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Hey all! I’m so excited to share with you all that one of my personal passion projects for the site is now something I’m working on (a little each week) for the next few months – a data source for statistics on Iron Chef Japan. With any luck, we’ll be able to use the completed data to drive interactive trivia on our website! We’ll see how far we get at the end of the year, but this is easily going to be one or two years in the making (because we’ve got to catch each ep on streaming or rerun to capture the data) and will take quite a bit of time to complete. I’m a bit of a nerd for data and databases, so am excited to show a sneak peek of my Iron Chef Japan-related development system so far:
Hey, Iron Chef Fans, old and new alike! I hope that all is well with you and wanted to take some time to share what our site has been going through, some of the amazing things we’ve had happen already this year, and an idea of how I’d like our year to play out!
As all of you know, 2020 was a disruption to businesses, lives, and the best-laid-plans across the board, and our Iron Chef Fans site was no different. Our 2020 ideas included a site redesign, new contributions, and even some interactive content! We searched to find a content curator and were successful, but as all of our lives changed, their availability was uncertain. Similarly, our tech ideas went on hold as life, work, health, and so on took precedence.
One thing we did NOT expect from 2020 was bots, but boy did we get them. Each week for the last 12-14 months, we have about 12 new accounts created on our website looking for access and admin privileges. Some of those accounts have even sent emails to my webmaster account asking to be upgraded. The majority of my time with our site has been trying to separate the fake accounts from the real members, and it’s work that, hopefully, will pay off soon.
By the way, I floated the idea of coming on board to that content curator I selected and I think they’re ready to start by the end of the summer! The job is going to be pretty background from the website’s point of view: going through our decades of WP content to find our most celebrated and unique items and bringing those archives to a special area for display. We have been a resource to many folks and even many other sites over the years, and I definitely want to show that value off!
A few months ago, we shared information about the Twitch channel that has been streaming Iron Chef Japan, and I’d like to hear from you whether you’ve used that stream to reconnect with the things you’ve loved about Iron Chef! Have you run into other streams featuring other Iron Chef content?
Before I close, I want to welcome you to Summer – at least everyone in the Northern Hemisphere, that is. With grills and other cooking implements flying off of store shelves, and outdoor events becoming more and more possible, leave a comment here on what YOUR summer “Secret Ingredient” of choice would be if you went up against an Iron Chef. Allez cuisine!
Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk again soon!
It’s been almost a year since I was officially announced as the webmaster of this site and it’s safe to say that, like the Spanish Inquisition, none of us expected it to turn out quite this way… 2020 may be wrapping up (and none too soon), but we’re looking forward to 2021 with great anticipation!
Firstly I want to thank everyone who has submitted a comment, a post, feedback, and so on for the site. My first responsibility is to safeguard the site, and my second is to be attentive to the needs of our community. Your interest matters and I always welcome your comments and critique. A very special appreciation goes out to those who have wished me and my family well during this unusual year.
Beginning in January of 2021, I will be starting the project that I’d dreamed of since the day I read the site was looking for a new webmaster: hosting the Internet’s most comprehensive Iron Chef Japan database, since, as many of you know, we are no longer allowed to host, archive, or link to Iron Chef episodes on the site. This project is going to take months to work out and will be rolled into this site by phases. Part of the speed of this challenge is driven by how often the show is continuously re-aired on available channels, and the other part is actually building the new database from information never before captured.
Being a source for Iron Chef Japan data will bring new interest to the site, but will also allow us to offer more expansive and interactive content from the site itself. As always, we appreciate your patience – because this work we’re putting in is a labor of love and not our full time jobs, we must all try to remain flexible on our output and expectations.
In the meantime, our site is as safe as its ever been: most of my work has been weeding bots out of our WP systems and keeping them from accessing the email addresses associated with our comment system. Along with keeping the site secure, the new programs we started this year are still ongoing at the same time: we have sent 45 requests for email interviews out to add to our Interviews section and we’re awaiting replies from the chefs or their agents or press persons. Also, we’re excited to post any submissions we receive from you for “Cook Like An Iron Chef”. Did you try out an Iron Chef’s recipe for the holidays this year? Post it in the comments!
Lastly, we wouldn’t be here without you! If you have any ideas for more options for the site, things you’d like to see, or feedback for the one free webmaster, please send us an email at ironcheffansinfo@gmail.com!
