I may be way out of the loop, but when did Iron Chef Canada become a thing? I haven’t watched them yet, but I have two episodes of Iron Chef Canada in hand. Is there any interest in seeing them?
Also, does anyone have a copy of the recent US airings of Iron Chef Yomigaeru they’d be willing to share so I can post it here?
Keith
Iron Chef Canada – Season 1, Episode 1
Iron Chef Canada – Season 1, Episode 2
Edit: I’ve watched about 3 minutes of Iron Chef Canada, and I don’t think it’s going to be for me. It is very similar in style to Iron Chef America, which I didn’t watch either. I will still post if anybody wants to see it. (I’m completely aware of my original Iron Chef elitism when talk about the new versions. What can I say? I like what I like. And that’s Chairman Kaga on the stage, Fukui/Doc Hattori in the commentary box, and Iron Chefs rising up into Kitchen Stadium.)
It’s hard to believe this site launched in January of 2008. At the time, the site was a much needed repository for Iron Chef videos on the internet. And thanks to a few purchases from a collector in Japan and many generous donations of episodes from a collector in the US, we were able to see many battles most of us thought we would never see. And the revival of the show in 2012 led to rebroadcasts of the original first season episodes. What a treat to see the origins of Iron Chef. I enjoyed writing the old Episodes of the Week posts and meeting fans from all over the world.
Fast forward to 2018. You can find just about any episode you want on Youtube or Dailymotion or one of the other video sites. And there are other sources of information about the show that are maintained more frequently than this one. I hate to say it, but I don’t know that the site is needed anymore.
I will renew the hosting and domain name for one more year at the end of this upcoming November. So no matter what, the site will be online through November 2019. (Domain name expires Dec ’19) What happens after that? I don’t know. I’d hate to see the site disappear entirely, so I’d be more than willing to let someone else take over if there is anyone interested.
Let me know if anyone has any thoughts or wants the keys to the kitchen.
Keith
Scott Richardson
18 September, 2018
I’m sure we’ll look back on this and laugh, but right now I’m not smiling. I’m really sorry I messed up the good part of the site. I will try to keep you updated and a part of the process as I try to get the downloads available again as soon as possible.
Here is the plan:
—Edit the links on the Full Series Episode List to point directly to the video file. At least this way you can still easily access the episode videos even if you don’t have other details about the episode. Fortunately, I was pretty consistent in the file naming, so some copy/paste with minor edits should make the process go fairly quickly. This is now done. You can directly access the episodes by clicking the green ep number in the Full Episode List.
–Make a Google Doc of the Episode List and start putting together the relevant information again. (Original Airdate, IC name, Challenger name, description, etc.) I plan to have this posted in the next day or so and openly available to edit, so anyone can help with this process.
–Use that information to start rebuilding download pages for individual episodes. Do you want me to use the old system or is there another way you think I should do it?
–Re-edit links on the Full Series Episode List to point to the new information/download page of each video.
–Never update or touch the site again so I don’t screw something else up. (This step is optional.) 🙂
I’m definitely open to suggestions for improving the site as the process moves forward. Thank you again for your patience and for your support.
Keith
Scott Richardson
14 December, 2017
Apparently, something changed on the host end so that the site was looking on the wrong server for the database. As you can see, I’ve managed to find what happened and get it up again. I still have to fix the download page, but I will do that as soon as possible. Thank you for you being patient.
**Edit – The download page is being a little difficult. I’ll have to take a look at it when I get home from work. Sorry, everybody.
**Edit 2 – I may have killed the file database. (The files are still uploaded, but the program that I used to link to them did something funky with the database that stored all the episode descriptions, judges, info, etc.) I may have to find another solution. I really, really (really, really) don’t want to have to re-enter every single episode description + information. Maybe we can make this a group effort?
–Keith
Scott Richardson
13 December, 2017
Believe it or not, Iron Chef is one of the things that initially sparked my interest in Japan. Since it all began, I have taken three trips to visit Japan, the most recent being in September of this year. (If anyone is interested in seeing my pictures, let me know and I’ll throw up some links.) I now spend as much time (or more) listening to/watching Japanese music/TV/movies/etc. as I do with American entertainment on a typical day. And I have Iron Chef to thank (to blame? to thank!) for that.
Even though there is not much traffic here any more, I just couldn’t let the lights go out on our little slice of Kitchen Stadium. The site will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. (The site went live Feb 1, 2008)  And while I’m not willing to promise anything past this, the hosting bill has been paid for the next 12 months, through Nov 2018. (If you want to throw a few bucks toward covering the hosting/domain renewal bill, you are more than welcome to do so, but don’t feel bad if you don’t.)
I’m proud to have given this classic a home on the internet for the last 10 years and to be able to share it with fans from all over the world. I hope you still enjoy it.
–Keith
tuthead
27 November, 2017
Hi Everybody.
I know the site has become essentially an archive and not offering anything new of value in a while. It is approaching the time to renew the domain name and the hosting for another year. Do people still use the site? Do you want me to keep it going? I have no problem doing so, but I want it to be because the Iron Chef community thinks it is a valuable resource for them and for new fans.
I’d gladly appreciate any thoughts, concerns, suggestions that you may have.
Keith
UPDATE 11/27: It has been renewed for another year. (I will renew the domain next for 2 years when it is up next month.) I appreciate all who said they wanted to chip in to offset the costs, but I don’t want anybody to feel like they need to do that to keep the site up and going. (Of course, I’m not going to turn it down either. 🙂 ) I hope you all continue to enjoy the site.
KB
tuthead
12 November, 2015