For those of you who don’t get the Food Network, it is a Japanese cooking/game show. The whole thing is quite bizarre, and yet I have a strange fascination with the show. There is a whole army of Japanese chefs, and they all specialize in a certain style of cooking, for example, Traditional Japanese or Italian. They are the Iron Chefs. Every week, they bring in an outside chef from a popular restaurant, and put him up against whichever Iron Chef shares his particular style of cooking. They hold the competition in Kitchen Arena. The catch is, they don’t know what the main ingredient will be until right before the game begins, and then they have an hour to out-cook each other.
The host is this long-haired Japanese guy, and he is SO serious. He also seems to always be dressed in a Liberace outfit (!) In the beginning of each show, he takes a ferocious bite out of an apple, and looks into the camera nodding. I crack up every time.
Anyone else watch it?
Rose
Iron Chef kicks ass. I don’t get the FoodNetwork, so I have to wait until it comes on a local cable access channel that is only in Japanese and Italian. But the gist of the show is that there’s this “lord” (the guy in the Liberace outfit) who has his own band of “Iron Chefs.” They routinely challenge other chefs in Japan (and other countries) and they have a cook-off. Very rarely, an outsider will actually challenge one of the Iron Chefs.
I remember that when the show first came on (in the early 90’s) the host was this total dork, had bad teeth and NO personality. But he still had to wear those ridiculous get-ups. They dumped him after a season or two, and found that other weirdo with the apple. When the dork hosted the show, it was all fun and games. The Iron Chefs would sometimes lose on purpose just to please the crowd. They would come up with absolutely disgusting dishes just so the judges would HAVE to eat them, and the crowd would crack up.
When this new guy came along, it became really, REALLY serious. To the point that if you were challenged, to decline was like commiting professional suicide. Also, to lose didn’t help your career out either. Beating an Iron Chef I always equated with getting the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In the most recent episodes I’ve seen the “deadly” tone wasn’t there, so I guess the penalty for losing isn’t what it used to be. The chefs still don’t like to lose, though. Overall, it’s an incredible show, and I wish they would dub the episodes or at least have subtitles…
Iron Chef is quality entertainment. Lately they’ve been on a streak of, pardon the expression, fishy theme ingredients. I saw one episode where the chef made gelato out of squid ink. The giant carp episode was gruesome because the fish were huge and very much alive and not at all happy about being sawed into. Still, like a gawker at a traffic accident, I couldn’t look away.
Fun fact: the theme music is the same as the theme to “Backdraft.”
Nominations for coolest theme ingredient? My vote: habanero peppers.
Chairman Kaga rules!
Another fan here! The first time I stumbled over it by accident and then got hooked on the surrealism of it. It’s actually pretty interesting though it does boggle my mind how odd some of western culture must look to others.
My personal favorite was the Giant Eel Battle. (Yes, each cook-off is a battle, complete with waving torches, etc. Some of the titles are a hoot: Battle Potato, etc.)
I’d prefer subtitles, because some of the tone of the thing gets lost. But it’s still Godzilla In The Kitchen in atmosphere. The chefs are very skilled but the Japanese dishes in particular can rock the mind and roll the stomach. I remember well the Carp Battle (I think) when fish liver was served for dessert–dipped in chocolate.
It’s still a hoot, though. The judges always include a few Japanese starlets etc, (have you seen Japanese rocker Korn?). Very surreal to watch fish guts being prepared (they call them innards) and the starlet coos, “oooh, that looks so goood!”.
There’s an Iron Chef website, complete with an IC drinking game. It’s funny; check it out. And the show has been cancelled in Japan, but the producers are hot to link up with a new icon: Martha Stewart.
I kid you not. Now that’s a delicious prospect, huh?
I love Iron Chef. Iron Chef Silver is my favorite; his style is “world Japanese” or “neo-Japanese.” He spent a lot of time in the US and his cooking is strongly influenced by that; he’s not afraid to be innovative and tweak classic dishes. He usually has the best presentations.
