The Official "Iron Chef America" Thread (4/23-25)
 

For some reason I have been addicted to Iron Chef as of late. I'm not sure if its the food, the chefs or the showmanship.

Anyways, after the American teaser a few months ago (hosted by William Shatner), I've been anxiously awaiting an American version.

Here's the line up for this weekend on the Food Network:

<blockquote>Friday, April 23rd

9 PM - The Making of Iron Chef America: Behind the Scenes
10 PM - Battle #1: Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai v. Bobby Flay

Saturday, April 24th

9 PM - Battle #1: Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai v. Bobby Flay (Repeat)
10 PM - Battle #2: Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto v. Mario Batali (Part 1 of a Double Battle)

Sunday, April 25th

6 PM - The Making of Iron Chef America: Behind the Scenes (Repeat)
7 PM - Battle #1: Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai v. Bobby Flay (Repeat)
8 PM - Battle #2: Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto v. Mario Batali (Part 1 of a Double Battle; Repeat)
9 PM - Battle #3: Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto v. Wolfgang Puck (Part 2 of a Double Battle)
10 PM - Battle #4: Tag Team Battle</blockquote>

Let's try and keep all the discussion in this one thread. Thanks.

Sakai does some amazing things and so does Morimoto. Maybe I'm just used to watching the FoodTV personalities cook up less complex dishes, but I can see the Japanese reps cleaning up.

Last weekend they showed the Morimoto v. Flay Battles:

Battle #1: Rock Crab Battle (from NYC in 2000) - Morimoto cleaned up there. But the funniest part was Flay complaining that his equiptment was faulty since he kept getting shocked! When the battle was over, he jumped up on the cutting board and Morimoto threw a fit about his sacrilege.

Battle #2: Japanese Lobster Battle (from Japan in 2001) - Flay got his revenge, and Chad Rowan (Akebono, the Yokozuna at the time) was one of the judges. This time instead of standing on the cutting board, he threw the cutting board off and stood on the counter. Morimoto was still pissed.

Hopefully in the Tag Team Battle we'll see Sakai/Morimoto v. Flay/Batali (I don't like Puck much).

http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve...687|1|,00.html

Click the link for a pretty long story on the new specials. An except:

Sounds very cool. I hope they make this a yearly special.

Except no Chairman Kaga (his "nephew" hosts the show), no studio audience, no Ota.

I'm still going to watch though, anything with Sakai and Morimoto in it is better than that Iron Chef USA crap.

No Chairman? That sucks... any chance the commentators are the same guys who do the voiceovers?

Doubtful, looks like Brown is the announcer/commentator.

I like Alton Brown but I will reserve judgement on his 'commentating'. I like his humor on Good Eats but I'm not sure how it will be here? This will no doubt be a lot better than that crap Iron Chef USA they tried to do. I wonder who the tasting panel will consist of?

Let's hope so. Most everything the U.S. touches turns to crap.

I surely hope you aren't refering to the country itself? :)

I liked William Shatner as the Chairman... thought it was rather appropriate!

From zap2it:
In the battle between Sakai and Bobby Flay, airing Friday, trout is the secret ingredient...
...the judges -- for this battle, comedian Brian Unger, chef Kerry Simon and Bon Appetit executive editor Victoria von Biel...

Looks like they're not following the original Iron Chef panel of typically a politician, a rap star, a bimbo and a psychic.

Bump for the show tonight...

I can't wait! Go Flay! :D

Hmm. It woud be entertaining to have John Kerry, Vanilla Ice, Anna Nichole Smith, and Miss Cleo be judges.

Anyone know if the Fri or Sat shows repeat again late at night? It's about the only show I watch, & I really want to see them but I wont' be home while they are on & I don't have a VCR.

Replays according to Foodnetwork.com:

Iron Chef America: Behind the Scenes
<blockquote>April 23, 2004 9:00 PM ET/PT
April 24, 2004 1:00 AM ET/PT
April 24, 2004 2:00 PM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 6:00 PM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
April 26, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
April 27, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
May 02, 2004 3:00 PM ET/PT</blockquote>

Battle #1: Sakai v Flay
<blockquote>April 23, 2004 10:00 PM ET/PT
April 24, 2004 2:00 AM ET/PT
April 24, 2004 9:00 PM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 1:00 AM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 7:00 PM ET/PT
April 26, 2004 12:00 AM ET/PT
April 27, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
April 28, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
May 02, 2004 4:00 PM ET/PT</blockquote>

Battle #2: Morimoto v Batali
<blockquote>April 24, 2004 10:00 PM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 2:00 AM ET/PT
April 25, 2004 8:00 PM ET/PT
April 26, 2004 1:00 AM ET/PT
April 28, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
April 29, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
May 02, 2004 5:00 PM ET/PT</blockquote>

Battle #3: Morimoto v Puck
<blockquote>April 25, 2004 9:00 PM ET/PT
April 26, 2004 2:00 AM ET/PT
April 29, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
April 30, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
May 02, 2004 6:00 PM ET/PT</blockquote>

Battle #4: Tag Team Battle
<blockquote>April 25, 2004 10:00 PM ET/PT
April 26, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
April 30, 2004 11:00 PM ET/PT
May 01, 2004 3:00 AM ET/PT
May 02, 2004 7:00 PM ET/PT</blockquote>

The Take-Out Edition
 

http://store.foodnetwork.com/estore_.../MER4369_L.jpg

They are touting a 3 disc DVD Set of all four battles, the "Behind the Scenes" Special and bonus footage for $44.95. Will ship in early June. :up:

My wife said 'No!'

Darn it! :up:

I'm still waiting for the FujiTelevision/FoodNetwork Iron Chef dvd box set. :(

So far it's a good show on the Behind the Scenes. No mention of the UPN version :up:

:jawdrop:

PETA is gonna be up in arms about them killing live trout on television! ;)

Brian

I thought it was a good show. Doesn't quite have the energy of the original but that will come over time. The judges also need to liven up a bit more. I'll keep watching. :up:

And they were wrong about Sakai not losing a fish battle. He lost the red snapper 21st century battle to Kandagawa.

An interesting show, but didn't like it half as much as the original. Just pretty boring overall without Ota, etc. Plus, not too sure Flay deserved the win - looks like the judges were pretty biased.

I agree. However, the judges on the original always seemed biased against non-Japanese challengers too. They were initially even hard on Morimoto (who was at the time working in New York) because he had a neo-Japanese style with obvious American influence.

In any case, from the web vote, it is clear that fans know that Sakai is the true master. He won the vote 70% to 30% over Flay. Sakai is awesome.

I think Sakai lost them with the ice cream. It's obviously hard to judge the taste since we can't, but up to that point I would have given the edge to Sakai. Seriously, trout ice cream?!

Mark Dacascos as the chairman....well, you can't really top the real chairman, so why even try right. He wasn't horrible, and I did like the apple thing. Though I though the "uncle" thing was stretching it a bit much.

same here
pretty boring overall
VERY disapointed