Hmmm... There was a cartoon series, I believe Chinese or Japanese (?)[It was over twenty years ago] that was about a young boy who was a very good cook, and most of the episodes were about acquiring some special ingredient, cooking to save some poor person, or winning some great competition.

I first saw it in the very very early days of YouTube.

For the life of me, I cannot recall which one. Any ideas?

Asking, because as far as animated cooking series, it had some great cooking scenes in each episode.