nylon.net's
IRON CHEF
EXCHANGE
(Ryori no Tetsujin)
OK. You've all previously thought that Mr Nylon Net was
a pretty COOL sort of a dude, who uses cool words like "cool" and "dude".
Well, maybe I am, but I'm also an IRON CHEF cool dude slut.
Don't ask me why.
Maybe it's Sakai's sad moustache.
Maybe it's Chen's playful girlish glee.
Maybe it's Michiba's stern majesty.
Perhaps it's timorous Kobe, who lurks in the dark recesses
of Iron Chef's corridors of shame, only dragged out when the ingredient is
not Italian.
(I'm quite worried about Kobe... I fear the other Iron Chefs poke him mercilessly with chopsticks behind the rice cooker.)
Anyway. Let's get back to our woks.
I am a digital collector.
I want to collect every picture ever
taken of Sabrina,
every episode recorded of the Goon
Show,
every Elvgren pinup painting,
every Just A Minute,
every Hancock's Half Hour, Beyond Our Ken, and Round the Horne....
and every Iron Chef episode
I have collected many episodes of Japanese Iron Chef from torrents, TV and trades but this is just over a two-thirds of the 308 Iron Chef episodes. The first ones (about 220 Megabytes each) came from the sadly-departed digitaldistractions on the internet, but most of those have now been replaced by much better quality copies (about 500M) recorded from digital TV.
Would you like to trade?
Email 
Let's hope one day there will be an official Iron Chef Japan DVD collection!
Important note! All the episodes I have to trade are in DivX format. They will play on a computer with software like Windows Media Player or the excellent VideoLan VLC player, and they will play on a normal DVD player if it has "DivX Certified" on the front. If you're desperate, you can convert DivX to normal DVD format but you can only get 2 episodes onto a DVD.
Below is my current episode list (or see it fullscreen)
Notes...
- You can sort the spreadsheet by theme ingredient, original broadcast date or by challenger.
- The first column shows the battles I need. If it says "Y" or "Y <anything>", I don't need it!
- Theme ingredient names are tricky - they are sometimes translated into English, sometimes in Japanese (e.g. Ayu = Sweetfish) and sometimes the Japanese names vary (e.g. Umi or Uni). Sometimes, translated names are not Australianised (e.g. shrimps are prawns here in spite of what Paul Hogan was forced to say in those tourism ads). It's a tough decision sometimes. I do the best I can. When in doubt, fast-forward to the competitor's name. It works every time.
- Competitor names can be tricky too. The chairman announces Japanese names (in Japanese) as Familyname Givenname (e.g. Michiba Rokusaburo, when his family name (surname) is Michiba and his given name is Rokusaburo. It seems Chinese names such as Chen (family name) Kenichi (given name) follow the same pattern*. The translations, however (as seen in the screenshot above) westernise the naming order: European names are given as Givenname Familyname (e.g. Gillian Hirst). Be careful out there!
- As you Iron Chef fans know, many secret ingredients were used more than once : for example, beef appeared 5 times, bell peppers 4 times. Digitaldistractions had an unhelpful filenaming scheme like Squid 1, Squid 2, but it was a very unreliable system. Using the theme ingredient and the the competitor's surname in the filename avoids confusion since no competitor has battled the same secret ingredient more than once. So, when referring to episodes, please refer to the theme ingredient and the competitor's family name (e.g. Guinea Pig vs Hamataka).
I'm chasing the missing episodes, and slowly finding some of them, such as the famous OSTRICH BATTLE versus Australian female chef Gillian Hirst.
10 July 2008 - I finally have the Ostrich Episode (in Japanese, not dubbed). See some stills from the Ostrich Battle.
In 2008 I sent a copy of the episode to Gillian who had never seen it. Her children were amazed!
This episode is particularly important because it earned Iron Chef an Emmy Nomination in the USA!
Anyway, let's get back to those episodes of ours. I have many IRON CHEF episodes in DivX format. You may have episodes I don't have. Let's form a digital yakuza and swap, eh? The bonus is that in our yakuza, you don't have to get a full-body tattoo or cut off your fingers.
