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.

Iron Chef in pop culture

Because of its success, Iron Chef has been referenced or parodied in various shows.

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• Futurama: In the episode "30% Iron Chef", Bender challenges his idol, Elzar, to a cook-off on the show, "Iron Cook".
• Tenchi Muyo!: In the manga collection "Chef of Iron", Sasami competes on the TV show, "Ferrous Chef". Also, in the Tenchi in Tokyo episode, "Old Friends", Ryoko does her impression of Chairman Kaga (complete with a cape) while unveiling to Mihoshi and Kiyone the secret ingredient, which turns out to be a dinosaur.
• Saturday Night Live: A skit which spoofed the "Iron Chef". The battle featured "American Bachelor Chef" as the challenger creating food from the main ingredient - Shark Heads. This episode obviously pokes fun at the Shark Fin episode considering that most Americans do not eat any form of shark on a regular basis. The challenger won the battle, for comedy value, with the main dish of Shark Head Pizza, which he claimed "gets all the chicks" back home.
• God of Cookery, a comedy by Stephen Chow, is partly a spoof of Iron Chef.
• King of the Hill, Bobby Hill, of the Hill family, is an avid fan of Iron Chef.
• Magic Kitchen, A Hong Kong film featuring an Iron Chef-like TV show as a central theme.
• Iron Wok Jan, a Korean manwha wherein the grandson of a famous chef barges into the cullinary scene with his flapping mouth and sarcastic wit. In the series, he challenges many chefs, sometimes in elaborate cooking battles, à la Iron Chef.
• Good Eats, Host Alton Brown (also a commentator in Iron Chef America) parodied Iron Chef and Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars with a skit called "Scrap Iron Chef."
• Warcraft 3: The Witch Doctor when angered by the player starts a short skit as follows: "Fekui-san!" "Yes, go ahead." "What the Iron Troll is doing right now is putting heads in a pot they have to boil for 20 minutes so the eyes can be used in a second dish, an eye and raspberry soufflé." "Mmmm, Sounds good!"
• Ayashi no Ceres: In episode 4, in Yuhi's room, there is a painting of Rokusaburo Michiba, the first Japanese Iron Chef.
• Slayers Next: In episode 15, Xelloss competes in an Iron Chef-like cook-off, for his challenge, in order to to avoid being changed into a doll.