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.

Related shows

The U.S. UPN network presented two one-hour episodes of Iron Chef USA hosted by William Shatner around Christmas 2001. These shows were not a success. This may be because the show focused little on cooking—a major part of the Japanese program. The show had a small audience section in bleachers. The audience yelled relentlessly during the show (sounding much like a sports audience), Shatner walked around the kitchen sampling the more expensive items, the chefs refused to say what they were doing, and the cameras rarely showed the food preparation.

Related Topics:
UPN - Iron Chef USA - William Shatner

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In 2004, Food Network announced that they would show an Iron Chef special, called "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters", featuring Sakai and Morimoto dueling with American Iron Chefs Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck, all Food Network personalities and renowned American celebrity chefs. (Morimoto and Flay battled in two previous Iron Chef specials that were made after the original series aired.) The specials featured fellow Food Network personality Alton Brown as the announcer and actor Mark Dacascos playing the role of The Chairman. Alton stars in the popular Food Network show, Good Eats.

Related Topics:
2004 - Iron Chef America - Bobby Flay - Mario Batali - Wolfgang Puck - American - Celebrity chef - Alton Brown - Mark Dacascos - Good Eats

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The show received high ratings and rave reviews, and in October 2004, Food Network began taping weekly episodes that premiered starting in January 2005. Some changes were made to the show, most notably replacing Puck with Morimoto as an Iron Chef (and a fourth, Cat Cora, was added later), and the location was moved from Los Angeles to New York City.

Related Topics:
October 2004 - January 2005 - Cat Cora - Los Angeles - New York City

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