Iron Chef

Iron Chef is a Japanese television program made by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ryōri no tetsujin (料理の鉄人, "Ironmen of Cooking"). It began airing in 1993 as a half-hour show, and after 23 episodes was expanded to a one-hour format. Aired as a prime-time TV show, the series lasted for six years and more than 300 episodes. The final regular season episode was broadcast in September 1999, with specials continuing to 2002.

Broadcast history

The stage setting for the show, "Kitchen Stadium" (キッチンスタジアム), the high-quality (and sometimes very expensive) ingredients used in the cooking battles, and Kaga's extravagant costumes required the show to have a budget far higher than that of most other cooking shows. Some statistics: 893 portions of foie gras, 54 sea breams, 827 Ise shrimp, 964 matsutake mushrooms, 4,593 eggs, 1,489 truffles, 4,651 grams of caviar, and 84 pieces of shark fin were used during the show, bringing the total grocery bill to ¥843,354,407 (or about $8,000,000). One of the most expensive battles was Battle Swallow's Nest, which ran over $40,000 solely for that ingredient, not counting large quantities of shark's fin; for the battle, the producers were permitted to return any unused portions to Hattori Nutrition College. Chairman Kaga, who tried every dish, consumed a total of 10.0 gigajoules (2,390,000 calories).

Related Topics:
Kitchen Stadium - Costume - Cooking show - Foie gras - Sea breams - Shrimp - Mushrooms - Eggs - Truffles - Caviar - Shark - ¥ - $ - Swallow's Nest - Gigajoule - Calorie

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For the show's grand finale, the Iron Chefs faced off against each other, and the final winner was dubbed the "King of Iron Chefs". The victor was Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai.

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There were two reunion specials produced in 2000. The first was "The Millennium Special"; the second was "New York Special", staged in a makeshift Kitchen Stadium in New York City, and was the first appearance of Bobby Flay. Another reunion episode of the show (entitled "Iron Chef: 21st Century Battle") was produced and broadcast in 2001. A final reunion episode was produced and broadcast in 2002, entitled "The Japan Cup".

Related Topics:
2000 - 2001 - 2002

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The show is presented in the United States on the Food Network, and on SBS TV in Australia, dubbed and/or subtitled into English. It was also broadcast on Challenge in the UK in 2003 and 2004, as part of its "Japanese Christmas Cracker" and "Japanorama" strands. In the case of SBS this is unusual as the network has a policy favouring in house subtitling. It may be felt that the tone the American dub gives the show is essential to its charms, heightened perhaps by the fact that the flamboyant Chairman is not dubbed.

Related Topics:
United States - Food Network - SBS TV - Australia - Dubbed - Subtitled - English - Challenge - UK - 2003 - 2004

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