Kojirou Shinomiya

Kojirō Shinomiya is a 79th-generation Tōtsuki alumnus, a former 1st seat of the Elite Ten Council, and the first Japanese chef to win France's Pluspol award, later earning three Michelin stars. He is also the protagonist of the spin-off manga Shokugeki no Soma: L'étoile. Raised poor, he resolved as a child to master French cuisine after seeing his mother smile at a restaurant meal for the first time in years.

Ostracized in France for being Japanese and having his early ambitions mocked, Kojirō hardened into an uncompromising, sharp-tongued perfectionist who refuses input from anyone in his kitchen. Underneath, according to old classmate Gin Dōjima, he has stagnated since achieving his dream and is quietly afraid of losing his reason to keep cooking.

His unofficial Shokugeki against Sōma's partner Megumi Tadokoro during the Training Camp, prompted by her hospitality-driven cooking, ultimately cracks his rigid exterior and moves him to tears of nostalgia. He remains close, if abrasively so, with fellow 79th-generation graduate Fuyumi Mizuhara.