This one’s more funny and lighthearted, but it is definitely cool. A Japanese variety show, Unnan no Rough na Kanji de, had a May 2010 episode that was part of what was called the “We Didn’t Expect that You Would Say OK to Do It!!” Tour. Here’s where Iron Chef comes into the picture: Iron Chef Sakai was challenged to make fried rice while Iron Chef Chen was challenged to make pasta…and both agreed!
The hosts watched Sakai and Chen prepare the dishes and then voted on which dish they liked better without asking each other, and this is where a particularly comic twist comes in: only those who voted for the winning dish got a whole plate! A lot of Iron Chef references including via music (including Show Me Your Firetruck and Burn It All), so I wanted to make sure you folks got this.
As far as I can tell (with my limited Japanese, some of which I got from watching Iron Chef subbed or raw), here’s what I found each dish included. If I missed something, do let me know pronto via comments so I can get it straight.
Sakai’s fried rice – Foie gras, mushrooms, lettuce, veal broth/fond de veau and olive oil, plus the egg as a topping after he appeared to flash fry it (I’d call it poached, but the white had a fried finish although the yolk was runny)
Chen’s pasta – Shark fin, Shanghai crab, olive oil, coconut cream and cheese
My pleasure! Hadn’t either until fairly recently – it was one of those crazy YouTube recommendations (though one that certainly was very relevant). Definitely liked how fun/lighthearted this was.