I’ve seen him lose once, when the theme ingredient was bamboo shoots. That’s not something that you see a lot of in American cuisine, so it really caught him off guard. Still, he gave it a great shot, and lost by only a point.
Even though I love the show, I don’t think I’d have the nerve to eat even a quarter of the stuff they make. Sometimes, the food looks soooo good. But, more often, there are eyeballs and tentacles lunging out of the food, and I just couldn’t eat it.
We get the Food Network on our cable system and I’ve seen Iron Chef quite a few times. I don’t really intend to watch it, but it pulls me in somehow. The long-haired host sets an almost menacing tone for the show. I can almost imagine him having the losing chef ritually killed and served like sushi to the studio audience.
I wonder what the dialogue is really like? It’s probably something like:
“Whoa! Too much olive oil in that marinade! The diners will be shitting like crazy tomorrow!”
“Salmon gelato? Oh, man! He definitely fucked up there!”
“To sum up Hiro’s performance, well, he’s no Chef Boyardee.”
“Geez, I’m gonna be bringing up that horseradish all night. Christ!”
“It’s only common sense,
There are no accidents 'round here.”
I love Iron Chef! It’s so damn amusing! But I have never seen the Challenger win, that irritates me.
Emily and I laugh at it a lot… in fact when I’m cookign things and she pops into the kitchen she always says “Fuki-san!”.
ALso when I make something new she’ll always emulate the Japanese actresses they have on and say “it’s… different… I have never had ______ prepared quite this way before… it’s very good”.
You always use violence. I should’ve ordered glutinous rice chicken.
The young actresses are the best judges! They always cut to them for a reaction shot whenever one of the chefs cut off the head of a live turtle or skin a writhing eel. The reaction is always the same: first their chins drop in horror, then an embarrassed smirk followed by a fit of giggling.
I love the Iron Chef. It is one of the few shows on the Food Network I actually enjoy (Emeril gets on my nerves, as does the Cooking Live lady). I don’t think Iron Chef comes on nearly often enough.
I don’t know how the taste-testing panel can stand to eat 8-10 dishes which all contain squid, tofu, bamboo shoots, bell peppers, crab meat or whatever. Usually, however, they manage to make enthusiastic comments right up to the end.
IC is an addiction that blends SF and foodie lore, but the greatest pull for me is the pure ethnological gogglement.
FWIW, the “silver chef” is Morimoto, the Japanese chef who who runs Nobu, the NY restaurant owned by Robert DeNiro. He’s a radical variant on traditional Japanese cooking, and much derided/challenged on the show.
IC is still a fit, and enlightening in a backhanded way. It’s a reality check to see people savoring the prospect of fish innards and eyes. I remember a Morimoto episode where a standard judge, a member of Parliament, said something along the lines of “I’m enjoying what I’m eating without knowing what it is.”
Morimoto said “dill”; “dill?” “yes, dill” and the foodie commentator said, “yes, it’s a western herb”. Nodding and tenative tasting followed.
I dunno, but that’s great IMO. I boggle at fish eyes, kelp, etc. but something as routine (here) as dill seems exotic.
I can’t believe it! “Iron Chef”? Where has this been all my life? It sounds truly hysterical–kind of a cross between Emeril Lagasse and Speed Racer. Jeez, I knew this full-time job nonsense would be the death of me.
[I love Iron Chef. Iron Chef Silver is my favorite; his style is “world Japanese” or “neo-Japanese.” He spent a lot of time in the US and his cooking is strongly influenced by that; he’s not afraid to be innovative and tweak classic dishes. He usually has the best presentations.
I’ve seen him lose once, when the theme ingredient was bamboo shoots. That’s not something that you see a lot of in American cuisine, so it really caught him off guard. Still, he gave it a great shot, and lost by only a point.] - max torque
Yeah, but spaghetti and ketchup on a hot dog bun? I don’t know what the heck he was trying to do with that whole meal.
I thought I was about the only fan of the show! I never miss it. The bad dubbing is only the beginning of the fun. Iron Chef French is my fave - he always looks close to tears during the judging.