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What's the idea behind Iron Chef?
Something doesn't look right...There's gotta be actors here..
What's the beginning dialogue at the beginning of the show?
How many ties have there been?
Who are those guys on the photos in the beginning of the show?
How come they don't show those guys on TV?
What's the winning percentage of the challengers?
What's this special NY Battle?
Iron Chef is a popular cooking show that aired in Japan in 1993 on Fiji TV, and went off the air last year. The Food Network has bough tapes from Fiji, and brought it here to the US. Iron Chef is on Fridays at 10pm EST, Saturdays at 10pm EST, and Sundays at 7pm EST on the Food Network. The Friday edition of Iron Chef are the never-before seen editions (to the States that is), while the Saturday and Sunday editions are usually reruns.
What's the idea behind Iron Chef ?
Iron Chef is a cooking competition. Master Chefs from all over the world appear on Kitchen Stadium to take on an "Iron Chef", chefs that are considered to be THE master of their style of cooking. Both challenger and Iron Chef are given a theme ingredient revealed by Chairman Kaga. They then have 1 hour to create a full course meal that centers around the theme ingredient. In event of a tie, there is a 30 minute cook-off with a new theme ingredient.
Iron Chef Japanese-Masahara Morimoto
Iron Chef French-Hiroyuki Sakai
Iron Chef Chinese-Chen Kenichi
Iron Chef Italian-Masahiko Kobe
Something doesn't look right...There's gotta be actors here..
Only Chairman Kaga is the actor in the show. He's portrayed as an eccentric man who spent a fortune to create Kitchen Stadium with the goal was to find original cuisines to enjoy. So he goes out to find the master chefs of various cooking styles. And he named his men...The Iron Chefs!
Everyone else on the show is exactly who they say they are on the show.
What's the beginning dialogue at the beginning of the show ?
Ok I'm doing this off memory
"Five years ago, a man's fantasy became reality in a forum never seen before. Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter original cuisines which could be called true artistic creations. (Kaga: Allez Cuisine!) To realize his dream, he first secretly started selecting the top chefs of various styles of cooking. And he named his men..The Iron Chefs! The invincible men of culinary skill. Iron Chef Japanese is Masahara Morimoto. Iron Chef French is Hiroyuki Sakai. Iron Chef Chinese is Chen Kenichi. And Masahiko Kobe is Iron Chef Italian. Kitchen Stadium, is the arena where Iron Chefs await the challenges from master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day, using their senses, skills, and creativity, they are to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. And, if ever a challenge wins over the Iron Chef, he or she will gain the people's ovation and fame forever. Every battle, reputations are on the line in Kitchen Stadium, where master chefs pit their artistic creations against each other. What inspiration does today's challenger bring? And how will the Iron Chef fight back? The heat will be on!"
Here's how the points are scored
10-Taste
5-Presentation
5-Originality
The four judges score the dishes of both challenger and Iron Chef on this scale. Judges score on all dishes presented, not on a single dish. The winner is determined by the following
1) The winner is the chef that has the most judges score for them.
2) If the panel split 2 to 2, then the winner is decided on total points. The four judge's scores are added up for both challenger and Iron Chef. The winner is determined by who gets the most points.
3) If they are deadlocked on points, then there will be a 30 minute cook-off with a different theme ingredient. Overtime is scored the same way.
4) If they continue to tie after the tie-breaker, Chairman Kaga would most likely intervene (He's done this twice)
How many ties have there been?
There have been 8 ties in Iron Chef history. Out of those 8 ties, Iron Chef have won 4 tie breakers, the challenger 3 tie breakers, and 1 draw (Kaga declared both men the winners).
Who are those guys on the photos in the beginning of the show?
Those guys you see are the original Iron Chefs. The original Iron Chef French, Yutake Inshinabe, didn't last too long. The other man is the original Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba. And yes that is Chen in the other photo. Chen is the last of the the original Iron Chefs.
How come they don't show those guys on TV?
I dunno. I guess Food Network found Morimoto to be more interesting than the others. Morimoto's style of cooking can be better described as Neo-Japanese than Japanese. He's not afraid to use whatever's available to create his dishes. This guy's used stones for heating, hairdryers for drying fish, and other off-beat techniques.
What's the winning percentage of the challengers?
Not very good. Not including special battles, the challenger has won 55 of 274 battles, about 20%.
What's this special NY Battle?
Because Iron Chef really took off when Food Network started showing Iron Chef (It actually was on US TVs earler, for people that got Japanese channels on their TV's), the show and Food Network decided to create a TV special that was held on March of last year at NYC's Webster Hall. Mind you though, that Iron Chef stopped running in Japan a few months before the battle. Food Network had a special two hour show. The first hour had Kaga, Morimoto, Sakai, Kobe, and Michiba (Chen couldn't make the trip) touring NYC. Michiba visited a fan's house to cook. Sakai and Kobe invaded the CIT, and we get a look inside Nobu with Michiba and Morimoto. The second hour was the actual competition, between Morimoto and Mesa Grill's owner and head chef Bobby Flay.