Iron Chef: The original Japanese incarnation

[hjshorter]

Count me in the "love it" category. What makes the show for me are the voice-overs; it's not surprising that Kris would find it tiresome on the original language. Chen is my favorite IC.

And Kaga's jackets...

[TrishCT]

I think the Japanese were very gracious to allow Flay a second chance and to award him the victory. All about saving face, though I think Flay didn't deserve it.

Some of my fave moments on IC:

1. The Peach battle between Sakai-san and a challenger whose wife sent him a Dear John letter during the show, read aloud to him by the announcer. The poor man started to cry. Also unique in that battle, the challenger declared he would face Sakai-san alone, no assistants, and Sakai then dismissed his helpers as well. One on one, a good show.

2. Eels escaping into Kitchen Stadium. Eels being thrown into a barrel of sake. Eels being be-headed.

3. "Chairman" Kaga hiding behind a pillar after being humiliated by the Iron Chefs while they were on a losing streak.

4. When American challenger Chef Ron Siegel won. I remember one of the judges expressing shock that she even liked his food.

5. One of the starlet judges exclaiming, "I don't know how to eat this, this dish confuses me."

6. Shad roe sorbet.

7. Ota's (the Jimmy Olsen of IC reporting) enthusiasm.

[Janedujour]

A good list Trish!

I love Iron Chef too and have also seen many episodes repeated. Is it actually still being produced in Japan? I never know how current each competition is.

Some of the judges occupations are pretty funny. my favorites being the "fortune teller", pro baseball player and his wife, and the lounge singer guy.

I love to see how they enjoy the dishes. On one episode a demure actress tasted a wonderful porridge and claimed giggling with hand over mouth "Ohhhh, Ohhhh, this makes me sooooo happy. It reminds me of when I was a little girl in _____"

It's hard to pick a favorite. Chen always looks like he's having so much fun and has a great sense of humor.

Morimoto is just so cool

[Singapore]

Morimoto rules!

Flay was given his win as a face saving concession to the Food Network. Guy probably lost business as a result of the loss. Anyone who stands on a #$%$##$ cutting board, or tosses one on the floor, doesn't deserve the win!

Flay does have a cute girlfriend, tho.

[mikeczyz]

the final battle against alain passard had me glued to my seat...

mike

[jcsaucey]

the final battle against alain passard had me glued to my seat...

mike

Oh my god. I have not seen this episode. Who won and was Passard's food amazing?

[VeryApe77]

the final battle against alain passard had me glued to my seat...

mike

Oh my god. I have not seen this episode. Who won and was Passard's food amazing?

If memory serves, Sakai won...but Passard's food did look pretty good

It was the last episode, of course the iron chef was going to win!

Edited January 2, 2004 by VeryApe77 (log)

[KatieLoeb]

And Kaga's jackets... 

Chairman Kaga is the Liberace of the foodie set! I think we need Carson from Queer Eye to help him update his wardrobe to some 21st century costuming, dontcha think?

[phaelon56]

the American panel was a bunch of morons who couldn't say any more about the food that "tastes great" or "less filling".

The American Iron Chef episode that I saw (which was truly disturbing) was the one that included, among others, actress Loretta Devin, one of the big burly Italian-American guys from "The Sopranos" and of all people... Ron Popeil!!!

Devine and the Sopranos guy both made inane comments that appeared to be unintentional stereotypes of their own respective cultural backgrounds (or perhaps it was intended to be humor and I just could not see it that way?)

Pleasant surprise from an otherwise failry worthless episode.... Ron Popeil was by far the best judge and the only one able to articulate his opinions about the food. Go figure. They didn't even use a Showtime rotisserie oven.

[TrishCT]

And Kaga's jackets... 

Chairman Kaga is the Liberace of the foodie set! I think we need Carson from Queer Eye to help him update his wardrobe to some 21st century costuming, dontcha think?

I happen to find Kaga's shirt in the opening (the white one with splotches that look like black ink drops or a pinto pony) incredibly sexy. I have looked all over fine men's stores for one (for my husband), but nada. Hmm...maybe Carson knows...

[hjshorter]

And Kaga's jackets... 

Chairman Kaga is the Liberace of the foodie set! I think we need Carson from Queer Eye to help him update his wardrobe to some 21st century costuming, dontcha think?

I happen to find Kaga's shirt in the opening (the white one with splotches that look like black ink drops or a pinto pony) incredibly sexy. I have looked all over fine men's stores for one (for my husband), but nada. Hmm...maybe Carson knows...

The shirt is very nice, but my favorite is the black and cream patchwork sequinned thing that he wears occasionally. Holy cow is it over the top.

[jhlurie]

I cannot bring myself to watch more than a few brief minutes of this program before I am desperate to watch anything or nothing else. The head dude in charge is so over the top cheesey that I don't usually get past that. Talk about full of one's self! Its all just a big nasty ball of velveeta to me. I've tried to get into it but its just not gonna happen for me. I can live with that :D

You have to be into that vibe--to understand that dressing and acting like a cross between Lestat the Vampire, David Bowie, that psychic guy who is always on the Spanish language channels here in the US, and Liberace is a STATEMENT, damnit! It's a statement that Chairman Kaga will NOT be categorized or stereotyped!

Kaga!

[ExtraMSG]

Ever see the turtle episode where they butchered the live turtles, blood spurting everywhere? My wife literally sprinted from the room.

I actually think Flay did a good job. The first episode was totally lame and I got the feeling that people primarily voted for Morimoto because Americans like to go for who they see as the underdog or the cool one. In the second episode, I thought Flay won primarily because he shocked the judges. They kept commenting how bold his stuff was. I think they just hadn't seen someone cook like that and hadn't been confronted with such flavors. Though both could have been a setup. The most disturbing part of both episodes was that creepy little kid dressed as Morimoto.

