Iron Chef America: How secret is the secret ingredient?

[Fear Itself]

In Iron Chef America, do the competitors know waht the secret incgredient is before the competition? It seems unlikely that the elaborated recipes are concocted on the fly, nor that the secret ingredient is just shoe-horned into recipes they had planned to cook before the secret ingredient is revealed.

Tonight I watched "Battle: Cherries" and the challenger was serving on of his dishes on cherry wood planks. Was that just an incredible coincidence that he planned to bring cherry wood planks, or is Kitchen Stadium really that well stocked, including wooden planks of a variety of wood types? Or is it as I suspect, that the competetors already know the 'secret ingredient' before the Chairman reveals it?

[runner pat]

As I remember, they're given five possibles a few days beforehand.

[Dolores Reborn]

I thought I had read they had about three days advance notice, but this article says they are given a list of five possible secret ingredients, with a week to a month advance notice. They also are given a $500 budget to purchase extra ingredients.

[silenus]

From what I have learned, they are given a list in advance of 3-5 ingredients. Then, once the SI is revealed, they have 45 minutes or so to get everything they need into their pantries for the challenge.

[Swords to Plowshares]

Yep, pretty much what the others have said. I've heard that on the Japanese Iron Chef show they gave a list but some of the ingredients were obviously not going to be chosen (eg. "bricks", "water", and "asparagus") so it was clear what the ingredient would be. I haven't been able to verify that, however.

[gotpasswords]

I dunno. My mother could make a delicious brick casserole. You just need to marinate them.

[runner pat]

Originally Posted by Swords to Plowshares

Yep, pretty much what the others have said. I've heard that on the Japanese Iron Chef show they gave a list but some of the ingredients were obviously not going to be chosen (eg. "bricks", "water", and "asparagus") so it was clear what the ingredient would be. I haven't been able to verify that, however.

Originally Posted by gotpasswords

I dunno. My mother could make a delicious brick casserole. You just need to marinate them.

You are dealing with the Japanese version, brick could have be legit.

[Turble]

Does anybody know if all the Iron Chefs prepare recipes for the list of possible secret ingredients or do they know in advance who will be the one chosen to compete?

[Brainiac4]

Originally Posted by Turble

Does anybody know if all the Iron Chefs prepare recipes for the list of possible secret ingredients or do they know in advance who will be the one chosen to compete?

If you look at the Iron Chefs in silhouette during the challenger's entry, it's pretty clear that at least some of them are stand-ins. I don't know if the challenger gets to choose which Iron Chef they face (I doubt it), but if they are doing so, they're choosing from a subset. Given that all of the Iron Chefs have multiple restaurants and many of them also have other shows, I find it highly likely that the choice is made well in advance.

Like the secret ingredient reveal, TV magic makes it look more dramatic than it really is.

[Lemur866]

Only the Iron Chef who competes is actually in the studio. They have to work with the chef's schedules. This is why Bobby Flay does 75% of the shows.

[Swords to Plowshares]

Originally Posted by Lemur866

Only the Iron Chef who competes is actually in the studio. They have to work with the chef's schedules. This is why Bobby Flay does 75% of the shows.

I thought you were wrong, and while you're exaggerating of course apparently Flay has done more battles than anyone else. He's done 42 and the next most is Cat Cora with 32.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ch...The_Iron_Chefs

[BigT]

So is this lack of choice something that was from the original? Because it honestly seemed like the Japanese version had real choices. Then again, they seemed to have just 4 Iron chefs at any given time.

[Fried Dough Ho]

I believe I have written this up before, but I am acquainted with four different chefs who have appeared on the show and have subsequently eaten the meals which were prepared for the show (Chris Costentino, David Kinch, Mourad Lahlou and Ron Siegel) -- all from the Bay Area.

In each case, after the chef appeared on the shows, they would recreate the meals in their individual restaurants and so I availed myself of the opportunity to try the dishes and talk to the chefs about their experience.

The chefs are told ahead of time of THREE potential secret ingredients (not five, as Runner Pat indicated). The chefs are then able to stock their kitchens accordingly with a pantry that will suit the potential secret ingredients; like veal stock, certain proteins, vegetables, etc.

In some cases, it was a no-brainer about what the chef was going to get as his ingredient. Example Chris Costenino is well known in San Francisco (and now the rest of the country) as a lover of all-things-offal. He has had many "nose-to-tail" meals in his restaurant, Incanto, utilizing many otherwise un-used parts of a beast. There was no surprise that he would be invited to Iron Chef and NOT be given offal as his secret ingredient.

In Ron Siegel's case, his secret ingredient was lobster. He was the first American chef to be invited to the show when it was still just a Japanese commodity and the first non-Japanese chef to win against an original Hiroyuki Sakai. It was even more impressive that it was a huge smack-down against Sakari considering Siegel's sous chefs did not speak any English.

The contestants know who they are going to be paired against. The rest is for show.

And of all the Iron Chef meals I have been thrilled to eat after the competition, I have to say that Siegel's was the most memorable (this was in 1998).

[Leiko]

Originally Posted by BigT

So is this lack of choice something that was from the original? Because it honestly seemed like the Japanese version had real choices. Then again, they seemed to have just 4 Iron chefs at any given time.

They determine it in advance; all of the shots of the Iron Chefs ascending into Kitchen Stadium are stock shots, except for the over-the-shoulder "stare down your competitors" bit. Imagine the logistical nightmare if you had to get all 3-4 chefs into the Kitchen Stadium studio for every episode.

[C K Dexter Haven]

My understanding about the Japanese show agrees with what Fried Dough Ho says about the American version: the Iron Chef is picked in advance, and both chefs were given three possible ingredients. I never heard anything about "fake" ingredients like bricks; that doesn't make any sense at all. If they're going to do that, why bother with three?

Total aside: We had dinner at Sakai's restaurant in Tokyo, in 2007, and met him. 'Twas wonderful. We got VIP treatment because when we made the reservation, we said we were big Iron Chef fans. The show had been out of production for many years, and he seemed very please at having American guests in his restaurant.