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Japanese television cooking show
the Japanese cooking show

Iron Chef (料理の鉄人) is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, was a stylized cook off featuring guest chefs challenging one of the show's resident "Iron Chefs" in a timed cooking battle built around a specific theme ingredient. The series ended on September 24, 1999, although four occasional specials were produced from January 5, 2000, to January 2, 2002. The series aired 309 episodes. Repeats are regularly aired on the Food Network in Canada, the Cooking Channel in the United States, and on Special Broadcasting Service in Australia. Iron Chef can be viewed on Peacock TV in the United States. There are 5 spinoffs, with the latest being Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. Fuji TV aired a new version of the show, titled Iron Chef (アイアンシェフ), starting on October 26, 2012.

The host of the show was the flamboyant Takeshi Kaga, known on the show as the aristocrat Chairman Kaga (鹿賀主宰). He began most episodes with his signature words, taken from Arthur Rimbaud, "If memory serves me right 「私の記憶が確かならば 」"(Jadis) si je me souviens bien " and started the cooking time with the phrase "Allez Cuisine!". The show had two regular commentators, Kenji Fukui, who narrated the action on the floor, and Yukio Hattori, a food scholar and founder of the Hattori Nutrition College. A floor reporter, Shinichiro Ohta, reported to Fukui on what the challengers and Iron Chefs were preparing, their strategy, and their comments, breaking Fukui's train of commentary with a polite "Fukui san?". One or two guest commentators (who also served as judges) also made frequent appearances. The commentary covered ingredients, history of contenders, and other background information to give viewers context for what was happening in the kitchen.

The kayfabe "story" behind Iron Chef is recounted at the beginning of every episode of the English dub. A title card, with a quote from famed French food author Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin first appeared: "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are." Then, it was said that Kaga "realized his dream in a form never seen before" and specially constructed a cooking arena called "Kitchen Stadium". There, visiting chefs from "around the world" would compete against his Gourmet Academy, led by his three (later four) Iron Chefs. Chairman Kaga himself was a showpiece, dressed in outlandish examples of men's formal attire. The English name Iron Chef comes from the show itself: Kaga would use this translation of the Japanese title when summoning his chefs at the beginning of the "battle".

From the beginning of the show in 1993, the three Iron Chefs were: Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba, Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi, and Iron Chef French Yutaka Ishinabe. After the first season, Ishinabe decided to step down and become an 'honorary Iron Chef', thus passing the mantle of Iron Chef French to Hiroyuki Sakai in 1994. Ishinabe returned for two more battles during season three. At the beginning of season four in 1996, Michiba announced his retirement and debuted Koumei Nakamura as the new Iron Chef Japanese. Michiba returned on rare occasions for special Kitchen Stadium battles. In 1997, Chairman Kaga announced a new, additional Iron Chef to the group: Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe. He was the youngest of the Iron Chefs and battled sparingly throughout the rest of the show, ascending to the stage separately from the three main Iron Chefs, and surrounded by a chamber string ensemble. In 1998, Nakamura also decided to retire and passed the title of Iron Chef Japanese to Masaharu Morimoto.

Iron ChefTitleWins LossesDrawsNo ContestsTotalWin % Chen Kenichi (陳 建一)Iron Chef Chinese6624309372.6% Iron Chef French (I)7100887.5% Iron Chef French (II)7015108682.4% Iron Chef Italian167102468.8% Iron Chef Japanese (I)335103985.9% Iron Chef Japanese (II)2211113566.2% Iron Chef Japanese (III)178102667.3%

Originally, challengers vied with each other in preliminary "battles" to earn the right to face an Iron Chef in a 90 minute competition, and should a challenger win twice against Iron Chefs, the challenger would be given the title of "Honorary Iron Chef". However, this format proved unpopular, the preliminary round was scrapped and the main contest was reduced to the now familiar 60 minutes. The awarding of honorary Iron Chef titles to challengers was also discontinued (although this was largely a moot point as few challengers ever defeated two Iron Chefs in separate contests), but was given as an emeritus title for a retiring Iron Chef. Once honorary titles were no longer issued, challengers who beat an Iron Chef had to settle for, according to the English version's introduction, "the people's ovation and fame forever". In each episode, chefs have one hour to cook and improvise a multicourse meal around a theme ingredient that must be present in each dish. Before the actual taping, the chefs are given a short list of possible themes, allowing the producers of the show to get any ingredients that may be needed. Judges' primary goal was said to be determining which chef was able to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient". In rare cases, 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.

