Katrielle and the Superman Chef is the 44th episode of Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Kat's Mystery-Solving Files.
Plot
Katrielle, Ernest, and Sherl are excited for the grand opening of a new Chinese restaurant, the Super Chinese Eatery. They are greeted by Hannah, a waitress working under Puyon Buyon, the owner. At first, Hannah is reluctant to let Sherl in because he is a dog, but Puyon orders her to allow him in out of fairness. He then proceeds to berate Hannah for being slow with her service. Katrielle, Ernest, Sherl, and the other customers proceed to eat the food, which they find extremely delicious. Puyon tells customers to eat as much they like since they are celebrating their grand opening. However, when the bill comes out, Katrielle is stunned to find that it costs £300. Puyon then says he didn't say the food would be free. When Ernest says they do not have the money to pay the bill, Puyon accuses the trio of "dining and dashing". He then challenges Katrielle to a cook off. If she wins, the meal is free. If she loses, she must wear a Chinese dress to attract customers. While Katrielle is attracted to the dress, Ernest freaks out due to it being indecent. Katrielle accepts the challenge.
Puyon explains that the judge will be Argie Mesadameal, a food researcher who also manages several culinary schools. Argie has booked the entire restaurant for himself and happily agrees to be the judge. The restaurant transforms into a "Battle Kitchen" and Puyon reveals several high-end ingredients for him and Katrielle to use. He also allows Hannah to assist Katrielle.
The battle begins with Puyon preparing gyoza. Katrielle decides to make gyoza too, but she is unable to prepare the live mackerel, and has Hannah do it instead. Hannah cuts the fish into chunks in an instant, surprising Ernest. Katrielle turns the prepared mackerel into gyoza. Sherl tries the gyoza and is unimpressed. Hannah also tries the gyoza and prepares a spicy sauce to go with it. Puyon then cooks up an extra-spicy mapo tofu dish which sets Ernest's and Sherl's mouths on fire. Katrielle decides to make a mild mapo tofu. Like Sherl, Earnest doesn't think the dish is that great. Hannah creates a special soy sauce to go with the tofu. For the final dish Puyon prepares a shark fin soup. Seeing the shark fin resembles noodles, she prepares a dish she calls "Katrielle's Special Spiced Noodle Triad".
Argie eats the dishes and is impressed by all three of Puyon dishes. However, he is also impressed by how well Katrielle's food matches with Hannah's sauces. As Argie eats Katrielle final dish, the noodles paired with the two sauces earlier, Hannah finishes up a sesame sauce to be used as the the third sauce. After thinking it through, Argie shocks everyone by announcing Katrielle as the winner of the cook off. Argie explains to a stunned Puyon that compared to Katrielle's food, something was lacking. Katrielle explains that her sub-par food was made better due to Hannah finishing touches. Argie agrees and says that he noticed Hannah adding mint sauce to the sesame sauce as she was sending it over. Hannah confesses that the reason she has been so slow was because she was adding seasonings to Puyon's dishes at the pass before serving them to customers. Upset by this, Puyon fires Hannah on the spot. Argie reveals Hannah is Hannah Riotorri, a former scholarship student at one his culinary schools. Everyone expected her to graduate and become an expert on sauces. However, Hannah unexpectedly quit the school without giving a reason. Hannah admits that the reason she quit was to work for Puyon. When she was a child, she and her father ate at one of Puyon's restaurants. She was inspired by Puyon's passion and care for his dishes, and set off to become a chef and work for him. However, when she was hired, she saw that Puyon's quality of cooking had slipped and began adding seasonings to bring out the "subtle deliciousness". After trying the noodles with the sesame-mint sauce, Puyon realizes he had forgotten about the importance of taking his time and reverses his firing of Hannah. In the end, Puyon spends more time in the kitchen to perfect his dishes with the help of Hannah. And despite winning the cook off, Katrielle still decides to wear the Chinese dress and work at the restaurant, much to Ernest's dismay.
Spoilers end here
Characters
Main Characters
New Characters
- Hannah Riotorri
- Puyon Buyon
- Argie Mesadameal
Trivia
- Unlike the majority of the other episodes, there are no clues and there is no mystery to solve.
- This episode is parody of Iron Chef a cooking competition show.
- Music from Iron Chef is played throughout the episode.
- The restaurant has its own "Battle Kitchen", which is similar to the "Kitchen Stadium" from Iron Chef.
- Argie Mesadameal is a parody of the show's host, Chairman Kaga.
- Ernest Greeves also plays the announcer during the results, similar to Iron Chef's announcer Kenji Fukui.
- Katrielle's chef uniform she wears to battle resembles Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi's uniform.