I’ve been an Iron Chef fan for years. I watched it on a local channel years ago before the voices were dubbed – you had to read the poorly translated subtitles to get what was going on. Then they dubbed the show and moved it to the Food Network and I continued to watch it.
I also got together with some former coworkers to tape our own episodes of Iron Chef, with me taking the role of the Iron Chef for our competitions. Battle Chicken and Battle Mushrooms were the two “real” shows that we did, with Battle Spam a parody to show off a recently remodeled kitchen. I’ve been told that the Battle Spam DVD has been making the rounds at one of the local junior high schools and they think that we’re gods. So you could say that I’m a fan.
A couple of years ago there was an attempt to make Iron Chef America with William Shatner as Chairman Kaga. They built Kitchen Stadium in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and shot a couple of competitions. It was a piece of crap and I could never get through an entire show.
Last week, the Food Network starting showing a new version of Iron Chef America. I watched it with some trepidation, remembering just how bad the original with Captain Kirk/T.J. Hooker/Priceline.com Spokesman had been. Shatner’s show was a condescending parody of a serious cooking competition. Yes, the Japanese version had somewhat of a professional wrestling feel to it, but Shatner’s version was just embarrassing. Would the Food Network show be just as bad, if not worse?
In the new version of Iron Chef America two of the Iron Chefs from the Japanese television show — Masaharu Morimoto and Hiroyuki Sakai — had several competitions against the American Iron Chefs: Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay, and Mario Batali. To make things a bit more interesting, Morimoto and Flay competed against each other twice for the Japanese show, once in New York and once in Japan. Some harsh words had been exchanged between the two.
I was pleasantly surprised. The new show captured the spirit of the Japanese version, has knowledgeable commentators, and good judges. I’ve seen a couple of episodes and while I wouldn’t want to judge Battle Egg (I hate eggs) I’d love to be on the panel for this show. Iron Chef America is really well done, and I hope they shoot some more shows with other, American competitors. I’d like to see David Kinch from Manresa take on one of the American Iron Chefs.
My only complaint about the show is with the Chairman. He is supposed to be Japanese and they show him working out in a martial arts studio. However, it looks to me like he’s wearing a Chinese Kung Fu uniform and doing a Kung Fu sword form. If that’s all I can find wrong with the show, then I’ll be on the look out for more episodes.
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