and unrivaled skill. Due to her prodigious skills, she is confident, never showing any sort of fear and has completed every event in the school thus far with ease.

Erina's father subjected Erina to a particularly brutal regimen as a child, causing her personality to become cold and ruthless towards any sort of dishes that use cheap ingredients or use "plebeian tactics." She is not above criticizing others the minute they make a mistake or treat her unjustly in her mind. This also makes her prone to making hasty judgments about simplistic dishes without ever considering them worthy of her time. Even if the said dishes are delicious, Erina's immediately denies them from her "perfect world." Much of this stems from her father's "teachings" in which any dish with poor taste is considered garbage. She has spiteful tendencies as any person who ruins her image and demeanor immediately becomes a target for her. Erina likes to flaunt her titles and status over her less privileged classmates, mostly towards her main rival and antagonist, Sōma Yukihira. Still, Erina is more than willing to listen to others' advice and opinions and is generally polite to people unless they annoy or insult her.

Despite her proud demeanor, she does have a soft side, which was more apparent in her childhood. In more recent times, this has only been shown whenever her idol, Jōichirō Yukihira, is on her mind. She lacks common teenage girl behaviors, such as romances and relationships. She considers a girl walking home together with a boy and even a couple holding hands as "shameless". She does not know how to handle free time as a "normal girl" would and, as Alice would say, she lacks common sense. For example, she has no clue where to buy shojo manga because Hisako always buys them for her and they are not found in her grandfather's study. Erina does have some traits of a normal girl, including her liking towards shōjo manga, playing card games, and othello. In her first days in Polar Star Dormitory, Erina experienced a bit of culture shock as simple everyday tasks such as doing her own laundry were new to her. Through her time at Polar Star Dormitory, she learned how to perform most basic home chores such as laundry, even memorizing the various laundry symbols that can be found on tags.

Though she is normally confident and often haughty, Erina has only showed strong fear when in the presence of her own father. This fear has caused her to be extremely submissive in his presence, unable to vocally stop any of his actions that impact her, no matter how much it upsets her. This includes claiming the table she had kept in reserve at her Moon Banquet Festival booth just for Jōichirō as well as firing Hisako from her position as her secretary. Though she had nearly ten years without her father's brainwashing and exposure to much more kind individuals, her father's grip on her heart was retained when he returned years later. However, it seems that this grip has lessened thanks to her time spent in Polar Star, enough so for her to willingly defy her father and fight to take down his regime with the help of her fellow 92nd Generation standouts.

Childhood
Born in the prestigious Nakiri Family, Erina is gifted with "God's Tongue", the ability to accurately judge a food's quality to the highest degree. Since her gift became well known, most of her baby food was made by professional chefs to satisfy her incredible tasting abilities. As a young girl, Erina had somewhat of a rivalry with her Danish cousin Alice Nakiri, who also was born into the Nakiri family. Erina at age 3 snatched Alice's toy from her and thought that the cake that Alice baked for her 4th birthday tasted awful, but was grateful for her kind gesture. Around this time, she became friends with another young girl named Hisako Arato, who pledged all of her efforts to serve Erina.

Around the age of 4, Erina's latent talent as a taste tester became apparent and she begun assisting people in the culinary industry, taste testing countless dishes and critiquing them. Though she took her role seriously as a member of the Nakiri family, she had no passion for cooking at the time. However, things changed when she met Jōichirō Saiba, who was visiting Senzaemon. Though Senzaemon told her she had to return to her room, after hearing her stomach growl, Jōichirō prepared a dish for her. With just a single bite of the dish, she felt an overwhelming sense of warmth and fun from his dish, a feeling never experienced from any other dish she had tasted before. Though his visit was short, Erina developed a deep respect and affection for Jōichirō, so much so that she continues to carry a photo of the two from the visit in her journal. Before he left, she asked if Jōichirō would ever eat her dishes. Jōichirō promised that he would only if she herself became a good chef, thus giving her the motivation she has for cooking.

