Ryôri no tetsujin

This show is my favorite. Finally a cooking show that's not a boring "how to" session, it is not at all the intention of this show to teach you how to cook. You just sit back and watch these guys use the theme ingredient to prepare a gourmet meal in an hour, and you ooh and ahh.

It's no surprise to me that the challengers take the contest so seriously. Cooking is their art, and the challengers are very respected among the culinary world, owning only the classiest restaurants. This is a true test of their mettle, and they have something to prove. The other great thing is that this isn't a petty game show where some obscene amount of money is at stake. According to the show's intro, all the challenger gets if he/she (yes, I have seen a female competitor on the show) wins is "The peoples' ovation and fame forever". Okay, that sounds a bit silly, but seriously, all they win is the honor of beating an Iron Chef. The only material prize is an indirect one, since the winner's restaurant can now boast an Iron Chef victory and will definitely gain a lot of new customers.

I think that the Food Network did a great job converting the show for an English speaking audience. First off, congrats for not dubbing Kaga. His "If my memory serves me right..." monologue is my favorite part of the show, and I like to listen to how he speaks the Japanese language, even though I don't speak a word of it myself. Second, congrats on dubbing everyone else. Reading subtitles for the whole show would get very tiresome. Some of the dubbed voices sound downright silly (especially Chen Kenichi and Hiroyuki Sakai), but that's ok. I think that it adds an element of humor (intentional or not) without making the whole show seem like a big joke. And finally, they did a good job budgeting time. You don't see the whole hour of cooking, but you see enough of it to know what's going on, and there's still time for the intros and the judging. My only complaint it that there is a TON of commercials.

And one more thing - I like Ota! Everyone seems annoyed by him, but how can you have an episode without him? His "Fukui-san!" comments are the only thing that explains what the chefs are doing, and since they are doing so much so fast, Ota has a lot to tell Fukui-san and the audience. It is amazing to me how he memorizes every ingredient that goes into the pans.

I love Iron Chef. What an idea for a show!! I love the premise of bringing renowned chefs from all over Japan and the world to challenge Chairman Kaga's Iron Chefs, and to have them create dishes on the spot using the theme ingredient announced at the beginning. It's also fun to listen to the play-by-play announcing; you'd think this was a sports events.

The fact that these chefs can prepare 4-6 dishes on the spot in one hour attests to their amazing skills and imagination, especially when an Iron Chef of one cooking style is confronted with a theme ingredient they normally don't use. I wish I was there to taste some of their amazing creations.

What astounds me about the show is how seriously some challengers take this, like the Italian expatriate chefs and their battles against Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe, and the Ohta Factions' (a society of Japanese chefs who are staunchly traditional in their cooking techniques) war against Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto.

I can't wait for IC3 next month. My local cable company just recently added the Food Network, so I didn't see the original Bobby Flay/Morimoto contest. After watching what Morimoto has done in previous episodes, I really can't see Flay winning. I've also thought about whether Emeril would someday appear on Iron Chef, but I think he's a bit too laidback for something as tense and fast-paced as this.

Calling "Iron Chef" a cooking show is like saying "Jurassic Park" is a film about animal husbandry. In Tokyo's Kitchen Stadium, Chairman Kaga has assembled the greatest Tokyo chefs in every major world cuisine. Each week, the programming staff selects a challenger to do battle with one of the Iron Chefs. The two chefs have exactly one hour to make as many dishes as they can, using a mystery ingredient revealed by Chairman Kaga just moments before the battle.

The dishes are judged by a panel of Tokyo celebrities, and even scores go to a thirty-minute tie-breaker. However, the most entertaining part is watching the chefs cook as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This is the only cooking show where I actually learned something useful. It's also the only cooking show that I would watch with a roomful of friends and a six-pack.

If you like cooking shows, then you have to watch Iron Chef...forget the dubbing..it's not annoying, it's funny,like GODZILLA..it's camp, but it's good...and though corny, the cooking is amazing..you can learn so much...but have a fun time doing it...culinary contests fascinate me, and Iron Chef is why. One hour isn't very long, and when you don't know what your theme is..it makes for improv, although it is rooted in fundamentals, and it's true..dishes never before seen.

I have begun to watch this show on the Food Network and it is quite enjoyable. It not only is quite interesting to watch some of Japan's best chefs compete against each other in creating various dishes almost spontaneously, but listening to the English dubbed commentary can be quite humorous as well as they try to convey how the panelists enjoy or dislike each dish that they eat from each competition. Also, even though I'm not much of a gourmet, I do find most of the dishes appetizing, even though I probably won't eat them due to the fact that many of them are quite expensive.

Also, I just found out that the Food Network is going to do an American version of the show featuring many of the chefs that are featured on the various programs on the network. They will have to really come up with something spectacular if they hope to match the special charm of this show.