A Taste-Off!

**A Taste-Off!** is the eleventh Season 1 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the eleventh episode overall. It is notable for the first appearance of the Chef Copy Ability and the character Mr. Eggward (although this one turned out to be an imposter).

## Summary

The monster Poppy Corn comes to town disguised as Mr. Eggward, Chef Peppermint’s mentor, who is eager to impress his teacher. “Mr. Eggward” claims to visit Usapia to critique the castle’s cuisine, but reveals its true form upon exposure as a fake.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Chef Peppermint
* Tommy
* King Leonardo

### Secondary

* Gene
* Helios & Luna (*Luna has no lines*)
* Hover (*has no lines*)
* Lady Chanter
* Manny
* Milly
* Moonlight Man
* Mr. Eggward (*debut; imposter*)
* Poppy Corn (*debut*)
* Sir Chanter
* Viruses

## Episode summary

The episode begins at Castle Leonardo, as Tommy rushes in to give King Leonardo the news that the world-famous chef Mr. Eggward is coming to Usapia in order to survey its cuisine. Hearing this, King Leonardo orders Tommy to find a way to prepare an exquisite meal for the chef so that the castle will get a good review, but then the king gets an evil idea to cook up Tommy as the meal. After a bit of resistance from his turtle assistant, Leonardo realizes he should get a professional chef instead. Meanwhile, at Peppermint's Table, Sir Chanter and his family have come for dinner for the first time in years. After receiving their food, they remember why it had been so long, and complain openly to Chef Peppermint about how bad the food is. After this berating, Manny asks Chef Peppermint about his frying pan, prompting Peppermint to reminisce on his time in cooking school while Leeko happily gulps down all the food on the table. At that moment, King Leonardo and Tommy show up at the restaurant to recruit Peppermint as the court chef for Castle Leonardo, and the chef is in ecstatic disbelief.

The dream is shortly shattered at the castle, however, as none of Peppermint's foods please King Leonardo. As Leonardo and Tommy berate the chef for his cooking, they reveal that Mr. Eggward is coming to the castle in an hour to sample the food, which causes Peppermint to panic and run back into the kitchen. Out of options, King Leonardo decides to call Nebula Enterprises to send them something that will help. Instead of a monster, through the Monster delivery system comes a cookbook that is written by Mr. Eggward. Gene directs them to page 250, which is an entry regarding Zeebon; a creature that Eggward considers to be "the most delectable of all". Looking at the entry, King Leonardo has a devious plan in mind. In the castle library, Chef Peppermint is struggling to find a good recipe from the books on offer. While his head is down, Leonardo and Tommy plant Eggward's book on the table and walk out of the room. After looking up again, Peppermint sees the book and immediately opens it to the page with the Zeebon picture on it, showing that the book now displays an image of Leeko under the entry.

Out in the castle courtyard, Leeko is playing a game of ball with the kids, when Chef Peppermint comes to ask Leeko for his "help" in the kitchen. Leeko agrees to go with him, but the kids start to get suspicious at the chef's strange tone and phrasing, while King Leonardo and Tommy look on from the distance and gloat about their plan. In the kitchen, Chef Peppermint begins his work by suggesting to Leeko that his pot of boiling water is a "nice hot bath" and that he should get in. Milly and Manny come to the kitchen to spy on him, though surprisingly, Leeko seems unharmed by the boiling water. Peppermint then offers to give Leeko a "massage" by kneading him like dough and then lathering him in salt. Still completely oblivious to the chef's intentions, Leeko relaxes and falls asleep on the table. From here, Peppermint prepares to slaughter Leeko using a stiff whack with a wooden club, but just before he does so, Milly and Manny in to stop him. They berate Peppermint for wanting to cook Leeko, and remind him of what Leeko has done for the town, but Peppermint's strong desire to please his teacher Eggward gets the better of him and he demands the kids to leave.

Up on the main deck of the castle, King Leonardo and Tommy welcome Mr. Eggward as he flies in on a helicopter. They set up the table for him in the dining hall and serve him the first course, which he violently spits out in disgust, but admits was "not bad". Back at the kitchen, Moonlight Man slices the door away to let the kids get inside, but finds they are too late, as both Peppermint and Leeko are nowhere to be seen. As the kids run out through a secret hatch that Peppermint must've used, Moonlight Man finds the cookbook and discovers the trick, peeling the Leeko sticker off the Zeebon page, then discovers who had sent the book. Back in the dining hall, Chef Peppermint brings out the main course on a massive covered platter. The lid is removed to reveal Leeko in a pan and garnish. As it turns out, Peppermint could not bring himself to cook Leeko, and he wakes up. Despite this, Eggward prepares to take a bite out of Leeko anyway, but Peppermint comes to his senses and stops Eggward, knocking Leeko off the table. Mr. Eggward berates Peppermint for this, insulting his frying pan in the process. Though horrified at first, Peppermint soon snaps out of it, knowing that the frying pan in question was a gift from Eggward, and the real chef would never have insulted it. He concludes that his "master" is actually an imposter, and Moonlight Man confirms this by revealing Leonardo's trick.

At this, the imposter Eggward drops the act and transforms into his true form - a green snowman-shaped blob monster called Poppy Corn. Poppy Corn then starts attacking everyone in the castle by tossing globs of its body which create pools of boiling hot liquid where they strike. Thinking fast, Chef Peppermint tosses Leeko his frying pan and Leeko swallows it, transforming into Chef Leeko for the first time. After battling Poppy Corn for a bit, Chef Peppermint and Moonlight Man intervene by dousing Poppy Corn in flour, then Chef Leeko runs in and catches Poppy Corn with a massive frying pan. Poppy Corn and the frying pan get tossed all the way into space and toward the sun. After the frying pan comes crashing back down into the castle, the group finds the monster has been fried to perfection. King Leonardo approaches the fried Poppy Corn and takes a bite. Finding it tasty, he decides to appoint Chef Leeko as the court chef in place of Peppermint. The episode ends as Chef Peppermint faints in disbelief, and Chef Leeko goes to see if Peppermint is okay.

## Trivia

* This is the first appearance of the Chef Copy Ability in *The Beginning* series.
* Featured monster: Poppy Corn
* Featured important/guest character: Mr. Eggward (although he is actually an imposter)
* This is the third episode in the series where a Puffy Town villager plays a major role in an episode. In this episode, it’s Chef Peppermint. It’s also the first episode he has played major role in.
* King Leonardo is shown to be able to read fluently in this episode, which contradicts later episodes where it is shown he is illiterate.
* Leonardo was seen being kind to Leeko and giving him something that doesn't harm him in any way; in this case, giving him the role of court chef (though this does not carry in future episodes).
* A promotional image based on this episode shows Leeko with the Chef ability battling Poppy Corn. However, the battle takes place outside the castle.