Actually, the true original is Cooking Master Boy which came out in 1995. It has shounen-battle-like cooking competitions that often include special gimmicks.
Yeah Chuuka Ichiban! (中華一番!) is the first to the formula and should be deemed the original to Food Wars aka 食戟のソーマ.
That show was awesome. The legendary cooking equipment that has special effects like sky beam and dragon flying out was cool as fuck.
