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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.
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!”
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.
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:
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that we had acquired two episodes that had not aired on Food Network. The first of those to be posted was the Japan Cup 2002. This week, we present the second of those exclusive episodes, the Millennium Cup.
The Millennium Cup was the first Iron Chef special produced after the final Kitchen Stadium battle at the end of the King of Iron Chefs tournament. It originally aired on January 5, 2000, a mere 3 months after the final Kitchen Stadium battle.
The first battle pits Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi against Zhao Ren Liang with abalone as the theme ingredient. The second battle finds Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba going against Dominique Bouchet in a kobe beef confront. All four chefs are also competing to have one of their dishes named the “Millennium Dish.”