Began Taste-testing As An Infant
Erina’s first words were not “papa” or “mama” like most normal babies. Instead, the first words she spoke were critiquing the taste of her mother’s breast milk. Soon afterward, Erina food war became a prestigious taste-tester because of her supernatural ability called the “God Tongue”
In one scene, she is shown to be tasting different varieties of salts from Japan’s many prefectures while she was still clearly an infant. This is an incredibly irresponsible move on her parents’ part, and it’s unbelievable that Erina didn’t develop high blood pressure or some other health concerns as a baby.
Why Her Review Is Enough To End A Chef’s Career
In her first appearance in the anime, it is established that a simple bad review from Erina food war tasting someone’s food is enough to ruin their business or career. This makes no sense whatsoever, as the purpose of taste-testers or food reviewers is to critique and provide feedback to chefs who allow their consultation.
In other words, Erina’s input would only hold weight to a certain extent, and chefs would be able to adjust their recipes after her critique. This is just the anime being overdramatic about Erina’s abilities.
One of the oddest things about Erina’s “God Tongue” ability is that she gets weirdly vivid and specific visions whenever she tastes bad food, such as when she tasted a bowl of congee and visualized herself in a hot spring bath with a gorilla joining her.
How she derives these visions from the taste of food is a complete mystery, and makes no sense. It does make for hilarious, albeit pointless, cutscenes that add a layer of silliness to her otherwise serious and straightforward character.
