"Shokugeki no Soma" chapter 161 is already online thanks to Manga Stream. The latest chapter moves ahead of the recent events on Shokugeki. Even though they were able to win most of their matches, they lost to Ryo as Central's chef Rentaro was unable to match his dish. Before any speculations and predictions of the upcoming chapters, here is the recap of the recent events.
After the initial Shokugeki, Central wasted no time in dismantling the research groups that were defeated by the Central division. In the meantime, school continues but with a big difference: students have to follow specific instructions on what they should do and do away with creative applications on various recipes. In Soma's class, everyone was surprised that their class with be handled by Eishi - one of the elite ten in the school. Everyone hesitated on becoming the assistant chef of Eishi because of his temperament and tendency to fire someone out of whim. Soma volunteered to be his sous chef and after keeping up with the elite ten, Eishi asked Soma if he's interested in becoming a member of the central division because of his skill.
Even though Soma's answer is still a cliff hanger, it's reasonable that Soma would decline the offer to be part of the Central division. In fact, this would make Soma more confident of his abilities since he could challenge anyone in Central since he has proven himself at par with Eishi.
Reddit user GodEmperorPenguin predictis, "Soma rejects the offer. Eishi sighs and makes some cryptic comments about how it's always a generational fight at the school..." On the other hand, user TotalEcon on Manga Helpers predicts, "Soma joining Central would allow him to gather better intel. Remember, Central is not showing off their own specialties except for Rentaro. And at the end of the day, the only way for Soma to get insight to the specialties of Central he needs to become a mole."