Featured ingredients tend toward the exotic and expensive. Many theme ingredients reflect the Japanese origin of the show—river eel, tofu, udon—though ingredients more familiar in the West, such as bell peppers, summer corn, and peaches, are spotlighted, as well. In one episode devoted to asparagus, the challenger boasted that he used over $1,000 worth of lobster (which he then discarded) simply to flavor his asparagus in this battle against Iron Chef Morimoto. Initially, a minimum of three dishes was to be prepared, although some challengers have finished only a single dish; four is the typical number. The record for highest number of dishes prepared for a battle was eight, first set by challenger Kenji Kaji against Iron Chef Michiba in "Battle Umeboshi". Five (later six) servings of each dish are prepared, one each for the chairman and judges, and one for photography and presentation.

Each chef is also given two assistants, who are supposedly students of Kaga's "Gourmet Academy" (in reality, they are students of Hattori Nutrition College). If the challenger does not speak Japanese, students who can speak in the challenger's native language are sometimes provided. In a notable exception, San Francisco chef Ron Siegel struggled with his assistants, who did not speak English. One assistant, Kenichi Miyanaga, became a challenger himself, taking on Iron Chef Morimoto in a sweetfish battle.

Throughout the cook off, running commentary is made in a booth near the cooking area by an announcer, Kenji Fukui; a commentator, Yukio Hattori, and one or two of the guest judges, with one floor reporter (sometimes two; normally Shinichiro Ohta) providing details of the action on each side. The commentators and judges discuss the style of cooking, culinary traditions and unusual food preparation. At the end of the hour, after end of battle interviews with both competitors, each dish is presented to the camera, with a description of its properties (written by the show's screenwriters based on the chef's explanation) read by the announcer. Then, 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 by each judge, with 10 given for taste and five each for presentation and originality. The chef with the greatest score wins the competition. (In earlier four judge episodes, the win went to the chef who won three of the four judges, or, failing that, the chef who makes the highest points total.) Chairman Kaga tastes the dishes along with the judges. While he occasionally makes comments and seeks input from judges during tasting, he generally does not participate in scoring; he did do so, however, during the 2000th Dish Battle. During this episode, a team of French cuisine chefs—captain Hiroyuki Sakai, the original Iron Chef French Yutaka Ishinabe, and former challenger Etsuo Joh—battled a team of Chinese cuisine chefs composed of captain Chen Kenichi, former challenger Sozo Myamoto, and former challenger Yuji Wakiya (who would later be Iron Chef Chinese on the 2012 revival). To break the tie, Chairman Kaga asked them to allow him this one instance of selfishness, and he cast his vote for the French team.

In the case of a deadlock (as was possible during the era of the four judge panel), first place is awarded to the chef with the greater number of points. On the rare occasions that the scores were also tied, an immediate "overtime battle" was held to determine the winner. In overtime, the chefs are given 30 minutes to prepare dishes with a different key ingredient, having to make do with what remains of their pantry or with items that were previously prepared for the main battle. The overtime battles are aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the overtime battle itself resulted in a tie, prompting Chairman Kaga to declare both the Iron Chef and challenger winners.

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 those of most other cooking shows. Some statistics: 893 portions of foie gras, 54 sea bream, 827 Ise shrimp, 964 matsutake mushrooms, 4,593 eggs, 1,489 truffles, 4,651 g of caviar, and 84 pieces of shark fin were used during the show, bringing the total grocery bill to ¥843,354,407 (or about $7,115,520). 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.

For the show's grand finale, aired from September 10, 1999, to September 24, 1999, the Iron Chefs faced off against each other in a three part battle, with the winner to face French chef Alain Passard, owner of Michelin three star restaurant L'Arpege, with the winner dubbed the "King of Iron Chefs". In the first round, Iron Chef Chinese Chen defeated Iron Chef Italian Kobe in Battle Pork (Tokyo X). In the second round, Iron Chef French Sakai defeated Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto in Battle Bell Pepper. In the final match, Sakai defeated Chen in Battle Homard Lobster and was dubbed "King of Iron Chefs". Prior to that episode, Sakai had never won a lobster battle. In the final bonus match in Kitchen Stadium, with all of the current and previous Iron Chefs looking on, Iron Chef French Sakai defeated Alain Passard in Battle Long Gang Chicken. Thus, Hiroyuki Sakai was dubbed as both "King of Iron Chefs" and "The No. 1 in the World". Two reunion specials were produced in 2000. The first was "The Millennium Special"; the second was "New York Special", staged in a makeshift Kitchen Stadium at Webster Hall in New York City, and was the first appearance of Bobby Flay. The New York special also included Michiba and Morimoto on Gordon Elliott's Door Knock Dinners (with footage aired on both shows) surprising a family in Rye by preparing dinner for them with just leftovers and other items in the family's refrigerator. 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". This special was hosted by celebrity Masahiro Motoki, and began with a mock funeral for the character of Chairman Kaga, citing fugu poisoning as his cause of death. Sakai, Chen, Kobe and Michiba, along with celebrity chefs including Chen's son Chen Kentaro and Singaporean patissier Janice Wong, also participated in an Iron Chef All Stars charity dinner at the Sydney Opera House in August 2017 that raised AU$26,500 for Opportunity International Australia and was eventually Kobe's last Iron Chef event before his death.

