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Iron Chef Fails

The success of the original Iron Chef was always hard to quantify. It certainly wasn't the Chairman's acting - or was it? It wasn't the scintillating dialogue - or perhaps it was. What was it? Passion! They didn't always know what they were doing, but they did it with style, panache and attitude, and for that we love them. Their wannabes, however, flamed and burned like zealous kamikaze 神風

Iron Chef America - with William Shatner

From here - Iron Chef USA – Like the original Japanese series, the show featured an eccentric chairman, played by William Shatner, who creates his own Gourmet Academy with four elite chefs who take on challengers in a specially-constructed Kitchen Arena ("Kitchen Stadium" in the original). However, unlike the original and the later Iron Chef America adaptation, Kitchen Arena was set in Garden Arena (a venue often used for boxing) in the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas and not on a sound stage. Fans of the series, and critics at large, point to many aspects of the show for the reason why the series failed. Among the most notable reasons was the audience factor: the original Iron Chef (and Iron Chef America) had only minimal guest and VIP seating, while Iron Chef USA was shown in front of a larger audience. The audience also tended to be louder and rowdier, in sharp contrast to the relatively quiet audiences of Iron Chef. Another sharp point of criticism was directed at the commentators, who often showed their lack of knowledge of food (with lines such as "What? It's the sperm? We eat that?" in reference to sea urchin roe; "What's that tool called he's using to cut the ravioli?", "That would be a ravioli cutter"; and "it's a sauteed Ho Ho", "He's got a flour thing going" and "It looks like he enjoys cooking with booze."). However, critics saw Shatner's portrayal of the chairman in Iron Chef USA as a redeeming quality, as his performance paid homage to Takeshi Kaga and his antics on Iron Chef.

Iron Chef America with the 'nephew' of Chairman Takaga

Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) who has emailed me to request Iron Chef episodes begins with the sentiment, "I love Iron Chef (Japan) but I really hate the insolent upstart bastard American version" (or words to that effect).

Australian Iron Chef

Got the host wrong. Tried too hard. Lasted one series before the plug was pulled because it was too expensive. It was like the merciful drowning of a deformed puppy.

Have other international versions made your wok boil? Do you have other love/hate comments about Iron Chef or this site? Please let me know in the form below...

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Iron Chef Sakai gets milk for the Milk Battle

 

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During a few episodes of series 5 a theme ingredient gimmick was used?

Challengers were allowed to choose from four boxes, each of which contained a theme ingredient.

What happens to the dishes shown at the end of cooking time?

In one episode, Fukui mentions that he and Hattori will be sharing the demonstration dish. So now you know where it goes!

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. Listen to a bit

What is the roaming reporter saying every time he starts to speak?

"Fukui-San"which is the equivalent of "Mr Fukui". He's politely interrupting the commentator, Mr Fukui.

Why did Kaga boycott the Piglet Battle?

Supposedly ashamed by the performance of his Iron Chefs, the less romantic truth is that Kaga (the actor) was also in a stage production at the time, and there was a scheduling conflict with taping of the battle and one rehearsal that could not be resolved. (Thanks to TV Tropes)

Why is Kaga's voice not dubbed most of the time?

Most of the time, Chairman Kaga is not dubbed into English because he's just so Bad Ass in the original Japanese. They dubbed him over only when they realized they couldn't get international rights to some of the music they used and would have to create a new audio track. And even then it was only during the introduction of the challenger, all his lines in Kitchen Stadium remain intact.

Most of the fully-dubbed Kaga episodes occurred early in the series; when the producers realised the show lost something without Kaga's deep baritone, they went with the original audio instead. (Thanks to TV Tropes)