This Week in Iron Chef History (4/26-5/2)

This week in Iron Chef history, April 26 – May 2:

• 216 (4/29/1994) – Truffle – Michiba vs. Yukio Hattori
• 317 (4/28/1995) – Tilefish – Michiba vs. Keisuke Tamano
• 418 (4/26/1996) – Lettuce – Chen vs. He Yiewen
• 516OA – (5/2/1997) – Sea Bass – Sakai vs. Kiyoyasu Sasaki
• 614 (5/1/1998) – Bamboo Shoot – Morimoto vs. Tetsuo Hagiwara
• 716 (4/30/1999) – Scallion – Morimoto vs. Yusuke Yamashita (Cod Roe (715) OT Battle)

TWICH Notes: This weeks episodes include the legendary butt-kicking that Michiba lays on Dr. Hattori in the Truffle battle. Next, Michiba takes on a man who heads one of Kandagawa’s restaurants. Chen takes on one of the top Cantonese chefs in Japan. Our ICC episode features a challenger trained by the legendary Paul Bocuse. Morimoto gets challenged by a traditional Japanese chef, again. And finally, we get the OT battle to follow up last week’s Cod Roe match up.

New in the database this week: 516OA – Sea Bass

This Week in Iron Chef History (4/19-4/25)

This week in Iron Chef history, April 19 – April 25:

• 215 (4/22/1994) – Lamb – Sakai vs. Mario Nakagawa
• 316 (4/21/1995) – Clam – Sakai vs. Kunio Santo
• 417 (4/19/1996) – Egg – Nakamura vs. Toyoaki Suganuma
• 515OA – (4/25/1997) – Tomato – Chen vs. Chihiro Otsuki
• 613 (4/28/1998) – Pen Shell – Chen vs. Takashi Shimamura
• 715 (4/23/1999) – Cod Roe – Morimoto vs. Yusuke Yamashita

Some interesting episodes this week. First, Sakai takes on a former apprentice of his. Nakamura takes on a chef who trained in France. Our ICC episode this week features Chen against another female challenger. Finally, Morimoto takes on a challenger who is an expert at using Sake. (Be sure to watch the OT battle next week.)

This week’s TWICH will be up tonight. (And I promise to get back on a regular Tuesday schedule of posting TWICH in the week in which it belongs.)

Last Week in Iron Chef History (4/12-4/18)

The Chairman took over last week with his BKS posting, so we missed TWICH. Since I didn’t want to forget any battles, we make it up now with Last Week in Iron Chef History.

This week in Iron Chef history, April 12 – April 18.

• 214 (4/15/1994) – Bamboo Shoot – Chen vs. Munetaka Takahashi
• 315 (4/14/1995) – Flounder (Karei) – Ishinabe vs. Tomoyuki Sawaguchi (Did not air on Food Network, but see below.)
• 416 (4/12/1996) – France Special – Lobster – Sakai vs. Pierre Gagniere
• 514OA (4/18/1997) – Bamboo Shoot – Sakai vs. Shinzo Okunuma
• 612 (4/17/1998) – Spanish Mackerel – Chen vs. Mitsuro Harada
• 714 (4/16/1999) – Tomato – Kobe vs. Franco Canzoniere

Last week’s episodes included: Chen in one of the oldest FN episodes, Part 2 of the France Special, one of our ICC episodes, and a memorable Italian battle with Kobe vs. Canzoniere.

The Flounder battle (315) never aired on Food Network. I do have some very short, very low quality video from that battle. The videos were on the Iron Chef Kitchen Stadium Tour disc for the Sega Saturn. The two videos are in a .zip file and are in .CPK format. I was able to play the videos using the VLC Media Player.

This Week in Iron Chef History (4/5-4/11)

This week in Iron Chef history, April 5 – April 11:

• 213 (4/8/1994) – Rice – Michiba vs. Koichiro Goto
• 314 (4/7/1995) – Tofu – Chen vs. Cho Chiyo
• 415 (4/5/1996) – France Battle – Salmon – Nakamura vs. Bernard Leprince
• 513OA (4/11/1997) – Hanami Festival – Nakamura vs. Yo Kokan
• 611 (4/10/1998) – Guinea Fowl – Sakai vs. Tomoji Ichikawa
• 611OA – Original Japanese version of Guinea Fowl battle
• 713 (4/9/1999) – Udon – Sakai vs. Toji Komori
• RAW (4/7/2002) – Morimoto RAW
• 314 iPod, 611 iPod, 713 iPod

What a busy week of Iron Chef action. Chen faces a woman whose restaurant was nearly destroyed by an earthquake. We get the first of the French Battles. The Hanami Festival featured an outdoor tasting panel and it is the earliest of our ICC episodes from 1997. Sakai gets to use Wedgwood china worth $250K. And on Morimoto RAW, we see the creation of a restaurant.

See you next week.