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A bit of a flashback not just to the Iron Chef event on February 14th and 15th, 2015 at the RACV City Club in Melbourne’s CBD but also to, among other things, Chen’s tofu battle (314 vs. Chiyo Cho). This one’s a fancam but still gives a chance to see a demo narrated in English of a Szechuan and Chen family (dynasty?) specialty.
Chen Kentaro was advertised as the only Chen attending the event, so attendees got a shock when Kenichi was also shown backstage and then when he came out and helped demo the recipe with added assistance from Sakai and Kobe. Hope everyone enjoys!
MasterChef and especially MasterChef AU fans may know this already, but Sakai was brought in to be the guest judge for the opening round of Series 2’s Finals Week: an Invention Test using crustaceans. When one thinks about it, that’s fitting because an Invention Test is the MasterChef event that most resembles a regular Kitchen Stadium battle and also because Sakai is known as “Shellfish Sakai” among other things thanks to his exploits.
Watch for Sakai borrowing Takeshi Kaga’s “Allez cuisine!” and eventual Series 2 winner Adam Liaw showing himself (in a cool way) to be a bona fide Iron Chef fanboy, having been born in Japan and watched the show (and also making efforts to converse with Sakai in Japanese that was, by his own admission, rusty). Adam later told Australia’s Daily Telegraph, “(Iron Chef)’s the first (show) that entertained rather than educated. You wouldn’t have MasterChef without Iron Chef.“
As you might know, Iron Chef Michiba turned 90 on January 3rd. What you might not know is that he also gave some birthday gifts with recipe tutorials, two of which have English captions/subtitles. Hope everyone enjoys, and a belated but wholehearted Happy Birthday to the man Takeshi Kaga called the best Iron Chef of all!
These are just the English captioned/subtitled ones I’ve seen thus far – make sure to check out the channel for the full listing.
In late April 2019, there was an Iron Chef collaboration with the long-running NHK show Today’s Menu (きょうの料理) to celebrate the end of the Heisei Era when Emperor Akihito (son of Hirohito) abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne and was succeeded by Crown Prince Naruhito.
It featured Sakai, Michiba, Chen and even Kenji Fukui in a collaboration that would normally be unthinkable since Fuji TV and NHK are competitors, which goes to show how big an occasion the end of a emperor’s era is in Japan.
All three Iron Chefs participated in one of the show’s long-running segments, “Dinner in 20 Minutes”, which was actually conceived by Katsuyo Kobayashi, the chef who bested Chen in Battle Potato I (232).
Today’s Menu has been airing since November 4th, 1957 and its list of guests includes Chen Kenmin and a younger Michiba, as NHK Archives on Facebook posted:
Fans of the Iron Chef Indonesian Junket episode with Morimoto and Michiba will likely enjoy this. TV Tokyo aired an approximate 90-minute special that appears to be sometime during the show’s original run (can’t tell exactly when, though). Part travel documentary and part cooking show, it featured Michiba, Chen and Sakai visiting and cooking in Shanghai, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City. The three Iron Chefs took turns to do the cooking from stop to stop, which meant Michiba cooked in Shanghai while Chen cooked in Seoul and Sakai cooked in Ho Chi Minh City). Joining in is another face that will be familiar to Iron Chef fans – Yoko Akino, the actress, cookbook author and frequent Iron Chef judge.
Definitely highlights all around and no bad parts, but what jumped out to me were Michiba handing Shanghai crabs (since Chen was the Iron Chef challenged both times Shanghai crab was the theme) and Chen helping prepare the Chen family signature Mapo Doufu (Tofu) but served bibimbap style (in a sizzling pot with vegetable toppings) for a unique Korean twist.
If memory serves me correctly, last year, I’ve spoken a number of times about having contributors for the site, and I’m pleased that, as 2021 begins, we have our first two!
Please welcome Carlos as a contributor to the site. Carlos is an Orlando resident and Disney fan who enjoys sharing Iron Chef facts and memories, including some lesser-known ones. He’s come with a number of tips and tidbits that you probably did not know about before and is excited to continue to share throughout the year. Look for his first contributions in the “Beyond Kitchen Stadium” section of the site!
I’m also pleased to welcome Greg as a site contributor as well. Greg’s contributions will be coming throughout the year over time as part of our “deeper dive” strategy into Iron Chef Japan’s original run.
Throughout 2020, I’ve continued to receive requests from site members about watching episodes on this site or downloading episodes from this site or its archives. Under my leadership, this site will continue to respect the rights of the original copyright holders meaning that, until the licensing agreement changes to allow us direct access to show materials, we are unable to directly host episode recordings or episode download links (including torrent files and other P2P opportunities) on site-owned properties. Any site posts or comments which do so are subject to removal and the accounts used for those subject to ban or blocking.
The rights to Iron Chef Japan may have changed recently with respect to the USA-based Food Network channel – they seem to have pulled that content from their lineup. Cooking Channel has as well. I would love to host a show schedule here so folks can find when the show might be on a network they have access to. So far I haven’t found it available on any streaming platform such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, though there are some Twitch channels that love the show (https://www.twitch.tv/ironchef_episodes).
If you’re interested in becoming a site contributor, writer, researcher, etc – please reach out by GMail and contact me at ironcheffansinfo@gmail.com and let me know what you’d be interested in sharing on the site! We have plenty of new spaces for recipes, anecdotes, and rare content honoring the Iron Chef shows!