SANJI VAPES ITS CANON Alternate thought: most of the cooks at the restaurant I work at smoke so it could just be a cook thing? But also I know cigarettes suppress appetite... and who do we know that would ever want to suppress his appetite in favor of his crewmates..... and let himself starve instead of them bc he requires less calories....... and probably low-key feels guilty about the whole island thing with Zeff still........... sorry that got dark really fast but ANYWAYYYYY
Okay but yes tho? Have some more thoughts about smoking Sanji.
What if he just learns to work around it? He knows that when it tastes like this level of ash to him, that’s the sweet level Robin likes, and this level of spice, it’s barely nothing to him, but it’s on the edge of too hot for Usopp. Imagine a Sanji who knows what everyone’s favorite flavors feel like in his mouth, even though they all taste like smoke to him.
Alternatively, child Sanji being picky with food because flavors were always so strong to him. He got over it on the island because after something like that, personal taste has nothing to do with what you’ll eat, you know? So he follows Zeff and learns to tell flavor and spice combinations and such but it’s all so strong, constantly, all these flavors, and some linger and he doesn’t like most of them but that doesn’t matter. He picks up smoking to purposefully dull his taste buds?
About appetite suppression: I think in cases they’re running low, of course his portion gets cut first. Cooking is, hilariously, not about the food to Sanji, I think. I mean, it is, obviously cooking is an art form, especially to him, but it’s about providing and feeding people more than the food itself. In that case, I can easily imagine him eating leftovers or bland whatever instead of making himself anything he actually likes. He eats for energy, not enjoyment. What’s it like to have a favorite food? He may not even really remember.
I don’t think Sanji would ever let himself starve, though? Not if he had the choice. His crew relies on him. He’s one of the heaviest hitters, of course, and he’s in charge of their food, and he burns through a lot of energy to do both those things. It’s his duty to maintain himself in order to provide and protect.
But for all that, I think Sanji–however he does it, however problematic you may find him, however obnoxious he can sometimes come across–is still an amazing chef. He’s constantly working with local ingredients he’s never encountered before, ingredients that can’t be judged on look or smell, and some that don’t even seem edible sometimes. When is this weird type of meat thing cooked through? What happens if it’s not? Is it supposed to change color and flavor like that?
Can you imagine running a galley on the Grand Line where nothing is consistent and half the things will kill you accidentally? And an entire crew is depending on you to not only not serve them poison, but to make whatever it is taste amazing?
But that’s all besides the point, because we don’t actually know what Sanji is constantly smoking. It could be tobacco or pot or clove cigarettes or magical non-taste-destroying stuff? We don’t really know.
Okay but what if–what if the big, deep dark secret of Sanji and the One Piece universe is that they actually are lollipops?