At the moment, burning DVDs and sending by airmail has proved the quickest, easiest and cheapest swapping protocol. Please note that I am not keen to upload episodes pro bono since it takes hours and I have many such requests which would suck my bandwidth quota dry.
You want to swap episodes? I'm game. If you have an IRON CHEF episode I need, or you want to swap episodes, please let me know here at .
To prevent disappointment, be sure to watch the first 5 minutes and carefully note down the THEME INGREDIENT and the name of the CONTESTANT.
Soon we will have a global repository of complete Iron Chefiness - bliss! If we keep it up there may be Iron Chef: The Movie! At least we can hope that someone releases episodes on DVD for us sometime in the future. Sigh.
Mark, nylon.net
Episode Summary
While many of the original Japanese episodes were dubbed by Americans into the cheesy dialogue we know and love, not all episodes were dubbed. Here's a brief summary of what we're missing out on. Series 5 is particularly poorly represented.
Series 1 – 1993 - 10 episodes – 2 dubbed
Series 2 – 1994 – 49 episodes – 35 dubbed
Series 3 – 1995 – 53 episodes – 44 dubbed
Series 4 – 1996 – 52 episodes – 32 dubbed
Series 5 – 1997 – 50 episodes – 0 dubbed
Series 6 – 1998 – 47 episodes – 41 dubbed
Series 7 – 1999 – 36 episodes – 35 dubbed
It still astounds me how the Japanese could turn out up to 53 programs in one year!
Episode information is taken from the great official Iron Chef Official Book, but it has its faults. For example, the Nakamura retrospective episode and the Indonesian emperor episodes are not listed, and the challengers' names are often represented in - shall we say - creative ways.
Hear Chairman Kaga unveil the ingredient and call for the competitors to allez cuisine!
Iron Chef News
Iron Chef comes to Australia
Larissa Dubecki
10 August 2010 - Sydney Morning Herald
CASTING has begun in earnest for Iron Chef Australia, the local answer to the international stadium-cooking-on-steroids phenomenon. Producer Shine, the company behind MasterChef, is casting its net wide and approaching a slew of renowned chefs and local food media identities in a pretty tight time frame — the series is due to be filmed in Melbourne next month. The format will be faithful to the Japanese, British and American versions, with chefs competing in a "kitchen arena" and judged by a panel of three.
Iron Chef 2008 in Sydney
10 November 2008
The Observatory Hotel’s Galileo Restaurant is hosting the fourth and most competitive Iron Chef Event from 2-4 December.
Two stars of the SBS television program Iron Chef will return to the Galileo and The Globe Bar for three exclusive dinners.
This culinary extravaganza is set to surpass all previous years with Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai and Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi entering battle with Galileo’s new Michelin-star Executive Chef, Masahiko Yomoda and the restaurant’s former chef Haru Inukai.
Hosted by award winning producer, presenter and food journalist, Joanna Savill and media personality, John Mangos, guests will be treated to an evening of grand and highly amusing entertainment.
Details:
Time and dates: 6.30 p.m on Tuesday 2nd, Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th December 2008 at Galileo Restaurant and The Globe Bar.
Venue: The Observatory Hotel, 89-113 Kent Street, Sydney.
Seats at the Iron Chef Dinner are $595 Per Person and include welcome cocktails, seven course dinner and Sommelier Christian Baeppler’s selection of matching wines.
Iron Chef Sakai gets milk for the Milk Battle (undubbed Japanese dialogue)
DID YOU KNOW?
Does the challenger know ahead of time what the theme will be?
A week before the show tapes, both the Iron Chefs and the challenger were given a list of five ingredients. The final ingredient was chosen from this list but they didn't know which it would be until Kaga announced it during the taping. This way they had some time to request special ingredients and cooking utensils (not to mention special serving dishes like the ice bowls seen on Battle Salmon Roe). Also, after the theme ingredient was announced, the chefs had about 5 minutes to gather their wits and get their cooking strategy sorted out before the "Gong of Fate" sounded. Part of the reason for that is that the cameras and crew needed to position themselves for the next shot.
