Iron Chef

Published on February 28, 2004 By Jamie Burnside In Entertainment

Lately I have been in the mood to watch some Japanese television shows. At home we have a channel called "TV Japan." TV Japan runs Japanese shows 24 hours a day, but they don't seem to air the more-interesting shows that are available in Japan. It is really good for sumo, the news, and a show called "TV Champion," but little else that's interesting to me.

With this in mind, my wife and I took a trip to Saint Paul to rent a video of a program called "Sanma no Karakuri Telebi." It is a program that features various comedy segments and video clips, then a celebrity panel has to guess the "punch-line" of selected segments to earn points to win a prize. The final segment of each show features octogenarians (mostly unsuccessfully) answering pop-culture trivia questions. To win the grand prize, a panelist has to predict which aged-person will be able to answer the most questions correctly. It is quite entertaining.

Unfortunately for us, there were no videos of that show. We left the store without any videos. (But we were able to buy some seeds to grow Asian vegetables in our garden! That'll be cool. Please hurry spring!) I would have to put off watching my favorite Japanese show for a while.

After dinner, my wife told me that there was going to be a special broadcast of "Iron Chef" on the Food Network. She said that maybe "Iron Chef" would satiate my appetite for Japanese television. Fortunately, it did. I had a happy time watching a two hour special from France.

Are any of you out there regular watchers of "Iron Chef"? It is a brilliant show. There are three (or four) champion chefs who compete against challengers in a one-hour cooking contest using one featured ingredient. After cooking, their food is judged by a panel, and the winner is chosen. The presentation is similar to a sporting event, and everyone "plays it straight." It is pretty good drama for a cooking show.

I am a pretty big fan of Iron Chef Sakai Hiroyuki. His French dishes always look really yummy. I really appreciate the attention that he pays to the presentation of the food.

The Iron Chef, whose food I would most like to taste is Morimoto-san's. He seems like he has the most experimental food of all the Iron Chefs, and he isn't afraid to take risks.

How about any of you? Have any favorites?

Comments

Karri

on Feb 29, 2004

Iron Chef has long been one of my favorite shows! Morimoto has always been my favorite chef

bakerstreet

on Mar 01, 2004

I dunno how many of them I have seen, but it has been a long time since I have seen one that was new to me. It ran a long time in Japan, though, so I am hoping not everything has made it here yet. I noticed that there was a guidebook to the show in a bookstore the other day. I think they sell it on Food Network's site as well.

I think my favorite chef would be Chin Kenichi, son of the god of Szechwan cooking. I like Miyamoto, the first generation Iron Chef Japanese quite a bit, but my tastes tend more toward Chinese cuisine. All of them are very, very fun to watch, and I have gotten to know the judges quite a bit. Kind of funny knowing their tastes and such.

It was because of the big Japan vs. America shows that I began to really, really dislike Bobby Flay. He was a serious ass.

If I had to pick my favorite person on all the shows though, Dr. Hitori is the man. I have learned more about cooking from listening to him that I can believe.

The Negotiator

on Mar 01, 2004

I've been an iron chef fan for 6 years, absolutely love it.

I could write stories about iron chef forever, lots of great things have come from it, especially in my life.

It's really interesting to watch it when you're more of a classically taught culinarian like I am, some of the things people do are astounding.

Buzz me sometime if you wanna talk about, Email

Jamie Burnside

on Mar 01, 2004

It was because of the big Japan vs. America shows that I began to really, really dislike Bobby Flay. He was a serious ass.

No kidding. That guy was a real wanker on the International Battle shows!

KellyW0498

on Mar 07, 2004

I love this show. I haven't seen it in awhile though. We watched every episode when it first came on the food network. I do want to ask you a question. What is bone crackers? There is one other question but I have to watch another one to remember the name.

Jamie Burnside

on Mar 07, 2004

"Bone Crackers" may be rice crackers (senbei) made with ground fish bones. They are sold in Japan, but they're really uncommon.

I've never seen such a thing, but my wife has heard of them.

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