Iron Chef is a fantastic Saturday evening television show imported to Australia from Japan via the US (picking up an amusing voiceover en rout). This is competitive cookery with honour!
Lloyd Grossman’s Masterchef is a chintsy, tawdry second-hand sofa of a show compared to this Japanese cookery competition. You just have to look at their host to know that you are going to be treated something special.
The show’s format pits a challenger, a professional chef against his/her choice from 3 resident Iron Chefs who are defined in terms of the country that most inspires their cooking style, French, Italian, Japanese and chinese (although only 3 of these four are presented each week).
While the Masterchef format allowed competitors to choose a menu and rehearse their dishes in advance of the event, Iron Chef adds a more interesting game-show twist to proceedings. Neither the challenger nor the Iron Chef will know what key ingredient they will be presented with. This mystery ingredient must form the focal point of each meal they produce during the one hour allowed to them.
Key ingredients have been eel, mushrooms, potatoes, aubergines etc. Competitors are encouraged to produce as many dishes as possible. Kobayashi Katsuyo (Japan’s Deliah Smith equivolent) for example served 6 distinct potato based dishes to the judges. Amazing!
The host, Chairman Kaga Takeshi adds an exrta level of drama and excitement to the show with his superbly tailored outfits. But I wonder if he is more proud of the work he does on Iron Chef, or of his role as the voice of Jiraldan in the movie “The Phanton Pokemon: Lugia’s Explosive Birth“.
Learn more about the participants
Hiroyuki Sakai: Iron Chef French
Masahiko Kobe: Iron Chef Italian
Masaharu Morimoto: Iron Chef Japan (II)
Chen Kenichi: Iron Chef Chinese
Takeshi Kaga: Chairman
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