Where was the show filmed?
The weekly shows were filmed in FujiTV's V4 studio, the biggest studio they have in Odaiba, near Tokyo Bay. This set was used for many other shows, so it needed to be taken down after each taping session and reassembled each time. Special gas lines for the stoves and water lines were laid down each time, too. The fire department had a few members standing by during tapings to supervise.
Who are the commentators?
Mr. Kenji Fukui is the main commentator that does all of the introductions and most of the talking. The gentleman on the far left is Mr. Yukio Hattori, owner of the Hattori School of Nutrition. Hattori is quite knowledgeable about food and often provided insight and education about the theme ingredient or culinary techniques. The people in the middle are the guest commentators who tended to be celebrities and not necessarily food experts. Typically one woman and one man are the guest commentators/judges.
Kent Frick voices Chairman Kaga
What is the broadcast history of the show?
In Japan, the show started in October 1993 originally as a 30 minute program on Sunday nights. The show was wildly popular, so they expanded it to an hour (45 minutes without commercials) and it was on air Friday nights at 10:00pm. Occasionally, a longer special would air. These usually tend to be around the New Years time frame. The viewing audience tended to be the younger generation, mainly men and women in their 20s and 30s. In 1994, the show was nominated for an Emmy. In 1997, it was nominated for another Emmy in the International Division under the "Popular Arts" Section. The show stopped its weekly production in September of 1999, though the producers said they would continue to make specials, about 4 a year. Two have been produced so far in 2000. The weekly show production was halted because the producer wanted to end the show while it was still popular (typical for Japanese programs) The high costs to produce the show - including Kaga's extravagantly foppy clothes! - may also have played a role.
How are the chefs scored?
Each chef may be awarded up to 20 points by each judge, with ten given for taste and five each for presentation and originality. Winners were determined by the number of judges who scored them higher. If tied, points were counted and the chef with the greater number of points became the winner. In later series, if still tied, a 30 minute "overtime" tie-breaker cook-off took place with a new (and cheap) ingredient.
How often did the Iron Chefs win?
Cuisine |
IRON CHEF | WIN |
LOSE |
TIE |
TOTAL |
Ratio |
| Iron Chef Chinese | Chen Kenichi | 67 |
22 |
3 |
92 |
76% |
| Iron Chef French (II) | Hiroyuki Sakai | 70 |
15 |
1 |
86 |
83% |
| Iron Chef Japanese (I) | Rokusaburo Michiba | 32 |
5 |
1 |
38 |
87% |
| Iron Chef Japanese (II) | Koumei Nakamura | 24 |
11 |
1 |
36 |
70% |
| Iron Chef Japanese (III) | Masaharu Morimoto | 16 |
7 |
1 |
24 |
71% |
| Iron Chef Italian | Masahiko Kobe | 15 |
7 |
1 |
23 |
70% |
| Iron Chef French (I) | Yutaka Ishinabe | 7 |
1 |
0 |
8 |
88% |
Info stolen archived for posterity from wikipedia
and the defunct ironchef.com
Where did the original theme music come from?
The movie Backdraft, by Hans Zimmer.
DUBBING IRON CHEF - how it's done
An extremely odd find on eBay - 1 July 2007. The back of the box says...
Welcome to Kitchen Stadium!
Get ready for codfish and tomatoes to start flying as The Iron Chef: Ultimate Cooking Challenge comes to your home. Based on the hit TV show, Iron Chef, this frentic board game pits four culinary challengers against each other in a race to build the perfect meal!
Do you prefer Chinese? French? Italian? Or how about Japanese? It all begins when the surprise ingredient is revealed. Spin the wheel and race about the board in an attempt to assemble a complete meal - appetizer, main course, and dessert!
The real Iron Chefs chop, dice, and mince - you need to collect, trade, and discard cards to beat your opponents. But pitfalls abound! Watch out for dull knives, burnt vegetables, and stoves that don't work. Complete your meal, enter the inner circle of Kitchen Stadium and await the Judges' decision! Defend your title! Will you be King of the Iron Chef? Allez Cuisine!
