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Today, we present the first half of the 1997 Iron Chef World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n If memory serves me right, it was exactly two years ago that Chairman Kaga last held a World Cup cooking battle. Rokusaburo Michiba was the winner back then.\u00a0The chairman decides that he wants to see new chefs do battle. He gets his list of the best chefs in the world. He knows he has to choose very carefully. He will choose only genius chefs.<\/p>\n Where to have such a special battle? Arashiyama, Kyoto. He builds Arashiyama Kitchen Stadium outdoors. It appears to be a windy, drizzly day. (During the first battle, an appearance by the sun even draws a round of applause.) Here, we see a very interesting opening that shows a yellow pepper floating in the river.<\/span><\/p>\n The guests with the commentators for the first part of the program are Kitaoji Kinya (who says the set is wonderful) and Ishiki Sae. \u00a0The chairman rises into the outdoor Kitchen Stadium. He calls for the six Iron Chefs. They walk into the Kitchen Stadium one-by-one.<\/span><\/p>\n The Challengers.<\/span><\/p>\n This will be done tournament style. Semi-Final #1 is an all Asia Battle: Japan vs. China. The theme ingredient is the best in Japan and cost 1,500,000 yen. It is Beef.<\/span><\/p>\n Notes about the first battle: Hiramatsu Ayumi and Shinichiro Ota are the floor reporters. The time calls are both in Japanese and in Chinese.<\/span><\/p>\n The challenger\u2019s dishes include: Water shield and Meat Dumpling Soup, Spicy Steak, Mandarin-style Beef Stir-Fried Rice.<\/span><\/p>\n Nakamura\u2019s dishes include: Sesame Shabu-Shabu, Beef in red wine sauce, Smoke Steak.<\/span><\/p>\n We see Michiba taking a sneak peek at all of the dishes before tasting begins.<\/span><\/p>\n The judges for all three battles are: Kitaoji Kinya, Sae Isshiki, Chau Lam, Asako Kishi, Daniel Berman, Christian Boucharac<\/span><\/p>\n The American judge says that the dish makes him nostalgic for the Chinese cooking in California.(?)<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s time to announce the winner of the first semi-final battle. The winner of the all-Asia semi-final is: Koumei Nakamura. Nakamura runs over to shake hands with the other Iron Chefs in attendance.<\/span><\/p>\n Semi-Final #2 <\/span>Euro-USA battle<\/p>\n French Chef Alain Passard vs. US-born chef Patrick Clark<\/span><\/p>\n The theme is Lobster. We don\u2019t get to see a lot of the cooking from the second semi-final. I thought that was kind of a disappointment, but I suppose it had to be done to get the entire three battle show into the time slot.<\/span><\/p>\n Passard\u2019s dishes include: Homard and Sliced Daikon Salad, Ravioli Homard Soup, Homard in White Wine Sauce<\/span><\/p>\n Clark\u2019s dishes include: Homard and Abalone fried Daikon Club Sandwich, Sauteed Maguro and Homard with 2-color sauce<\/span><\/p>\n Again, the American judge has a comment. This time, he says it is perhaps the number one American club sandwich in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n The winner of the second semi-final is Alain Passard. The scoring is pretty lopsided with Passard winning 5-1. The second battle gets a whopping 8 minutes of airtime devoted to it. I guess that makes sense. I would think that Fuji wanted to show as much of the Iron Chef\u2019s battles as they could.<\/span><\/p>\n
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