Iron Chef
Iron Chef is a Japanese television cooking show produced by Fuji Television. The series, which premiered on October 10, 1993, is 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 until Asian-American specialty television channel ChimeTV took over reruns in 2022, and on Special Broadcasting Service in Australia; in the United States, it is streamed by Peacock TV and Pluto TV. 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, premiering on October 26, 2012.
Features & Story
The host of the show is the flamboyant Takeshi Kaga, known on the show as the aristocrat Chairman Kaga. He begins 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…」" si je me souviens bien..." and starts the cooking time with the phrase "Allez Cuisine!". The show has 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, reports to Fukui on what the challengers and Iron Chefs are preparing, their strategy, and their comments, breaking Fukui's train of commentary with a polite "Fukui-san?". One or two guest commentators also made frequent appearances. The commentary covers 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 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".
Iron Chefs & Statistics
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 Chef | Title | Wins | Losses | Draws | No Contests | Total | Win % |
| Chen Kenichi | Iron Chef Chinese | 66 | 24 | 3 | 0 | 93 | 72.6% |
| Iron Chef French | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 87.5% | |
| Iron Chef French | 70 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 86 | 82.4% | |
| Iron Chef Italian | 16 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 68.8% | |
| Iron Chef Japanese | 33 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 39 | 85.9% | |
| Iron Chef Japanese | 22 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 35 | 66.2% | |
| Iron Chef Japanese | 17 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 26 | 67.3% |
On-Screen Talent & Show Staff
The show staff was gleaned from many of the original Japanese episodes.- Kenji Fukui, Announcer/commentator
- Yukio Hattori, Commentator
- Takeshi Kaga, Host
- Shinichiro Ohta, Kitchen reporter
- Planning: Osamu Kanemitsu & Takashi Ishihara
- Composition: Masahiro Ito & Kundō Koyama
- Narrator: Toshiyuki Makihara
- Technology: Yamine TV
- Technical Director: Kiyoyuki Nakagawa
- Camera: Toshihiro Kase
- Audio: Yoshio Ishizuka
- Video Engineer: Hideho Tanaka
- Videotape Recording: Takanozawa Shinichi
- Lighting: Toshihiko Imado
- Crane: Meiko Select Co., Ltd.
- Location Techniques: Masayuki Nonomura
- Editor: Hironobu Inoue, Masaaki Yamamoto
- Visual Creator: Ken Sonobe
- Sound Effects: Chiaki Kado
- Sound Adjustment: Kiwamu Watanabe
- Art Producer: Shigeo Yamada
- Art Designer: Shinji Ishimori
- Art Directors: Semba Fumio & Junji Kashino
- Title Logo: Tetsuya Shimomura
- CG Title: Takao Momozono
- Costume Stylists: Momo Ejima & Toshiko Hatano
- Photographer: Kazuma Uogaeshi
- Food Stylist: Mio Meguro
- Food Coordinator: Setsuko Yuki
- Public Relations: Emiko Ogasawara
- Timekeeper: Kumi Mizuno
- Advisors: Bon Kawai & Hiromichi Naga
- Location Cooperation: KENSINGTON
- Material Cooperation: Hattori Nutrition College
- Countdown Voice: Yuko Sumitomo
- Assistant Directors: Takashi Umakoshi, Tomomi Nakamura, and Chinatsu Suzuki
- Assistant Producer: Hanako Aso
- Director: Keiichi Tanaka
- Producers: Kenichi Koga & Toshihiko Matsuo
- Production Cooperation: Japan Telework
- Production Copyright: Fuji Television
Original format
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.
Preliminary Round
The first five episodes featured a preliminary round between five challengers. The one who made the dish that impressed the judges the most would battle the Iron Chef. Challengers who are bolded were the winners of this round.October 10, 1993
| Challenger | Notes |
| Seiji Yamada | Head chef at Utsunomiya Grand Hotel. |
| Masatoshi Konno | Member of the "Let's Join the Men's Kitchen Association". |
| Takahiro Yamakura | Musashino Culinary Institute. |
| Pilem Lama | Cuisine "Thuprai" Chef. |
| Takeshi Maruyama | Zhou Tomitoku's top disciple. |
October 17, 1993
| Challenger | Notes |
| Noboru Ishidoya | St. Marianna University School of Medicine Administrative Staff. |
| Shinya Abe | Chef of German restaurant "Keitel". |
| Masatada Oshima | Chef at Japanese restaurant "Hanakasumi". |
| Yosei Kobayakawa | Lecturer at Kagawa Nutrition College. |
| Haruhiko Taniguchi | Student at Seitoku Culinary Institute. |
October 31, 1993
| Challenger | Notes |
| Takashi Yonezuka | Special makeup artist, and designer of the Fuji TV campaign character Frog. |
| Masami Matsui | Space Producer. |
| Naoki Narita | Chef of Italian restaurant "Granata". |
| Kim Young Bi | Chef of Chinese restaurant "Harimga". |
| Paolo Indragoli | Chef at Sabatini in Shibuya. |
November 7, 1993
| Challenger | Notes |
| Motoki Hashino | High School student. |
| Janan Diran | |
| Toshiyuki Kudo | Hiroyuki Sakai's top disciple. |
| Hiroyuki Takahashi | Fashion Designer. |
| Koji Adachi |
November 14, 1993
| Challenger | Notes |
| Tetsufumi Karibe | |
| Tran Thi Le | The only woman to participate in this round. |
| Toru Okuyama | Hattori Culinary College student. |
| Zhou Tomiteru | |
| Luo Shuwei |