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Iron Chef

A Japanese television program on gourmet cooking and high caliber chefs made by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ryorino tetsujin (men of Cooking"). It began airing in 1993 as a half-hour show, and after 23 episodes was expanded to a one-hour format. Aired as a prime-time TV show, the series lasted for six years and more than 300 episodes. The final regular season episode was broadcast in September 1999, with specials continuing to 2002.

The program has an eccentric flavor, even for a game show. Its host is the flamboyant Takeshi Kaga, known on the show as Chairman Kaga. Its extravagant production values contrast with well-informed yet curiously pedestrian voice-over narration and polite but generally insipid commentary ("This is really very good") from the judges, not all of whom are food professionals.

The English name Iron Chef comes from the show itself: Kaga would use this translation of the Japanese title when summoning his chefs at the beginning of the battle.

Format

The story behind Iron Chef was that an eccentric gourmet authority (Chairman Kaga) had specially constructed a cooking arena called "Kitchen Stadium" in his castle where visiting chefs would compete against his Gourmet Academy, led by his three (later four) Iron Chefs. Chairman Kaga is a show piece in flamboyant, heavily decorated coats and jackets.
On each show, a challenger, typically a famous chef from Japan or elsewhere, is pitted against one of the Iron Chefs (with each Iron Chef specializing in a different kind of cuisine – Japanese, Chinese, French, and later Italian). Although chefs appear to have the freedom to choose which Iron Chefs they face, the matchups are determined well beforehand.
Originally, challengers battled each other in preliminary battles to earn the right to face an Iron Chef in a 90-minute battle, and should a challenger win two battles against Iron Chefs, the challenger would be given the title of "Honorary Iron Chef". However, this format proved unpopular, and thus the preliminary battles were scrapped and the main battles were reduced to the more familiar 60 minutes. The idea of honorary Iron Chef titles was also scrapped, although this was a moot point – few challengers have ever defeated two Iron Chefs in two separate battles.

In each episode, chefs have one hour to cook a multicourse meal with one theme ingredient that must be present in each dish. The chefs are given a short list of possible themes beforehand, allowing the producers of the show to get any necessary ingredients that may be needed. The chefs compete to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient." In rare cases has the format changed – angler fish battles were typically 75 minutes in length, and noodle battles had the Iron Chef stop after 50 minutes of cooking, only to resume after the challenger's dishes were tasted so that the noodles could be served right after cooking.

Featured ingredients tend toward the exotic and expensive. Many theme ingredients reflect the Japanese nature of the show – river eel, tofu, udon – though ingredients more familiar in the West, such as bell peppers, summer corn, peaches, are spotlighted as well. There are no specific requirements to the number of dishes that may be made – some challengers have finished only a single dish, and some challengers have finished as many as eight (although four dishes is the typical amount).

Each chef is also given two assistants, who are supposedly students of the Gourmet Academy. (In reality, they are students of the Hattori Nutrition College.) In some cases, the challenger may not speak Japanese, in which case the chef may be given students who can speak in the challenger's native language.
Throughout the cook-off, running commentary is made by two "sports-casters" in a booth and one floor reporter. The commentators may discuss the style of cooking, culinary traditions and unusual food preparation. Since time is of the essence, descriptions of the ingredients and cooking methods are conveyed to the audience by the floor reporter. One of the things that makes the show so entertaining is the Americanised style of the commentary, creating, on one level, a parody aspect to the show.

At the end of one hour, a panel of three (later expanded to four and later still, five) judges, of which typically one is a professional critic, tastes the dishes and judges them based on taste, presentation, and originality. Each chef may be awarded up to 20 points from each judge, with ten given for taste and five each for presentation and originality. The chef with the plurality of judges in support (not necessarily the chef with the greatest score) wins the competition.
In the case of a deadlock (as was possible during the era of the four-judge panel), first place is awarded to the chef with the greater number of points. On rare occasions, the scores are also tied, leading to an immediate "overtime battle" to determine the winner. The chefs are given 30 minutes to prepare dishes with a different key ingredient, making do with what remains of their pantry or items that were previously prepared for the main battle but later discarded. The overtime battles are aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the overtime battle itself resulted in a tie, prompting Chairman Kaga to declare both the Iron Chef and challenger winners.

List of Iron Chefs

These are the Iron Chefs who have appeared on the show (some have retired and have been replaced by successor Iron Chefs) along with their records[2]:
Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi 67-22-3
Iron Chef French (I) Yutaka Ishinabe 7-1-0
Iron Chef French (II) Hiroyuki Sakai 70-15-1
Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe 15-7-1
Iron Chef Japanese (I) Rokusaburo Michiba 32-5-1
Iron Chef Japanese (II) Koumei Nakamura 24-11-1
Iron Chef Japanese (III) Masaharu Morimoto 16-7-1

Notable challengers

Certain challengers have made repeat appearances, or have been particularly memorable.
(Please note that Japanese names are not in the traditional Japanese style [i.e. family name first] but have been written in standard European style [i.e. family name last].)