Starting around 1997, Iron Chef was shown, on KTSF in San Francisco, KSCI in Long Beach, as well as stations in Hawaii and the New York City area, in its original Japanese version with English subtitles, and quickly became a cult hit. In summer of 1998, the show stopped using subtitles;

While always a success in Japan, Iron Chef became a surprise hit in the United States when it was picked up by the Food Network in 1999 and dubbed into English. Part of the U. S. appeal was due to the dubbing, which gave the show a campy charm that evoked English dubbed Chinese kung fu movies of the 1970s. Audiences also found amusing some of the over the top culinary concoctions regularly featured on the show, eventually leading to a spoof on Saturday Night Live.

The show was presented in the United States and Canada on the Food Network, dubbed and/or subtitled into English. It was also broadcast on SBS TV in Australia. In the case of SBS, this is unusual as the network has a policy favouring in house subtitling of acquired programs; it may be felt that the tone given to the show by its American dub is essential to its charms, heightened perhaps by the fact that in most episodes, the flamboyant Chairman is subtitled instead of dubbed. The show was also broadcast on the Finnish channel SubTV, and the Swedish channel TV400 (TV4). Iron Chef was broadcast on Challenge in the UK in 2003 and 2004, as part of its "Japanese Christmas Cracker" and "Japanorama" strands. The show had again aired in the U. S. on the Fine Living Network from May 5, 2008, until the channel went off the air on May 30, 2010; however, the music from earlier broadcasts, taken from international films such as Backdraft and A Zed & Two Noughts, had been replaced due to music licensing issues with NBC Universal. The Cooking Channel picked up the series on June 1, 2010, when it replaced Fine Living. The stations that have carried the series, Fine Living, Cooking Channel, and Food Network, are all owned by Scripps Networks Interactive. FilmRise acquired the exclusive rights to the original Iron Chef episodes in October 2021. The following month, episodes began streaming for free on Paramount's Pluto TV service.

In 2012, Fuji Television announced that it was recording new episodes of Iron Chef. It was announced, after airing thirteen episodes, that the new run of Iron Chef would be discontinued after the last episode on March 22, 2013. Mr. Tatematsu, General Manager of Editing, explained, "Iron Chef is a high quality show and we can say it is FujiTV's treasure. Currently we are struggling for the ratings. We think we have a time slot problem, too, so we would like to consider about a way to make it as special program and forward it into the next stage." On July 3, 2013, the Iron Chefs reunited for an American Chef Special with beef as the secret ingredient. All three Iron Chefs were paired with an American challenger, and then for a fourth round, all six competed. Currently, there are no plans for any more Iron Chef specials.

In 2007, Krav Sakinim (, Knife Fight), a show based on Iron Chef, began airing on Israel's Channel 10. Each episode features a different prominent Israeli chef, who competes against one of the show's featured foreign chefs. All Israeli winners compete against one another in the finals and the winner competes against a foreign chef for the title of season champion. Season 1 featured only French chef Stéphane Froidevaux, who won the season's finale, while season 2 saw the inclusion of Italian chef Alfredo Russo, meaning both Michelin star holders would have to compete against each other for a spot in the final bout. The show is actively hosted by actor Oded Menashe and the regular commentators are chef Yaron Kastenboim and catering company owner Ran Shmueli. While in season 1, the panel of judges was made up mostly of celebrities from the entertainment industry, season 2 features renowned persons from the culinary industry, such as restaurant critics and chefs. The competitors prepare a three course meal, with each dish given a score of up to 10 points by each member of the panel and commentators, accumulating up to 150 points per chef (compared to 90 points in season 1, where the commentators had relatively more points to give).

