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This past month was no doubt one of the saddest times for Iron Chef fans. If you’re on this site and reading this, then I’m guessing you already know, but on March 11th, Kenichi Azama, who we all know and love as Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi, passed away from interstitial pneumonia at the age of 67.
Iron Chef fans will readily tell others that he was the only Iron Chef to serve throughout the entire series, the leader in career battles fought and battles won and also the runner-up to Sakai in the King of Iron Chefs series finale. Watching him strive to live up to the legacy of his father, Chen Kenmin – the one who popularized Szechuan food in Japan and known as the country’s deity of Szechuan cuisine – and succeed while also proving himself to be a true Iron Chef was and is amazing to watch. I have a lot of great memories of him, especially one of the most amazing battles in the show’s history and the battle Chen himself remembers the most: the legendary Battle Prawn against his old coach and Kenmin’s top apprentice Takashi Saito. Adding yet more to it, both chefs recreated Kenmin’s classic prawns in chili sauce, and Kenichi’s canapé style reproduction of the modern version including ketchup was both Takeshi Kaga’s favorite of the first 2,000 dishes and helped Chen win the only battle he fought in front of his mother Yoko.
According to a Shisen Hanten press release, Chen’s funeral is or was for close relatives only according to his will, and his family also declined receiving flowers, condolences and such, but a farewell party in his memory was also planned. Even writing this now, I still felt myself getting misty-eyed, but I want to make sure I pay my respects and I’d like to open this up so others here can share their memories and tributes. I also like to think I speak for Iron Chef fans the world over when I say that we thank him for all the memories and good food and will miss him dearly.
PS – It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Chen and Kobe, who was gone too soon, have already battled again in heaven with judges including Asako Kishi, Tamio Kageyama and maybe even Kenmin himself.
If memory serves me correctly, last year, I’ve spoken a number of times about having contributors for the site, and I’m pleased that, as 2021 begins, we have our first two!
Please welcome Carlos as a contributor to the site. Carlos is an Orlando resident and Disney fan who enjoys sharing Iron Chef facts and memories, including some lesser-known ones. He’s come with a number of tips and tidbits that you probably did not know about before and is excited to continue to share throughout the year. Look for his first contributions in the “Beyond Kitchen Stadium” section of the site!
I’m also pleased to welcome Greg as a site contributor as well. Greg’s contributions will be coming throughout the year over time as part of our “deeper dive” strategy into Iron Chef Japan’s original run.
Throughout 2020, I’ve continued to receive requests from site members about watching episodes on this site or downloading episodes from this site or its archives. Under my leadership, this site will continue to respect the rights of the original copyright holders meaning that, until the licensing agreement changes to allow us direct access to show materials, we are unable to directly host episode recordings or episode download links (including torrent files and other P2P opportunities) on site-owned properties. Any site posts or comments which do so are subject to removal and the accounts used for those subject to ban or blocking.
The rights to Iron Chef Japan may have changed recently with respect to the USA-based Food Network channel – they seem to have pulled that content from their lineup. Cooking Channel has as well. I would love to host a show schedule here so folks can find when the show might be on a network they have access to. So far I haven’t found it available on any streaming platform such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, though there are some Twitch channels that love the show (https://www.twitch.tv/ironchef_episodes).
If you’re interested in becoming a site contributor, writer, researcher, etc – please reach out by GMail and contact me at ironcheffansinfo@gmail.com and let me know what you’d be interested in sharing on the site! We have plenty of new spaces for recipes, anecdotes, and rare content honoring the Iron Chef shows!
Iron Chef Fans:
Welcome to 2020: a brand new decade awaits! One of the greatest things about having the decade in front of us is the opportunity to imagine the possibilities, discover the potential, and come together to make something incredible, bold, and new. I’m excited to confirm our new web address: http://ironcheffans.com. Please remember to change your favorites and bookmarks settings! For your convenience, we’re working to forward the previous site here so that those who visit years down the road will be sent to this address automatically – expect this upgrade within the next week.
We are still working to get the video links restored: we’ll be making a decision on hosting soon and let you know as soon as it’s uploading. Sadly, it’s much slower to upload things than delete, so it will take some time, even once the payment is in.
Lastly, we will have some interactive posts coming up soon – I’ll be putting some questions up and asking you to share your thoughts with me through the posts’ comments section! I look forward to reaching out to you over the next several months and learning more about your favorite and most memorable Iron Chef episodes, trivia, and experiences!
Happy New Year 2020, everyone!
About a month ago, @tuthead and I were sent a strongly-worded letter by our site service provider, letting us know that they were getting ready to take action against our sites’ archived content (reasons unspecified, though they were content to be vague). I’ve been working hard over the last month to come up with a good alternative space to keep the materials we do have so that our members will continue to have the same great experience they have had over the past decade. Our articles and posts will remain intact – that’s not a problem. PLEASE NOTE: Some of our other media may temporarily be offline for a short time while we figure out where, how much, and when.
One of the major challenges of sorting through the options is justifying how people will use our materials: we have already been offered some business-level options for $995 a year but there are also lower cost options that probably don’t come with features “called as necessities” by these… whatever the technical website equivalent of new car salesmen are. I believe communities work together better when all the information is shared! Sadly, our service provider did not feel the same way, opting to try to make us handle these serious content changes with short notice.
I’d like your help: We don’t need to overspend for what we have, and the cost of what we’re now being forced to pick up is dependent on how YOU, the users, want to use this site: your site. I’m going to leave a poll up asking for your help to tell us what you think is most important on this site and I look forward to your response. Allez-cuisine!
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When I saw that @tuthead had asked for assistance to keep this website going, I was concerned! Like you, I’ve turned to this site and its many resources and experts for years to learn more about my favorite cooking series: Iron Chef Japan. I wanted to do something to help – I didn’t just want something that had been helpful for myself and many others to go to the Web’s archives without a fight. Earlier this year, I spoke with my family about what we could do to help, maybe even using our time and our resources, and we came to a decision… I reached out and let @tuthead know that I’d take on the challenge and serve as the new webmaster for this site.
Although we’ve figured that out, we have some technical hurdles coming up soon: making sure the website stays up is my FIRST priority and we’ll be working through the end of the year to make sure we are stable and ready to grow! For the next several months, the website should remain as it is now while we catalog and secure what we have. By the end of the year, I hope to share with you more information about how we will be updating the site to serve Iron Chef fans worldwide! Please feel free to reach out to me via the site if you have any concerns that I may be able to help with. I will work on those requests as I have the opportunity!
Lastly, I heard earlier this year, as I’m sure many of you have as well, of the passing of Iron Chef Kobe due to a tragic accident related to his work. We, his fans, continue to send our condolences and best wishes to his family and the extended Iron Chef communities across the world. His appearances on Iron Chef Japan were both passionate and focused and illustrated the tremendous talent he had for his cuisine, his craft, his art.
Thank you all, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon!
Hi Everybody.
I find it hard to believe this site is nearing the end of it’s 10th year. It officially launched in February of 2008.
As of today, the hosting is paid for another year (through Nov 2019) and the domain name is owned for another two (through Dec 2020).
As I said before, if anyone wants to take over maintenance/ownership of the site, send me a note. If you have questions about costs or how things are set up, I’d be happy to answer them.
This isn’t the end, though. There is still at least one more year to spread the Iron Chef love. Let’s make sure we enjoy it.
Keith