Alain Passard (Episodes 204 & 297) - Three star French chef and owner of L’Arpege, located in Paris. Ties Iron Chef Koumei Nokamura in the 1997 World Cup championship and was the final challenger in Kitchen Stadium, losing to Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai in the finals of the "King of Iron Chefs."

Kazuhiko Tei ( episode 6) - First chef to defeat an Iron Chef. The theme ingredient was octopus.
Tadamichi Ota ( episode 110) - Leader of the "Ota Faction" (traditional Japanese chefs. The Ota Faction regularly challenged Iron Chef Morimoto and his neo-Japanese style (episodes 248, 252, 265, 272 (win), 276+277). Ota Faction was the name used in the translated version shown on FoodTV. In the original Japanese version shown in the U.S. and transcribed by the Iron Chef Reporter in southern California the group is called Ota’s Party of Heaven and Earth.

Kyouko Kagata (episode 21) - The first female chef to appear on the show, and the youngest chef to be victorious. Challenged Chen Kenichi. An interesting side note is that the second female challenger (episodes 42 and 65) also faced Chen. The second indirectly picked Chen because she allowed Kaga to pick for her. Chen lost to the first and second, and purportedly caught some flak from chef-friends of his. Chen fought other two female challengers in episodes 94 (Takemasa; Kandagawa's faction) and 251 (Kagata again) and won.

Toshiro Kandagawa (episodes 17 (win), 60, 107, 214 (win), 301 (win)) - Regular challenger who aligned himself with the Ota Faction. Kandagawa has taken part in several battles wherein he supported apprentices to battle an Iron Chef and after numerous defeats finally agreed himself to battle an Iron Chef (episodes 15, 16, 32, 40, 65, 77, 94, 119, 150, 185 (win)). Note: He had won several times.

Bobby Flay (episode 300) - A well-known American chef, Flay entered into a bit of a rivalry with Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto during the show's special New York Battle. Flay complained that his side of the Kitchen was poorly laid out (it was noted in an Iron Chef America "Behind the Scenes" episode that the Kitchen was hastily set up in the provided forum). At one point, Flay received an electric shock, caused by a wet floor and faulty wiring, when he grabbed a metal pan on the range. Morimoto took exception to Flay's behavior, especially when Flay stood on his cutting board at the end of the battle. Flay has said in interviews that he was asked by show producers to play up an ugly American stereotype. Morimoto won, and Flay demanded a rematch. He got his wish, and his revenge, in the 21st Century Battle in Japan. Flay is now an Iron Chef alongside Morimoto on Iron Chef America.

Ron Siegel (Episode 250) - Then of Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco and currently Chef of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton. In Battle Lobster, became the first American chef to defeat an Iron Chef (Hiroyuki Sakai).

Michael Noble (episode 284) - The first Canadian to appear on the program, challenging Morimoto in Battle Potato in 1999 and losing; however, some believe that the result should have gone the other way.

Serie A (also known as the "Big Leaguers") - A group of Italian chefs which named itself after Italy's top football league and frequently challenged Iron Chef Italian Kobe (i.e. Mario Frittoli; episode 223, Costantino Gemmoli; episode 264, Franco Kanthoniel; episode 275). No group member ever defeated Kobe, although one member did defeat Morimoto (pasta specialist Marco Paolo Molinari in a porcini mushroom battle; episode 257).

Club Mistral - A group of young French chefs that targeted Iron Chef French Sakai in a similar fashion, although they took on Iron Chef Chinese Chen and Iron Chef French Ishinabe once each as well. Only one of them managed a win (Kazutaka Okabe versus Sakai, in a lamb battle; episode 83) despite several attempts.

Dr. Yukio Hattori (episodes 26, 220) - A gentlemen's agreement went on between the Chairman of Gourmet Academy (Kaga) and the President of Culinary Academy (Hattori) where the Doctor agreed to battle an Iron Chef. If he won, he would be given a spot alongside the Iron Chefs and if he lost he would keep working for Kaga. As he remained a commentator until the end of the series, one can easily deduce the outcome of that battle.

