Mayuko Takata Daily Show Mango Banana Bell Pepper Eggplant King Tokyo X Kobayashi fish Episodes of the Week Rice Mushrooms mochi umeboshi natto sushi Fukui Mini Moni Pumpkin Crab Chocolate Spinach Broccoli Liver Turnip Beijing tuna overtime Lobster Beyond Kitchen Stadium potato Eel Specials Mushroom Nakamura BKS Iron Chef Yomigaeru Morimoto Kobe Michiba Chen Sakai Eps of the Week iron chef
This past month was no doubt one of the saddest times for Iron Chef fans. If you’re on this site and reading this, then I’m guessing you already know, but on March 11th, Kenichi Azama, who we all know and love as Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi, passed away from interstitial pneumonia at the age of 67.
Iron Chef fans will readily tell others that he was the only Iron Chef to serve throughout the entire series, the leader in career battles fought and battles won and also the runner-up to Sakai in the King of Iron Chefs series finale. Watching him strive to live up to the legacy of his father, Chen Kenmin – the one who popularized Szechuan food in Japan and known as the country’s deity of Szechuan cuisine – and succeed while also proving himself to be a true Iron Chef was and is amazing to watch. I have a lot of great memories of him, especially one of the most amazing battles in the show’s history and the battle Chen himself remembers the most: the legendary Battle Prawn against his old coach and Kenmin’s top apprentice Takashi Saito. Adding yet more to it, both chefs recreated Kenmin’s classic prawns in chili sauce, and Kenichi’s canapé style reproduction of the modern version including ketchup was both Takeshi Kaga’s favorite of the first 2,000 dishes and helped Chen win the only battle he fought in front of his mother Yoko.
According to a Shisen Hanten press release, Chen’s funeral is or was for close relatives only according to his will, and his family also declined receiving flowers, condolences and such, but a farewell party in his memory was also planned. Even writing this now, I still felt myself getting misty-eyed, but I want to make sure I pay my respects and I’d like to open this up so others here can share their memories and tributes. I also like to think I speak for Iron Chef fans the world over when I say that we thank him for all the memories and good food and will miss him dearly.
PS – It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Chen and Kobe, who was gone too soon, have already battled again in heaven with judges including Asako Kishi, Tamio Kageyama and maybe even Kenmin himself.
Some theme ingredients in Kitchen Stadium were things found in kitchens around the world like chicken or carrots, but some of the themes were uniquely Japanese. This weeks Episodes of the Week theme ingredients are items that are somewhat common in Japan but maybe not so much in other countries.
The following episodes may be found by searching our video database: 221, 302, 332, 638, 722
New in the database this week: 221, 302, 332, 722
Shigeru Miyamoto never made an appearance on Iron Chef, but his most famous creation would have been right at home as a judge on the episodes featured in this week’s Episodes of the Week. (For those of you who do not know, Shigeru Miyamoto is the designer who created Mario for Nintendo.) This week’s episodes of the week theme is Mushrooms. I don’t remember any of the judges suddenly growing larger or gaining an extra life after eating any of these mushrooms, but I’ll probably watch the episodes again just to make sure. 🙂
You can find the following episodes by searching our video database: 234, 239, 336, 409, 642, 643, 727
New in the database this week: 234, 336, 642, 643
As one might expect from a cooking show based in Japan, a country that is a group of islands, fish was an often used theme ingredient on Iron Chef. It was used more than 15 times during the run of the show. Here are some of the highlights.
You all know the foods we’re talking about. The foods that mysteriously end up wrapped in their napkin. The foods that make kids willingly leave the table to do homework rather than eat. The foods that make them whine as soon as they see them on the plate. The theme for this week’s Episodes of the Week post is “foods that most kids hate.”
You can find the following episodes by searching our video database: 303, 318, 321, 414, 609
New in the database this week: 303, 318, 609
There were many special episodes of Iron Chef over the years. Despite the fact that the later FN show introduction mentioned and showed clips from some of these specials, most of them never aired on Food Network. (If anyone has any tapes of any of these specials, we will buy them from you. Contact us.)
The following episodes may be found by searching our video database: 415/416, 631, 802a, 802b, 901.
New in the database this week: New York Battle (802a/b), 21st Century Special (901)
We have several related videos in our Beyond Kitchen Stadium collection. Be sure to go check them out as well as the new episodes we have this week.