Iron Chef Merchandise
IF you google cunningly you can find a lot of Iron Chef merchandise...
7 Dec 2009 - the worst attempt at Iron Chef merchandising ripoffs... "MADAME ALEXANDER 8" IRON CHEF DOLL" on eBay.
For only $9.99 (starting bid) plus $26.50 international shipping, you can win a precious doll (who bears no resemblance to anything related to Iron Chef) with -and this is the genius - a bloody WOODEN SPOON! Hence the "Iron Chef Doll". A rare treat for any idiot with a Paypal account and no brain.
The seller helpfully added... "GREAT FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS OR JUST TO KEEP FOR YOURSELF AND ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION.
COMES FROM A NON SMOKING PET FREE HOME.
I WILL CONSIDER REASONABLE OFFERS."
The only reasonable offer I could think of was biologically impossibly, or at least incredibly uncomfortable.
The Apron
Mouse Mat
Sakai knife
The signature in close-up
A Chen T!
The boxed set of Iron Chef knives
And some more, in case you didn't have enough already...
Iron Chef Sakai's Royal Kona (Coffee for Royalty)
Chosen as his restaurant's signature coffee, it is a rich and smooth 10% Kona Coffee Blend Vienna roast.
Found on eBay, the description was: "This game is a Japanese Import Iron Chef Kitchen Stadium Tour multimedia disk for the Sega Saturn System. This multimedia disk contains chef profiles, introductions to various dishes and actual video clips from the famous Iron Chef TV show. This disk was released in very limited quantities and has become a highly sought after collector's item."
Gourmet Iron Chef Sauces...
I wonder how kosher they are
A sumptuously-printed set of 4 Iron Chef books - in Japanese
Can you collect the full set of Iron Chef trading cards?
Thanks to Jeffrey for pointing out the goodies at http://www.ironchefwines.com
SPECIAL EVENT!
Iron Chef is alive and well in Australia. From the SBS website... 23rd April 2010
Win a double pass to the 2010 Iron Chef Event in Sydney!
Experience a unique culinary event organised by JTB Australia featuring world famous Iron Chefs, Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai and Iron Chef Chinese Kenichi Chen.
The competition begins Thursday, 29 April 2010 and gives you the chance to enjoy premium seating in the front row, a six course degustation menu with matching wines and overnight accommodation at the Sydney Hilton.
The menu is the creation of the Iron Chefs, in collaboration with acclaimed local chefs:
- Harunobu Inukai, Blancharu
- Hideki Okazaki, Rise
- Saeko Nemoto, Ten
- Gary Johnson, Hilton Sydney
- 2 x premium tickets to the "2010 Iron Chef Event in Sydney" on 7th June 2010 valued at $550.00 each
- Twin Share Accommodation at the Hilton Sydney in a deluxe room including breakfast on the night of 7th June 2010 valued at $275
Don't forget to return to the site on Thursday, 29 April to get your entry in.
Allez Cuisine!
IRON CHEF LINKS
The Unofficial Iron Chef Compendium
A tribute to sideline reporter Shinichiro Ohta
Iron Chef at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
Download your own IC episodes from IronChefFans.info
And if you get bored late at night, here's a good idea.
Memorise this prayer and recite it to every person you meet the next day.
Hours of fun are guaranteed!
Click this to get the full atmosphere of the experience (MP3)
A man's fantasy became a reality in a form never seen before: Kitchen Stadium, a giant cooking arena. The motivation for spending his fortune to create Kitchen Stadium was to encounter new original cuisines which could be called true artistic creations.
To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking, and he named his men the Iron Chefs: the invincible men of culinary skills.
Iron Chef Japanese is Masaharu 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 of master chefs from around the world. Both the Iron Chef and challenger have one hour to tackle the theme ingredient of the day. Using all their senses, skill, creativity, they are to prepare artistic dishes never tasted before. And if ever a challenger 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!
Amen!
Sayonara
さようなら