[Chad]

The most disturbing part of both episodes was that creepy little kid dressed as Morimoto.

Oh, yeah. That kid was weird, weird, weird.

If I had been Morimoto, I think I'd have gone into hiding. After, of course, bitch-slapping the publicist and producers of the show for setting that up.

Creepy.

Chad

[jcsaucey]

Did anyone see the episode with Canadian Micheal Noble? I am curious how he made out?

There was a Canadian Iron Chef one off this year in Toronto with William Shatner as the host, Susur Lee vs Micheal Bonoccini and the secret ingredient was Kellogs All-Bran cerial.

Susur won.

[TrishCT]

I saw the Michael Noble one, the theme was potatoes, I believe. Chef Noble lost. He gave a valiant effort, but one of his dishes looked like a pot roast stew and I think the Japanese judges did not care for or appreciate that type of presentation. Still, it was clear that the show was thrilled to have Chef Noble on. As a good sport he ambled into Kitchen Stadium in canadian outdoor wear, looking like a mountie on holiday.

[ExtraMSG]

There's an Iron Chef book that has a table of all the results plus some recipes, etc. It's actually not that bad:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

Also, you can google for iron chef and find lots of episode guides, like this one:

http://www.ironfans.com/episodes/guide/

[jhlurie]

Did anyone see the episode with Canadian Micheal Noble? I am curious how he made out?

There was a Canadian Iron Chef one off this year in Toronto with William Shatner as the host, Susur Lee vs Micheal Bonoccini and the secret ingredient was Kellogs All-Bran cerial.

Susur won.

Good lord, they might as well have used Kraft Dinner (and really expensive ketchups).

And Shatner? You guys know he was recycled from the U.S. version, right? Why would they bother after the response they got?

[TrishCT]

There's an Iron Chef book that has a table of all the results plus some recipes, etc. It's actually not that bad:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846

This is the IC book that I have. Reasons I find it lame:

1. It pretends that "Chairman Kaga" really is the head of an underground culinary academy.

2. Although it lists every episode, including chef, challenger and theme, it does NOT tell who won each battle.

3. The recipes included are vaguely drafted and poorly written. They also use metric measurements, a little odd considering this book was specifically geared towards Americans.

4. Interviews with the iron chefs aren't especially enlightening or interesting.

The most I got out of it was some stats... Which IC won the most battles, who lost the most, what challenger was most successful, etc...

[Andy Lynes]

Its the 1994 series that is showing in the UK at the moment, it was the Eggplant challenge with 70 year old Koichi Tabata against Chen Kinichi this evening, so we've got a hell of a lot of catching up to do. Can't wait.

[Jason Perlow]

Ever see the turtle episode where they butchered the live turtles, blood spurting everywhere? My wife literally sprinted from the room.

No but I saw the mass killing of homard lobsters episode, that one was cool. Much chinese cleaver mayhem ensued.

[hillvalley]

When I first got FN a few years ago I was completely addicted. Now it has settled down. One of my "foodie dreams" is to eat an Iron Chef type meal prepared by one of the chefs. Yes, I know Morimoto has a restaurant in Philly, just haven't made it there yet and he probably wouldn't be preparing it anyway. Frankly, he was my least favorite chef. There were many dishes he made that just looked awful. Anyone remember the natto and cola? Ugh.

[cjs]

I cannot bring myself to watch more than a few brief minutes of this program before I am desperate to watch anything or nothing else. The head dude in charge is so over the top cheesey that I don't usually get past that. Talk about full of one's self! Its all just a big nasty ball of velveeta to me. I've tried to get into it but its just not gonna happen for me. I can live with that :D

I'm with you nessa.

too stupid for words.

[KatieLoeb]

And Kaga's jackets... 

Chairman Kaga is the Liberace of the foodie set! I think we need Carson from Queer Eye to help him update his wardrobe to some 21st century costuming, dontcha think?

I happen to find Kaga's shirt in the opening (the white one with splotches that look like black ink drops or a pinto pony) incredibly sexy. I have looked all over fine men's stores for one (for my husband), but nada. Hmm...maybe Carson knows...

I have cowboy boots that match that shirt perfectly. Black and white pony hair uppers and black leather bottoms...

[hannnah]

No but I saw the mass killing of homard lobsters episode, that one was cool. Much chinese cleaver mayhem ensued.

Speaking of mayhem, I'd have to say my favorite episodes are the ones where the ingredients fight back or try to run off. There was the octopus episode where one of the octopi drags itself out of the tank and starts legging it out of the studio, then there was an eel episode (anago I think) where the eels were live, very very toothy, and out for chef.

About a year and a half ago, someone in DC brought Chen and Sakai over to do a sort of Iron Chef Live thing (strangely not sponsored by FoodTV) as part of an outdoor concert series. I'm not sure exactly how it fit in as a concert, but who knows.

Anyway, we saw Sakai's bit - his ingredient was Maryland blue crabs, and they were out to get him. Someone hadn't thought ahead, because they hadn't provided any sort of crab-grabbing equipment. He made a grab for one, it grabbed back, and it got flung away pretty quickly. Full points to Sakai, though - he grabbed a kitchen towel, let the crabs latch on to it, then flipped them into the pot. At this point someone finally brought him some tongs.

It was a lot of fun to watch them work, and we finally got an idea of what Kitchen Stadium smells like during cooking (assuming it's a good ingredient night) - drool-inducingly good.