In 2010, UK public television network Channel 4 debuted Iron Chef UK, based on Iron Chef. The show airs five days a week, and is hosted by Olly Smith and Nick Nairn. The four Iron Chefs are Tom Aikens, Martin Blunos, Sanjay Dwivedi and Judy Joo. Like the original Iron Chef, the competitions are held in Kitchen Stadium and presided over by The Chairman. Judging occurs in two rounds, with the first round being appetizers, and the second being the main courses. Two challengers prepare the appetizer, producing one appetizer each, while the Iron Chef prepares two. These are judged, and the standing for the team versus the Iron Chef are announced. Then the second half begins: the challenging team and the Iron Chef return to the kitchen to prepare the main course. The two challengers each prepare one dish, while the Iron Chef prepares two. Judging resumes, and the results are announced. Either the Challenging team wins, or the Iron Chef wins in overall score, and the best dish from the challenging team is also announced. The challengers with the best dish returns on Friday to compete against the best Iron Chef of the week.

The Seven Network announced in August 2010 that an Australian version was planned, in part to capitalize on the success of the highly popular MasterChef Australia. The Australian Iron Chefs were Neil Perry, Guy Grossi and Guillaume Brahimi, while the show features a static judging panel composed of food critics Larissa Dubecki, Simon Thomsen and Leo Schofield. Mark Dacascos reprises his role as The Chairman from Iron Chef America, and the program is hosted by Grant Denyer, with additional commentary provided by Richard Cornish. Iron Chef Australia began airing on October 19, 2010, attracting an audience of 1.13 million viewers for its first episode. It was cancelled at the end of its first season.

On January 25, 2012, the first episode of Iron Chef Thailand broadcast on BBTV channel 7. The chairman is Mr. Santi Svetavimala. In this version of Iron Chef, there are four Iron Chefs: Chumpol Chaengprai (Thai cuisine); Boontham Pakpo (Japanese cuisine); Pongtawat "Ian" Chalermkittichai (Western cuisine); and Chaitep "Mr. Lee" Pattarapornpaisarn (Chinese cuisine). The program is hosted by Shahkrit Yamnam and the field reporter is DJ Pong (Nattapong Taengkasem). The format is different, in that in the first half of the program, there are three challengers who compete with each other to find out who is the best chef. The winner will compete against the Iron Chef on the second half of the program. This format was used for only three episodes. On February 22, 2012 the format of Iron Chef Thailand was changed to: the first 30 minutes of the program is where the Challenger Chef will present his/her "Signature Dish with a Special Ingredient" to the guests. Then followed by the actual "Iron Chef Battle", similar to Iron Chef Japan where the host will ask the Challenger Chef to select the Iron Chef he/she wants to challenge. After the Challenger Chef has selected the Iron Chef the Chairman will reveal the "Secret Ingredient" and once the Chairman says "Allez Cuisine" the battle begins. The battle time is 60 minutes where they will need to complete at least four dishes. The order in which Chefs present to the Judges will be determined by a coin toss conducted by the Host. The last 30 minutes of the program is "Cooking with Iron Chef". Guests learn how to cook from the Iron Chef and win the "Best Student" at the end of the program.

The Vietnamese version was set to air from June 6, 2012 on VTV3. In this version there are only three Iron Chefs: David Thái, Long Chef and Yu Zhi Da. The ultimate winner would be a 2013 Iron Chef.

There have been two adaptations of Iron Chef for Indonesian television.

The first Indonesian adaptation of Iron Chef series, also known as Allez Cuisine, which came from Chairman Kaga's catchphrase in the original series, was aired on Indosiar from March 1, 2003, until August 12, 2006. The Kitchen Stadium owner role was played by Derry Drajat, and the main commentator was Gunardjo, an Indonesian food expert. The show featured three Super Chefs or Iron Chefs. Episodes were 1 hour long. The show also featured a mini game segment with 6 competitors featuring the main ingredient of the episode. The mini game segment usually lasts for 2 minutes. After the main cooking segment was finished, the Super Chef will give verdict on the results of the mini game and declare the mini game winner.

The second Iron Chef series, also known as Iron Chef Indonesia, was aired on RCTI from April 22, 2017, until November 19, 2017. Just like the first series, the concept of this show was still a battle between one of the three Super Chefs or Iron Chefs that has been selected by a Challenger Chef to serve the three or four dishes with a predetermined main ingredients. The winner will be announced by the chairman based on the scores that have been given by the guest judges. The chairman role was played by Edward Akbar, the field reporter by Yuda Bustara, and the commentator by Kevindra Prianto Soemantri, with guest judges selected from chefs, celebrities, businesspersons, and executives every week.

Iron Chef Mexico is set to premiere on Netflix on September 21, 2022.