11th of Blaugust - I - Iron Chef

A few years ago I used to watch this show quite diligently. I didn't care that they were obviously repeats from the 90's. I was always rooting for the challenger to be able to take down the Iron Chef!

Iron chef was a Japanese cooking show show originally by Fuji Television. It originally aired from 1993 through to 1999 with two specials in 2000 and 2002. I'm pretty sure the shows opening could explain the concept better than I can.

It was the dubbing from the US food network that really ramped up the camp-ness of this show for me. Yet they would still keep Chairman Kaga subtitled for his epic announcements.

There were three regular Iron chefs. Japanese, French and Chinese. But some episodes featured an Italian Iron Chef. Over time some of these chefs changed over and there were seven all up.

They tried to make the coverage much like a sport. There was a commentary team, sideline reporters and action replays. Even the studio itself was termed "Kitchen Stadium!"

There was always a theme ingredient and most of the time it was something unappetising. Even if it was something appealing the food ended up being pretentious and still unappetising. But it was all still very entertaining. After he hour was up and all meals had been prepared it was time for the judging. There was a mix of judges but there was one who appeared more ofter then most.

Kishi Asako was labelled the "East German" judge because of how critical she was. Especially to the challengers. She always appeared to give the highest marks to the iron chefs, even when the challenger would win. She probably was a nice person but the voice they got to dub for her was alway really uptight.

All it all it was a very entertaining show and I will watch it if it's on. I think it still appears on one of the SBS channels every now and then and some episodes are even on YouTube so you should probably check it out.