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This is definitely something I wanted to share because it combines a few things to say the least that we don’t see too often (or at least, things we didn’t see too often during Iron Chef‘s original run): Iron Chefs dealing with the loss of someone they know, Morimoto doing a full English interview and an Iron Chef being on CNN.
How it came about was definitely something that was all too understandable, though. When Anthony Bourdain died in 2018, Morimoto went on Quest Means Business in order to pay tribute to the No Reservations star, who had been a friend of his to the point that they’d worked together onscreen as well.
This one’s definitely a bit bittersweet because it’s all about the late, great Kobe, but I couldn’t possibly not share it. This is something the Iron Chef Episodes Twitch Channel introduced me to: Shortly after Kobe’s debut in Battle Short Pasta (522), a 26-minute documentary aired showing Kobe’s life story up to that point and how he was balancing his debut as Iron Chef Italian with his day-to-day business – which would mean this is from 1997 in all likelihood. Really hope you enjoy this one.
I only recently came across a YouTube video profiling a sushi chef with a name that looked familiar, and on further inspection, it was!
It was Kenji Nakazawa, the Edo-style sushi specialist who had challenged Iron Chef Japanese Morimoto in Battle Sushi (722). In 2019, Eater caught up with him when he was running an omakase in Hawaii that was already one of the best outside Japan for their video profile series, also titled Omakase (the Japanese term used in sushi restaurants that indicates you’re leaving it up to the chef). It’s mainly in Japanese but is subtitled. Hope you enjoy!
I expect some you folks may have seen this before, but wanted to put this up in case you haven’t. Sakai and Chen were interviewed in uniform while they were in Sydney for a 2010 Iron Chef event, and the topics they discuss include their time in Australia (including Sakai’s time working in Perth early in his career) and their time on the show during its original run. Watch until the end for some English (or Engrish, if you prefer) from both of them!
A bit of a flashback not just to the Iron Chef event on February 14th and 15th, 2015 at the RACV City Club in Melbourne’s CBD but also to, among other things, Chen’s tofu battle (314 vs. Chiyo Cho). This one’s a fancam but still gives a chance to see a demo narrated in English of a Szechuan and Chen family (dynasty?) specialty.
Chen Kentaro was advertised as the only Chen attending the event, so attendees got a shock when Kenichi was also shown backstage and then when he came out and helped demo the recipe with added assistance from Sakai and Kobe. Hope everyone enjoys!
MasterChef and especially MasterChef AU fans may know this already, but Sakai was brought in to be the guest judge for the opening round of Series 2’s Finals Week: an Invention Test using crustaceans. When one thinks about it, that’s fitting because an Invention Test is the MasterChef event that most resembles a regular Kitchen Stadium battle and also because Sakai is known as “Shellfish Sakai” among other things thanks to his exploits.
Watch for Sakai borrowing Takeshi Kaga’s “Allez cuisine!” and eventual Series 2 winner Adam Liaw showing himself (in a cool way) to be a bona fide Iron Chef fanboy, having been born in Japan and watched the show (and also making efforts to converse with Sakai in Japanese that was, by his own admission, rusty). Adam later told Australia’s Daily Telegraph, “(Iron Chef)’s the first (show) that entertained rather than educated. You wouldn’t have MasterChef without Iron Chef.“