Iron Chef is a Japanese television program made by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ryori no tetsujin (料理の鉄人, Iron men of cookery). It began airing in 1993 as a half-hour show, and was soon expanded to a one-hour format.

Each episode presents a culinary battle between two chefs in "Kitchen Stadium". A contestant – usually a famous chef from Japan or elsewhere – is pitted against one of the show's four "Iron Chefs". Each of the Iron Chefs is an expert in a different cuisine, either Japanese, Chinese, French, or Italian. The chefs have just one hour to complete their dishes; at the end of the hour, a panel of Japanese celebrities tastes and rates the dishes and crowns a victor.

The program has an eccentric flavor, even for a game show. Its host is the flamboyant Takeshi Kaga (鹿賀丈史), known on the show as Chairman Kaga(主宰) 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.

Almost all battles require the opponents to cook a multicourse meal in which a special theme ingredient plays a starring role. The chefs are given a short list of possible theme ingredients beforehand, which enables them to have the necessary ingredients stocked. The chefs compete to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient." 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 – green peppers, summer corn, peaches &ndish; are spotlighted as well. In the American version, this is misleadingly called the secret ingredient.

Originally, the panel consisted of three judges, and contained preliminary battles for challengers to earn the right to face an Iron Chef. Later, the panel expanded to four. Since ties were now possible, each judge scored each chef's dishes on a 20-point scale. If the judges were deadlocked 2–2, the first tiebreaker was total points. If the point total was also level, the chefs would immediately begin an overtime period, with a new theme ingredient and only 30 minutes and what remains in the pantry to complete their dishes. The overtime aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the judges deadlocked 2–2 and on points after the overtime; the host Takeshi Kaga then declared both the Iron Chef and his challenger as 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):

• Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi (陳建一)
• Iron Chef French (I) Yutake Ishinabe (石鍋裕)
• Iron Chef French (II) Hiroyuki Sakai (坂井宏行)
• Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe (神戸勝彦)
• Iron Chef Japanese (I) Rokusaburo Michiba (道場六三郎)
• Iron Chef Japanese (II) Koumei Nakamura (中村孝明)
• Iron Chef Japanese (III) Masaharu Morimoto (森本正治)

Notable challengers

Certain challengers have made repeat appearances, or have been particularly memorable.

(Please note that these names are not in the traditional Japanese style [i.e. family name first] but have been Romanized.)

• Kazuhiko Tei - First chef to defeat an Iron Chef. The theme ingredient was octopus
• Tadamichi Ota - leader of the "Ota Faction" of traditional Japanese chefs. The Ota Faction regularly challenged Iron Chef Morimoto and his neo-Japanese style. 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 (OPHE).
• Kyouko Kagata - The first female chef to appear on the show, and the youngest chef to be victorious.
• Toshiro Kandagawa - regular challenger who aligned himself with the Ota Faction. Kandagawa has taken part in seven battles as a chef.
• Bobby Flay - 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. Morimoto took exception to Flay's behavior, especially when Flay stood on his cutting board at the end of the battle. 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 on Iron Chef America.
• Ron Siegel - Then of Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco. In Battle Lobster, became the first non-Asian, non-European chef to defeat an Iron Chef (Hiroyuki Sakai).
• Serie A - A group of Italian chefs which named itself after Italy's top football league and frequently challenged Iron Chef Italian Kobe. No group member ever defeated Kobe, although one member did defeat Morimoto.

Notable judges

Diehard fans note that a given show will be greatly influenced by the lineup of judges, which changes from show to show. A list of some of the more memorable judges includes:

(Please note that these names are not in the traditional Japanese style [i.e. family name first] but have been Romanized.)

• Akebono, yokozuna
• Jackie Chan, actor, director, martial artist
• Asako Kishi , aka the "East German Judge", a food critic and nutritionist
• Shinichiro Kurimoto , politician (lower house member)
• Chua Lam, VP of Golden Harvest
• Kazuko Hosoki , popular fortune teller and holder of the World Record for Most Best-selling Books (81 books)
• Korn , a rap artist
• Tamio Kageyama , novelist(deceased)
• Yasushi Akimoto , lyricist
• Kazuhiro Sasaki, baseball player (then with Yokohama BayStars, later with Seattle Mariners, still later returned to BayStars)
• Nagisa Oshima, film director
• Mayuko Takata , Actress, wife of Taro Hakase, a Violinist
• Julie Dreyfus, French actress, also fluent in Japanese and English.

Show staff

• Kenji Fukui , Announcer
• Dr. Yukio Hattori, Commentator
• Shinichiro Ohta , Kitchen Reporter

• Dave Spector served as translator and commentator for "New York Special."

Broadcast history

The stage setting for the show, "Kitchen Stadium" (キッチンスタジアム), 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). Chairman Kaga, who tried every dish, consumed a total of 2,389,995 calories. 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.

For the show's grand finale, the Iron Chefs faced off against each other, and the final winner was dubbed the "King of Iron Chefs". The victor was Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai.

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 US 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.

10 Best 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 Batton)
• 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 Dragee (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.

The show received high ratings and rave reviews, and in October 2004, Food Network began filming 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 filming location was moved from Los Angeles to New York City.

External links

• Food TV site
• The Japanese official homepage (in Japanese)
• The Japanese official homepage (in English)
• Iron Chef Battle Database (in English)