Iron Chef (America)
"Iron Chef America" is a Food Network show based on the original series "Iron Chef," which aired on Fuji Television. The original show aired from October 10, 1993 until September 24, 1999. It featured four chefs who each specialized in a different type of cuisine. Each week, a challenging chef would go up against the Iron Chef of his choosing in a cooking arena dubbed "Kitchen Stadium." They would cook up dishes that would then be judged to determine the winner. Chairman Kaga would choose the main ingredient to be used and then oversaw the cooking and judging.
"Iron Chef America" kept much of the original formatting of the show. The Iron Chefs are challenged each week by a visiting chef. The kitchen stadium is ruled by Chairman Kaga's nephew, played by martial arts expert Mark Dacascos, who is really no kin to the original chairman. Commenting on the show is Alton Brown with Kevin Brauch serving as the floor reporter. To connect the two shows, Chairman Kaga set the first battle in New York between Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Masaharu Morimoto.
The only Iron Chef to carry over from the original series is Masaharu Morimoto, who specializes in Japanese cuisine. The other Iron Chefs are Mario Batali, who specializes in Italian cuisine, Cat Cora, who specializes in Greek and Aegean cuisine, Bobby Flay, who specializes in Southwestern cuisine, and the newest Iron Chef, Michael Symon. Michael recently won the Food Network series "The Next Iron Chef" to attain this position. His specialty is Mediterranean cuisine. Each chef wears a denim jacket, however each chef does has his or her own color: Flay's trim is blue, Batali's trim is orange, Morimoto's trim is white, Cora's trim is pink, and Symon's trim is black. Each chef also has a flag patch on their shoulder that represents their native country. In the next season, the chefs will be wearing new jackets based on the winning design entry of a Food Network contest.
Each battles starts with Chairman Dacascos saying "So America, with an open heart and an empty stomach, I say unto you in the words of my uncle: Allez Cuisine!" Each chef is allowed two assistant chefs (sous chefs) to help them prepare their dishes during the hour long show. Each chef must present a minimum of five dishes, each containing the main ingredient to the three judges.
The judges differ from show to show, but some of those having appeared as a judge is Ted Allen (food expert from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"), Jeffrey Steingarten (food critic for Vogue magazine), Akiko Katayama (a food writer), and Anderson Cooper (anchor of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360").
The judges will score the dishes based on three categories: taste (scoring up to 10 points), plating (scoring up to 5 points), and originality (scoring up to 5 points). The chef with the highest score is declared the winner. If there is a tie, it remains so and goes on the Iron Chefs record as a tie.
Occasionally, there are special episodes such as the one that pitted Food Network personalities Giada De Laurentiis and Rachael Ray against Iron Chefs Bobby Flay and Mario Batali.
Latest Eliminated from Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America: Battle Prosciutto
Posted: 9 Mar 2010
This week’s “Iron Chef America” battle was between Iron Chef Symon and someone you may remember from “Top Chef” – Chef Spike Mendohlson. Chef Spike went out 5th in Season 4, but since then, I’ve seen him on quite a few shows. There was playful competition between the two chefs during the show [...]
Iron Chef America: Battle Cherry
Posted: 26 Oct 2009
This week’s “Iron Chef America” challenger was Chef David Walzog. He chose to challenge Iron Chef Cat Cora. The secret ingredient was cherries. The judges this week were comedian/food reporter Mo Rocca, Broadway actress Roz Ryan, and food author Jeffrey Steingarten.
Iron Chef Cat Cora served up five dishes: stuffed cherry brochette [...]
Iron Chef America: Battle Coconut
Posted: 1 Sep 2009
It was Battle Coconut on “Iron Chef America” as challenger Jehangir Mehta took on Iron Chef Morimoto. The judges were former NFL player Tiki Barber, food reporter Alpana Singh, and food author Eric Gower.
Iron Chef Morimoto presented five dishes: coconut milk with noodles, coconut poached snapper with frozen lettuce, coconut clam chowder, coconut [...]
Iron Chef America: Battle Maple Syrup
Posted: 24 Aug 2009
This week’s “Iron Chef America” battle was between Chef Brad Farmerie. He chose to compete against Cat Cora with the secret ingredient of maple syrup. The judges were actress Cady Huffman, inventor Philip Preston, and fashion designer Nicole Miller. If you looked closely, you probably noticed Mark Simmons from season four [...]
