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.

Format

The story behind Iron Chef was that an eccentric gourmet authority (Chairman Kaga) had specially constructed a cooking arena called "Kitchen Stadium" in his castle where visiting chefs would compete against his Gourmet Academy, led by his three (later four) Iron Chefs.

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On each show, a challenger, typically a famous chef from Japan or elsewhere, is pitted against one of the Iron Chefs (with each Iron Chef specializing in a different kind of cuisine - Japanese, Chinese, French, and later Italian). Although chefs appear to have the freedom to choose which Iron Chefs they face, the matchups are predetermined well beforehand.

Related Topics:
Japan - Japanese - Chinese - French - Italian

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Originally, challengers battled each other in preliminary battles to earn the right to face an Iron Chef in a 90-minute battle, and should a challenger win two battles against Iron Chefs, the challenger would be given the title of "Honorary Iron Chef". However, this format proved unpopular, and thus the preliminary battles were scrapped and the main battles were reduced to the more familiar 60 minutes. The idea of honorary Iron Chef titles was also scrapped, although this was a moot point - few challengers have ever defeated two Iron Chefs in two separate battles.

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In each episode, chefs have one hour to cook a multicourse meal with one theme ingredient that must be present in each dish. The chefs are given a short list of possible themes beforehand, allowing the producers of the show to get any necessary ingredients that may be needed. The chefs compete to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient." In rare cases has the format changed - angler fish battles were typically 75 minutes in length, and noodle battles had the Iron Chef stop after 50 minutes of cooking, only to resume after the challenger's dishes were tasted so that the noodles could be served right after cooking.

Related Topics:
Angler fish - Noodle

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Featured ingredients tend toward the exotic and expensive. Many theme ingredients reflect the Japanese nature of the show -- river eel, tofu, udon -- though ingredients more familiar in the West, such as bell peppers, summer corn, peaches, are spotlighted as well. There are no specific requirements to the number of dishes that may be made - some challengers have finished only a single dish, and some challengers have finished as many as eight (although four dishes is the typical amount).

Related Topics:
Eel - Tofu - Udon - Bell pepper - Corn - Peach

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Each chef is also given two assistants, who are supposedly students of the Gourmet Academy. (In reality, they are students of the Hattori Nutrition College.) In some cases, the challenger may not speak Japanese, in which case the chef is given students who can speak fluently in the challenger's native language.

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Throughout the cook-off, running commentary is made by two "sports-casters" in a booth and one floor reporter.

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At the end of one hour, a panel of three (later expanded to four and later still five) judges, of which typically one is a professional critic, tastes the dishes and judges them based on taste, presentation, and originality. Each chef may be awarded up to 20 points from each judge, with ten given for taste and five each for presentation and originality. The chef with the plurality of judges in support (not necessarily the chef with the greatest score) wins the competition. As ties were possible in the era of the four-judge panel, the chef with the greater number of points won should the judges be deadlocked 2–2. Should the scores remain tied, the chefs would immediately begin a new 30-minute overtime battle with a different ingredient. There, chefs must make do with what remains of their pantry or items that were previously prepared for the main battle but later discarded. The overtime aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the overtime battle itself resulted in a tie, prompting Chairman Kaga to declare both Iron Chef and challenger winners.

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