As the main protagonist, Soma fights his odds in the elite school in order to become the best chef in the world, even with strong background discrimination of his academy. He is currently a student at Totsuki Culinary Academy and a resident of Polar Star Dormitory. Soma isn't afraid of any challenge that he either gets himself in or gets involved with, which is seen a couple of times in the manga. He even challenges his father to a cooking match and seems to always lose to him. Soma is a very confident person and is not afraid to challenge anyone, which is seen when he challenges Satoshi Isshiki or Kojiro Shinomiya to Shokugeki. Despite many of his classmates having hostile feelings towards him, Soma has a very friendly personality and gets along with everyone in the Polar Star Dormitory and even some of his other classmates. He does have a tendency to create experimental "special dishes" and have his friends taste them even though most of these are terrible; something he shares with his father. Soma's specialty is common cooking, making artful dishes out of common and/or cheap ingredients and using common Japanese dishes (i.e. curry or beef bowls) as bases for his dishes during competition.