Iron Chef Collection

This is the first edition of our Iron Chef Collection Exclusives Episodes of the Month. Of course, this is where we present to you Iron Chef episodes that did not air on Food Network. Today, we present our Episodes of the Month for July. (Yeah. I know it’s already August. Sue me. ) Thank you to everyone who voted in our poll this month. A new poll will go up near the middle of the month. And without further ado, we present the winners.

• Iron Chef Tag Match (530) - Watermelon Battle - Chairman Kaga divides the Iron Chefs into two teams for this special battle: Team Asia (Chen and Nakamura) and Team Europe (Sakai and Kobe). (Make sure you watch the commercial right after the tasting. There is rather entertaining Iron Chef themed Nissan commercial.)
• Ostrich Battle (518) - Iron Chef Nakamura vs. Gillian Hirst - Even though it comes from 1997, this episode is well known by most non-Japanese fans for a variety of reasons. The distinctly non-Japanese name sticks out in a challenger list, and let’s face it, most of us English speaking fans are interested in seeing the few English speaking challengers. This episode was mentioned by name as a desired episode on Nylon.net’s Iron Chef Episode Exchange page.  And probably most importantly, the challenger’s entrance to Kitchen Stadium from this battle was a part of Food Network’s Iron Chef introduction. (A special note about this battle: Mark at Nylon contacted Chef Hirst about her appearance on the show. It turns out that she hadn’t even seen it. We are glad to have contributed to her finally being able to see her appearance on Iron Chef.)

I’m writing this post to personally thank everyone, from Tuthead to Chromaone, Hendrix(me!!), Doomturtle and even Nylon, everyone who donated their episodes to us (If I missed your name, send an email and I’ll add you) and our episode reviewer Rodney Schroeter. I would also like to thank you guys, our audience, for the feedback we’ve received, good or bad, in the comments section or on the Kitchen Stadium Board, we appreciate it.

Now the good news, we have assembled all the episodes that aired on FoodNetwork, all 185 of them. But we are far from over since there are 300+ episodes of Iron Chefs. So stick with us as we try to gather them all.

About 10 days ago, we announced the acquisition of a new group of Japanese language episodes. Since all of the episodes were from 1997, a void in the collection of many non-Japanese Iron Chef fans, it was easy to see the changes made to the Episode List. This weekend, we added two more episodes, but since they were from the middle of 1999, you might not have noticed. Both of these are actually more specials than regular episodes, but neither one ever aired on Food Network.

• First up is the Indonesia Expedition (720). There is no battle here, but we do get to see Michiba and Morimoto make a trip to Indonesia.
• The second addition is the Morimoto Retrospective (709). To mark the one year anniversary of Iron Chef Morimoto in Kitchen Stadium, we get a two part special. The first portion shows Michiba traveling to New York to visit Morimoto. The second half of the special features a battle between Nakamura and Morimoto. We have had a short clip in Beyond Kitchen Stadium of Michiba announcing the theme for this battle (Eggs - Tamago). Now you can see the entire episode.

Michiba vs. Yukio Hattori

Originally aired 4/29/1994

Iron Chef, the Official Book episode# 26

Iron Chef Collection episode# 216

Kitchen Stadium was only seven months old at the time of this interesting episode. The Chairman explains that he has been searching for the heir of Rosanjin, but–

He has discovered a traitor in his midst. Dr. Yukio Hattori, President of Hattori Nutrition College, dares aspire to become a fourth Iron Chef. The Chairman graciously agrees to that, if Hattori wins.

“Actually,” the Chairman explains, “this man has two faces. One, as his official role as the fifth president of his school — the face of an educator. The other face, is as the heir to a 500-year long tradition of Hattori style cooking. The style originated back in the 1400s. It established the protocol for cooking in a Samurai family. And Hattori is the one who succeeds this tradition… Underpinning Hattori’s dishes are years of interaction with top chefs around the world.

“Also, today, I have invited a VIP to my arena, a man who is often called the god of French cuisine. His name — Joel Robuchon.

“So now, Hattori! In front of Joel Robuchon, this god of French cuisine, reveal to us all, your burning ambition!”

Read the rest of this entry »

Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai was crowned the King of Iron Chefs in the final Kitchen Stadium battle. When he began, he thought his time on the the show was going to be only six months. He ended up being a part of Iron Chef for 6 years. This week, we bring three of Iron Chef Sakai’s memorable battles.

• Oxtail (710) - Sakai vs. Hosogai
• Udon (713) - Sakai vs. Komori
• Black Pork (723) - Sakai vs. Makio - This episode is well known because of Sakai’s trip to his home prefecture before the battle.

One of the reasons we started this site was to find episodes we never had seen before. The first new episode contribution happened only two days after we went live with the addition of the Dried Scallop battle (502) from 1997. As many of you know, Food Network stopped buying/dubbing episodes before they reached any of the episodes from 1997. As a result, many non-Japanese fans have not seen more than the one episode (502) from that year. We are about to change that in a big way.

Today, we proudly announce the acquisition of 30 Ryouri no Tetsujin episodes from 1997. The Full Episode List has been updated to reflect these new additions. (Remember, blue episode numbers represent episodes that will be added to the database some time in the future.) You may also notice that all of the new 1997 episodes are noted with an “OA.” We use that designation to show that the episode is the original Japanese language broadcast. (Yes, they did come from the same source as the recently added specials. No, we have not been able to find subtitled or dubbed versions. Sorry.)

The final Episodes of the Week post each month will feature 1-3 of these ICC Exclusives. (We may try to come up with a way to vote on which episodes you want added, but I am not sure of the best way to do that yet.)

Some highlights from the newly acquired episodes:

• Cherry Blossom Viewing battle - There was no theme ingredient.
• Ostrich battle - Gillian Hearst vs. Nakamura - You see her entrance into Kitchen Stadium every time you watch the show. She is the lady walking in under the Australian flag. (Yes, we are where Mark at Nylon finally got his copy of this episode.)
• Kobe debut battle - The only time I have ever seen Kobe not running to the ingredient podium.
• Milk battle - Toyoshima vs. Sakai - They actually bring the cows into Kitchen Stadium to get the freshest possible theme ingredient.
• Iron Chef Tag Team match - Kobe/Sakai vs. Chen/Nakamura - Watermelon is the theme ingredient.
• And what I think is the crown jewel of our new additions: The Iron Chef 1997 World Cup. This special features the challenger from the Final Kitchen Stadium Battle at the end of the King of Iron Chefs tournament, Alain Passard vs. Komei Nakamura. We also see American chef Patrick Clark and Chinese cuisine specialist Liu Xikun.