Six months after Jōichirō's departure, her father, Azami Nakiri, subjected Erina to a particularly brutal regimen, forcing Erina to compare foods and determine precise errors in each, then throwing away the inferior dish, even using physical force to prompt her to do so. With time, this training created Erina's haughty personality as well as a deep seated fear regarding her father. Once Senzaemon found out, he exiled Azami from the Nakiri Family and Tōtsuki and tried to repair the damage done to her. Unfortunately, not everything done to Erina could be undone.

Life in the Tōtsuki Culinary Academy
Under the wing of her grandfather after Jōichirō's departure, Erina continued to further her cooking and became a prominent figure in the cooking world. Unsatisfied by most dishes served to her in the aftermath of Jōichirō's departure, she became infamously known throughout the world, as any dish deemed unsatisfactory by her meant the end of anyone's hope of becoming a high class chef. Her prodigious skills and renowned fame easily allowed her to be the top of her class and become the youngest Elite Ten Council member in the history of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy before she even entered the high school level, holding the 10th seat.

Shortly before the start of her high school life, Erina was asked, as a member of the Elite Ten Council, to judge numerous dishes for various companies, most of which left her unimpressed. Unhappy from the lack of excitement from her jobs, Hisako informed her that her last major job was to proctor an entrance exam for the high school level of Tōtsuki Culinary Academy.

Cooking Style
Erina has no particular cooking or cuisine specialty. Instead her cooking is based upon using high quality ingredients and incredible creativity with the feeling of regality. Erina's cooking and skill easily allowed her to acquire the 10th seat of the Elite Ten Council at the end of her third year of middle school, signifying that she is indeed the best chef of her class and one of the best chefs currently in Tōtsuki. Despite being no more than a mere high school girl, Erina's skill level is already on par with most professional chefs. The clearest demonstration of Erina's cooking prowess came during her Stagiaire assignment where a French cuisine head chef, who single-handedly built the reputation of the said restaurant almost to their first Micheline star, submitted and gave Erina full command of the kitchen in just a few short hours.

Skills

 * God's Tongue - Erina's tongue is considered the best in the world, able to taste a dish to the highest degree. Thanks to this ability, Erina has been a culinary prodigy since she was no more than 4 years old.

Original Dishes

 * Ravioli Di Aragosta - Erina's dish to defeat Kiyoshi Gōdabayashi, the president of the Chan RS in a Shokugeki. A simple Italian ravioli improved by Erina's mastery in cooking created a truly perfect dish to give her a decisive victory.


 * Eggs Benedict - Erina's dish during the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp's Breakfast Buffet Challenge. Combined with bacon strips and bread, this dish is one of the artistic dishes. The flavor is so powerful, it forces complete obedience in servitude.


 * Soufflé Léger de Grâce - Erina's dish for her shokugeki against Momo Akanegakubo.

Collaboration Dishes

 * '''Team Saiba's Hachis Parmentier

Clubs

 * Elite Ten Council - Erina previously held the 10th seat of the Elite Ten Council, which she acquired at the end of her 3rd year in middle school. She relinquished this position during the Promotion Exams to fight alongside the rebelling students against her father and Central.

Trivia

 * Erina ranked 2nd in the first popularity poll with 803 votes. She ranked 2nd again in a second popularity poll, with 5046 votes. And ranked 1st in the third popularity poll with 3350 votes,
 * According to the Volume 23 Extras, Erina's favorite song is Amaryllis, and she enjoys Card Games (Especially Seven)
 * Erina currently holds the record for earliest inauguration into the Elite Ten, entering the council while she was still in Middle School.
 * Erina (えりな) is from Eleanor, which was a very common name among women of high nobility during the High Middle Ages - thus reflecting Erina's prestige in the cooking industry. Nakiri (薙切) uses the kanji for "to mow down" (薙 Na) and "to cut" (切 Kiri).
 * Nakiri is also a name for a Japanese-style vegetable knife.