Iron Chef Fans:
I’ve begun a new section on the site for those who enjoy cooking and are inspired by the many plates that are seen on the Iron Chef shows! I call this new section Cook Like an Iron Chef. The plan is for our users to submit their recipes, inspired by foods seen on the Iron Chef shows so that we can showcase fan content here and bring the flavor of Iron Chef to each other! Recipe submissions should be sent to ironcheffansinfo@gmail.com and should contain a list of ingredients, cooking instructions, and plating or serving instructions (if you’re inspired to pull a Sakai-san). Pictures and videos are not mandatory to go with the recipe but would be appreciated!
OK – here goes. I’ve been making this one for my family for a couple of years, and it’s time to share the secret. Here is my recipe inspired by Chen Kenichi’s Prawns in Chili Sauce:
INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs fresh or thawed prawns or large shrimp, peeled and deveined with tails on (it’s difficult to find proper prawns in the United States and impossible to get them fresh unless you are very near a coastline)
3/4 cup Heinz Ketchup
1 1/2 cup tobandjan (hot bean paste)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3/4 cup fresh chopped garlic
3 tbsp garlic infused oil (House of Tsang makes a wonderful garlic cottonseed oil perfect for this)
2 cups corn starch, separated into 1 cup portions
1 cup rice flour
3 eggs
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp black pepper
Serve with: White Toast Points or Jasmine Rice
Shortening melted over medium heat for frying, approximately 1 inch depth
Cooking Instructions:
Pat prawns as dry as possible. Use 1 cup of corn starch to coat the prawns all over. Beat the eggs firmly with a whisk and dunk the corn-starch-coated prawns into the egg mixture. Blend the rice flour and the remaining corn starch into a bowl and use this to batter the egg-washed prawns.
Fry prawns to a golden brown color in shortening, carefully turning three times during frying. Rest prawns on a rack after removing from the shortening to drain the excess oil.
Sautee fresh garlic in garlic-infused oil until browned. Add ketchup, rice wine vinegar, and tobandjan to the pan and stir until heated thoroughly. Spin fried prawns in the sauce immediately prior to serving. Garnish with salt and pepper to taste and serve with white toast points or jasmine rice.
Do you Cook Like an Iron Chef too? Send me your ingredients list, recipe, and the episode you were inspired by at ironcheffansinfo@gmail.com and we’ll get it posted here!
I’ve taken some suggestions and drafted a series of introductory questions for any member of the Iron Chef shows that cares to respond. Sadly, I don’t speak or write Japanese, so the questions and responses are going to have to be in English, but there are about ten questions, spread across culinary interests as well as some to provide a more personal connection. A few of the questions include:
What gave you the courage to pursue a culinary profession?
Can you recommend a go-to song, artist, or short playlist that helps charge you up to do your best work?
What is the concept, restaurant, or project that you've been a part of that you're most passionate about? Why?
What gave you the courage to pursue a culinary profession?
I have a list of people who were on the Iron Chef Japan and Iron Chef America shows and am sending surveys out as I find reliable and current contact information for each person. Naturally (because of the time interval since Iron Chef Japan aired) we’re coming up with Iron Chef America and Next Iron Chef folks much quicker than Iron Chef Japan, but that’s to be expected.
The first three are sent out (Brown, Sanchez, and Lagasse) and we’ll see if there is a response! In the meantime, if there’s someone specific you’d like me to target with a questionnaire, post a name here and I’ll do my best to find them!
At the beginning of the year, this Iron Chef Fans website was in a different place and so were we as fans. It is no exaggeration to say that weeks after my last post on this site, the entire world went through a massive shift and everyone across the globe finds themselves impacted in one way or another. I hope that this message finds you all healthy and safe during this time.
Everyone is dealing with the impact of the pandemic to their jobs, their way of life, and television personalities are no different! Where some have chosen simple seclusion, others have focused on their social media, working their way through a backlog of fan emails to connect with their audience and keep them engaged.
I’m going to compile a list of your questions and send them to people associated with the Iron Chef shows – could be a guest chef, one of the Iron Chefs, commentators, guests, judges… Post your questions and who they are addressed to as a comment on this post and we will put your requests together and send an email! We’ll try to find contact information for your addressee – if you can help us find that and post it in the comment, it would be greatly appreciated! Any replies from these impromptu interviews will be posted here under a new “Interviews” section for your enjoyment!
Let’s see what you’re curious about! Who would you like to hear from and what would you like to know?
Stay safe and healthy!
-Scott