On February 28, fans will get a chance to see whether the stars of the hit cooking anime Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma can match their characters' skill at cooking. The Shokugeki! Maihama-sai ("Food Wars! Maihama Fest") will be held on that day at the Maihara Amphitheater in Urayasu, a suburb of Tokyo, from 1 to 2 PM and from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Sōma), Risa Taneda (Erina), Minami Takahashi (Megumi), Natsuki Hanae (Takumi), Yuki Ono (Isami), Saori Ōnishi (Hisako), Takahiro Sakurai (Satoshi) and Junichi Suwabe (Akira) will compete with each other.

To drum up anticipation and ticket sales, Warner Bros. has been posting videos featuring the Food Wars! cast demonstrating their cooking prowess... or not.

As her character, Erina, is most known for her "God Tongue," or ability to accurately discern even subtle nuances in taste, Risa Taneda demonstrates her own ability to discern between four different types of soy sauce provided by her co-star, Minami Takahashi. Takahashi chose them to pair with meat, tsukedon (raw tuna on rice), eggs over rice, and sashimi. True to form, Taneda correctly sorts the sauces — after Takahashi gives her a helpful nudge by telling her she doesn't like sweetness with her eggs.

Takahashi exudes confidence in her own video and claims she can always get her co-star, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, to help her if she runs into trouble. He helps her train her "reporting skills" by having her sample dried sardines in strawberry jam and peanut butter. She compares the former to "being rejected by the sunlit sea" and the latter to a "jungle cruise." Neither combination is very palatable, but she seems to be on good terms with Matsuoka at the end anyway.

Yuuki Ono claims to be better at eating than cooking, and proves it in his demonstration. Wielding Takumi's signature blade, the mezzaluna, he chops up some basil and octopus tentacles, leaving the garlic and chilis unused.

Natsuki Hanae dismisses his opponents as "cowards" and mocks Isami for being too dependent on his older brother. He advises Ono not to get his hand hair mixed up in the food. Telling his viewers not to be scared of fire, he demonstrates the proper way to light fires with a portable stove, gas lighter, cigarette lighter, matches, and a kitchen stove. The trick seems to be yelling "Forno accendere!" with gusto.

Tickets for Shokugeki! Maihama-sai cost 5,900 yen ($48). Matsuoka has demonstrated his cooking skill on the web with a series of videos before, mostly involving variations on the infamous octopus tentacles with peanut butter, but also including Salisbury steak on rice. He appears with co-stars Takahashi, Taneda, and Shizuka Ishigami.