Allez cuisine! Iron Chef.

[Ni-ban Neko]

Is anyone else as big a fan of Iron Chef as I am? I'm a fan of both Chen Kenichi and Hiroyuki Sakai, myself. I'd love to eat at one of their restaurants.

Also, anyone watch Iron Chef America last weekend?

[Sailorasteroid]

Is anyone else as big a fan of Iron Chef as I am? I'm a fan of both Chen Kenichi and Hiroyuki Sakai, myself. I'd love to eat at one of their restaurants.

Also, anyone watch Iron Chef America last weekend?

I love that show, and I think it's a great example of how to do a proper dub of a foriegn program. Case in point: a few weeks ago they had Battle Carp. The dubbed Fukui-san pointed out that in Japanese the word for this type of carp (koi) is the same as the word for "love affair," and that like a love affair, the carp may quickly cool. (A Sailormoon Supers episode examined the same pun) Taking the time to translate the joke and explain the wordplay is something the writers didn't have to do, especially being so crunched for time as it is. But they did it because the audience knows it's a Japanese show and they're not ashamed of that.

And man, does Fukui-san have a tough job, giving play-by-play on something so esoteric as cooking. I understand he's a former (current?) baseball announcer, which seems like the perfect preparation.

Of the tetsujin, my favorite has to be Rokusaburo Michiba. There's something so beautifully Japanese about being given an hour to prepare an ingredient you've only just found out a few minutes earler and picking up a calligraphy brush and writing out your menu. The respect shown to him by the other chefs and personnel really plays him up as a venerable old man.

I did not see the Iron Chef America though I heard the result of the Flay/Sakai battle, which screams "fix!" to me. I just don't think an American company can do justice to the production. 50% of the show is in the pageantry and ceremony, and it's not the same outside of Japan.

[RyoRei0110]

I'm a fan ^_^ I watch the show on the weekends. It's pretty cool, I love watching the making of the food (it all looks so good..) And the chairman is pretty funny (How can he stand to eat that pepper though? o.o;; )

I saw Iron Chef America last weekend, and... it was okay. There were too many recaps, (You'd think we'd understand the point system after being told TWO-THREE times an episode) and not enough time on the actual cooking. I also thought the outcome of each battle was kinda predictable.

[spoiler]All three American chefs winning? It just doesn't seem right for neither of the Iron Chefs not to win a single battle.. (then again Sakai only had 1 battle on his own) But I do think Wolfpack did deserve his win. He was very creative.[/spoiler]

As for the "unbelievable, incredible twist"? Psh, it was extremely easy to figure it out.
The judges were okay; I was glad when they brought the Food Critic out though, he was the only one who didn't seem to say "It's so delicate/It's such a delicate piece" every time(Though it did seem like they might of edited some of his comments).

I must say, I like the new chairman though. He's pretty cool. I love the part of the opening when he has the yellow pepper, than whips out an apple and bites it instead^.^

[Ni-ban Neko]

You hit on a lot of what I like about the show, sailorasteroid. The pageantry and the presentation are a big part of its appeal. They did do an excellent job on the dubbing, I agree.

I thought Iron Chef America was done pretty well, though I agre with you about the Flay/Sakai battle screaming "fixed!". Food Network worked pretty closely with the original show's creators at Fuji TV on format and the like.

The commentary was different - Alton Brown had to play the role that was shared by Fukui and Hattori in the Japanese version. While he did a good job, I think having another person there would have been good - maybe Rachel Ray.

My favorite episode of the four was the tag team battle they set up, with Bobby Flay and Masaharu Morimoto on one team and Mario Batali and Hiroyuki Sakai on the other. Each chef did two dishes on his own, but they paired up for the third, and I really enjoyed seeing how the chefs worked together. It made for some really delicious-looking food, too - I'd love to have been on that tasting panel!

[Tiff]

Normally, I detest cooking shows, but I love Iron Chef, the original. It's just plain fun to watch them come up with all of the different meals, and it's intense to get into the battles and see who's going to win (although the judges' dub voices make me want to hurt things).

Iron Chef: America isn't bad, but it doesn't rub me the same way Iron Chef does. I dunno...I watched one battle that seemed incredibly fixed...I don't remember which it was. It just doesn't have the same feel as the original, which is to be expected, but it's not as horrible as I thought it'd be.

[jupiter23]

I get a lot of amusement out of this show (both versions). And the food, even though I don't like seafood, looks soo good.

I didn't find Iron Chef America to be as good, however. Without Kaga-san, the show is just missing something.

[RyoRei0110]

So was Iron Chef America just a one-shot, showing how well American chefs can compete against the original Iron Chefs, or will there be more episodes, where chefs from all around can come to compete with the American Iron Chefs?