Thanks, guys, for explaining the raison d’etre of Iron Chef. My sister, who is addicted to the show, tried to explain it to me with little success. Now I’ll have to send her the drinking game, not that she needs any encouragement to drink.
I saw my first Iron Chef on Saturday (bell pepper battle) and was instantly, totally, irretrievably, hooked. I have checked the TV listings every day since, and it hasn’t been on, so right before I came here, I was on the Food Network site catching up on all the Iron Chef info. Weird, huh?
My question is does Kaga realize that he is in fact biting into a yellow pepper? The way he’s smiling all goofy he looks like he’s thinking, Oh shit, that not apple!
I love Iron Chef. It’s sad, but I don’t like going out on Friday nights anymore because I’ll miss it. My poor, deprived friend in Chicago can’t get the Food Network, so I taped a full 6 hours of it, and now he’s hooked, too.
I think the worst dish I’ve seen was pretty much every one in the Live Octopus Battle. That was so incredibly disgusting. It almost put me off sushi (but not quite). Otherwise, those crazy chefs can make anything look good. If I am every in New York, I won’t let anything keep me out of Morimoto’s restaurant.
“Iron Chef” is currently my favourtite show on TV. I check it out every chance I get.
As far as your questions…one of the most creative dish would have to be from the Christmas special. The Iron Chef (I think it was Ses Shuan [sp?], I don’t remember) made a bunch of Christmas dishes that were shaped like Christmas symbols, as well as colour coordinated the sauces. The ingredient was turkey. The thing was he still used different Ses Shuan dishes, he just made them into the dishes. His selection, however, also contained the grossest dish. His “Santa Claus” sack was some sort of sheep’s bladder, or something. Not very appetizing.
Another creative dish I saw was a all the parts of a dish shaped into a fish. It looked extremely difficult, but the Iron Chef did it quickly, and it turned out very well.
Has anyone else seen the episode where the two Iron Chef takes on the challenger alone. A one-on-one battle, if you will. It was just replayed on the Food Network. It was a very interesting episode, and one of the first times I’ve really seen an Iron Chef mess up and get upset.
Does anyone know of any really good Iron Chef sites? I checked out the drinking game (thanks JavaMaven) and this rule:
Two drinks when;
totally blew me away. You’d get wasted in 7 minutes flat! I’ll have to try this drinking game out. 
I used to watch it on Fuji TV Sat. evenings but about a year or so ago, they stopped subtitling the show. Seeing as how I don’t speak Japanese, I stopped watching. 
I like Iron Chef very much. I don’t watch it too often (it’s on at an inconvenient time) but I try to catch some shows. I’ve seen various battles, but my all-time fave is easily the Unisex Salmon Battle:D. This was a grade-A show.
Silent_rob was dead-on when he mentioned the Fukui-san thing. Ota should just get a button that plays a recording.
There have been more than a few Iron Chef threads back in the day - especially around the New York battle. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, I just may have started one myself.
IC is surreal. It’s unlike any other TV experience today. Gotta love it. BTW, you know you’ve been watching too long when you see the current BDJ (bimbo du jour) and you remember not only her face, but exactly how stupid she was. I need help.
I have to agree with Beadalin; the octopus was the most disturbing one so far. He cut off the tentacle, and it kept squirming. (Considering that I’m a vegetarian, I feel quite proud that I continued watching at this point.) Then he started skinning it, and it kept…convulsing…really, people, do you not have any boundaries? Ewww!
And I would love to see an Emeril challenge. He probably wouldn’t win, but he’d put on a much better show than Bobby Flay.
Iron Chef has been off the air in Japan for a few years
Yeah, I was heartbroken. When I first came to Japan 5 years ago, there was a foreigners bar in the little town I lived in. Most of the guys who hung out there were bachelors living on instant noodles, instant curry, burgers and corn pizza. When that show came on, we’d all huddle around the bar’s TV and start drooling at the sight of … gasp… REAL FOOD!!! Plus, Kaga was a riot.
Bias? sure. I remember one episode they brought in a chef and several food critics from France. The Japanese judges scored in the Japanese chef’s favor by about 20-10. The French judges decided the French chef was the winner by the same margin.
I’ve seen a lot of restaurants around here whose chefs have appeared as contestants on the show. They always have a photo from the studio displayed very prominently in the front window, and their prices are always double everyone else’s.
–sublight.
The coolest show was when the American guy beat the crap out of the Iron Chef. I’m not talking about Flay, that guy knows a hell of a lot more about about publicity than cooking. This was a guy from San Francisco, whose name I can not remember. He was kind of a quiet guy who couldn’t even talk to his assistants. The panel kept making disparaging remarks about the crudeness of Americans tasts, and kept saying patronizing comments about what he was doing. But when he was done, and the panel tasted what he had made, they had no choice but to accept the fact that he was one of the best chefs they had seen. I hate racism in all its forms, and the preconceptions the panel had was racism in its purist form. But he had the most convincing victory I’ve ever seen a challenger have, even the old biddy who’s a food critic and always votes for the Iron Chef had to admit the American had kicked the Iron Chef’s ass. That was so cool from a viewpoint for American sophistication, and against having preconceptions in general.
My favorite Iron Chef was the one where they did the Italian food with pumpkins. I was really rooting for that street cart vendor guy.
Yup. Ron something. He went up against Iron Chef French and won big. That was the first one I saw and I’ve been addicted ever since. The total lack of irony is part of what makes it so cool.
I’ve started watching too…but cannot figure one thing out:
Who is giving the commentary? It seems like it’s the four judges (?). How bad is that translation then (or, for those bilingual, is it accurate)? Why do they make the actresses who are judging sound so amazingly, cringingly STUPID? Why do they translate the laughs, titters, and giggles? You watch the interviews, and it seems like the editors are trying to match the English translation to the way the speakers’ mouths are moving! Please, I beg of you, what’s with all this???
Ok…so there are several things I can’t figure out, but they’re all related
But the show itself is a lot of fun to watch…
I love the way they are given, say;
[li]A live chicken[/li]
[li]A bale of hay[/li]
[li]A salmon head[/li]
Then they have to take this stuff and turn it into a twelve course gourmet meal. Reminds me of some of my dinner parties long ago.
Too bad Julia Child was before their time; I wanted to see her in her prime take on the Iron Chefs. She made some good meals out of some interesting ingredients herself.
Firstly, everyone who loves Iron Chef should check The UN-Official Iron Chef Website. It is fantastic, and informative. SPOILERS ARE THERE, but you are warned well.
And there was an Iron Chef battle. The winner became Iron Chef King. I won’t tell who it is, though.
That guys restaurant is a block from my house - but I am afraid to even think what it would cost to eat there! Anyone want to sponser me - I promise a full review!
LMAO