Broadcast history

The stage setting for the show, "Kitchen Stadium" (the high-quality (and sometimes very expensive) ingredients used in the cooking battles, and Kaga's extravagant costumes required the show to have a budget far higher than that of most other cooking shows. Some statistics: 893 portions of foie gras, 54 sea breams, 827 Ise shrimp, 964 matsutake mushrooms, 4,593 eggs, 1,489 truffles, 4,651 grams of caviar, and 84 pieces of shark fin were used during the show, bringing the total grocery bill to ¥843,354,407 (or about $8,000,000). One of the most expensive battles was Battle Swallow's Nest, which ran over $40,000 solely for that ingredient, not counting large quantities of shark's fin; for the battle, the producers were permitted to return any unused portions to Hattori Nutrition College. Chairman Kaga, who tried every dish, consumed a total of 10.0 gigajoules (2,390,000 calories).
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

For the show's grand finale, the Iron Chefs faced off against each other with the winner to face French chef Alain Passard, owner of Michelin three-star restaurant L’Arpege, with the winner dubbed the "King of Iron Chefs".
In the first round Iron Chef French Sakai defeated Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto in Battle Bell Pepper. The other first round match saw Iron Chef Chinese Chen defeat Iron Chef Italian Kobe in Battle Pork. In the semi-final match, Sakai defeated Chen in Battle Homard Lobster.

In the final match in Kitchen Stadium, with all of the current and previous Iron Chefs looking on, Iron Chef French Sakai defeated Alain Passard in Battle Ronkonkai Chicken. Thus, Hiroyuki Sakai was dubbed "King of Iron Chefs."

There were two reunion specials produced in 2000. The first was "The Millennium Special"; the second was "New York Special", staged in a makeshift Kitchen Stadium in New York City, and was the first appearance of Bobby Flay. Another reunion episode of the show (entitled "Iron Chef: 21st Century Battle") was produced and broadcast in 2001. A final reunion episode was produced and broadcast in 2002, entitled "The Japan Cup".

The show is presented in the United States on the Food Network, and on SBS TV in Australia, dubbed and/or subtitled into English. It was also broadcast on Challenge in the UK in 2003 and 2004, as part of its "Japanese Christmas Cracker" and "Japanorama" strands. In the case of SBS this is unusual as the network has a policy favouring in house subtitling. It may be felt that the tone the American dub gives the show is essential to its charms, heightened perhaps by the fact that in most episodes, the flamboyant Chairman is subtitled instead of dubbed.

10 Best Gourmet Dishes

(These dishes were picked by Chairman Kaga as the 10 Best Dishes out of about 2,500 during the course of the show)

Foie Gras Kanpon (Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba)
Thinly Sliced Sea Bream with Smoked Organs (Challenger Toshio Tanabe)
Roti of Homard with Vanilla Lindenbaum Flavoring (Challenger Pierre Ganiére)
Cocotte of Bacon and Country-Style Cabbage (Challenger Philippe Baton)
Ayu and Watermelon Mousse (Iron Chef Chen Kenichi)
Yellowtail with Daikon Radish (Challenger Fumiaki Sato)
Chinese Cabbage with Mustard (Challenger Sai Gyokubun)
Roasted Duck Stuffed with Foie Gras (Challenger Dominique Corby)
Homard Steamed with Seaweed (Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai)
Ronkonkai Chicken à la Dragée (Challenger Alain Passard)

Related shows

The U.S. UPN network presented two one-hour episodes of Iron Chef USA hosted by William Shatner around Christmas 2001. These shows were not a success. This may be because the show focused little on cooking—a major part of the Japanese program. The show had a small audience section in bleachers. The audience yelled relentlessly during the show (sounding much like a sports audience), Shatner walked around the kitchen sampling the more expensive items, the chefs refused to say what they were doing, and the cameras rarely showed the food preparation.

In 2004, Food Network announced that they would show an Iron Chef special, called "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters", featuring Sakai and Morimoto dueling with American Iron Chefs Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck, all Food Network personalities and renowned American celebrity chefs. (Morimoto and Flay battled in two previous Iron Chef specials that were made after the original series aired.) The specials featured fellow Food Network personality Alton Brown as the announcer and actor Mark Dacascos playing the role of The Chairman. Brown stars in the popular Food Network show, Good Eats.

The show received high ratings and rave reviews, and in October 2004, Food Network began taping weekly episodes that premiered starting in January 2005. Some changes were made to the show, most notably replacing Puck with Morimoto as an Iron Chef (and a fourth, Cat Cora, was added later), and the location was moved from Los Angeles to New York City.

The Australian ABC tv station also currently (2005) runs a similar show called "Beat The Chef", where a professional chef competes against a normal person (or couple), to cook dishes using certain pre-selected ingredients. Also, the dishes must reflect and represent those ingredients the best. It screens at 6:30pm on Wednesday nights.

See:
• Iron Chef America
• Alton Brown
• Chef
• Celebrity chef
• List of Chefs
• Dessert wine
• Sous chef
• Anchovy
• Asparagus
• Bisque
• Cooking
• Foie Gras
• Julia Child Gourmet Cook
• Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School
• Olive Oil
• Shrimp
• Sydney Smith's salad dressing

• Southwestern cuisine

• Chili Pepper
• Habanero
• Sushi

• Coffee: Historic Beverage and Great Gift

• Recipe: Grilled Tuna Steak 1
• Grilling Tuna Steak for a Simple Gourmet Meal

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Iron Chef ".