Zeff has always been a wise leader & deep thinker, as made evident by his mustache still being much longer than should be possible even when he was much younger. It is not as long as his braided mustache when he is an old geezer, because he gets even wiser as he ages, but it is still more of a mustache than any normal person would ever have. Many traditional & ancient cultures have beliefs that long & well-maintained facial hair represents maturity, knowledge, & respect, so this is an easy trope to identify, and I am happy to see it played out this way with a look to the past.
Another mention of a previous blog post, we continue to see that the cooks of the One Piece world put that identity deep into their self-worth. The group at the beginning discussing how they would risk life & limb to find the All Blue with a variety of rare and delicious sealife shows that even their personal goals & dreams are rooted in their chef identities. Even Zeff, a mighty successful pirate, holds in his heart a vision of a future where he runs a restaurant. This world is somewhat tumultuous with food scarcity and political turmoil, so it does make sense that people would grow their culture in the vicinity of feeding people, and we see it written out very well and believable in One Piece.
Taking it a step further, Zeff is even willing to die to protect Sanji so that his own dream of finding the All Blue stays alive with his young protege. He not only believes in the All Blue but holds it in such a high regard that he would give his life to help someone achieve the goal. Their bond is entirely rooted in this shared passion, making them loyal allies for reasons much beyond self-service or worldly pleasures; they want to improve the world in a specific way and hold each other up to get as close as they can to success, even if most other people find this to be a ridiculous quest. Of course, having a lofty desire that is ridiculed by society is what makes Sanji a perfect Straw Hat, much like wanting to be king of the pirates, or the world’s greatest swordsman, or making 10 million berries, or whatever Usopp is trying to do.
The exploration of why Zeff & Sanji are so dedicated to feeding any hungry person who enters their restaurant is satisfying with the reflections on food waste and realization that gold & jewels are worthless to a hungry sailor stranded on a rock. Sanji was just that morning throwing away food and insulting the other cooks for eating customer’s leftovers, and now recognizes the importance of using every calorie available in the best way possible. The bag of inedible treasure is a subtle callback to the mayor in a previous episode talking about the different types of treasure different people consider valuable, such as friends, locations, memories, and the like. For Sanji & Zeff on the rock, their most valuable treasure is their tiny supply of food.
Last note, watching Zeff save Sanji in the water made me consider for the first time the deeper implications of the Devil Fruit stealing one’s ability to swim. My initial assumptions were just an increased risk if they fall off the ship or something, but swimming is ultimately a crucial element of being a sailor in the first place, between ship repairs, fishing, recreation, and saving crew mates, plus more. In a world consisting mostly of isolated islands, the cost of losing the ability to swim is rather expensive, even compared to the power granted by these fruits. Most, if not all, of the characters we have seen with Devil Fruit power did so accidentally, and I think that is probably not a coincidence.