by Maria M. Rider

"Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are."

"Allez Cuisine!!" ("Start Cooking!" for the French-impaired) bellows the Liberace-esque Kaga, Head of the Gourmet Academy and "King" of the Kitchen Stadium, for the start of the Cooking Battle Japanese hit cult show, Iron Chef. One cannot completely describe the awe-inspiring Kitchen Stadium except to say it is truly a stadium likened to the Medieval Times Dinner and Show franchise. From the iron torches on tall poles lining a red carpeted walkway to the center of the magnificent Kitchen Stadium, Kaga and his Iron Chefs welcome any and all challengers to the arena of gastronomic wonders!

Iron Chef (Ryori no Tetsujin) is a cooking show where an eccentric gourmet played by Kaga Takeshi lives with his Iron Chefs in a castle and leads the Gourmet Academy in which lies the Kitchen Stadium. The Kitchen Stadium is an arena where Kaga's Iron Chefs, who are the best in their cuisines, battle against other chefs of equal note in an hour long cooking battle. Kaga chooses chefs to accept the battle with one of the Iron Chefs every week and a single theme ingredient is announced that sets the battle for the show. The chosen Iron Chef and the Challenger Chef must then prepare a multi-course meal for Kaga and a panel of four judges usually made up of actors, food critics, singers, and even House members. After the battle is done, there is a tasting and then a final judgment by the panel.

Iron Chef is not your ordinary cooking show where you just see a chef cooking, not by a longshot! The intense appeal of the show is the play-by-play sports-like commentary by Ohta Shinichiro (Sidelines Reporter), Fukui Kenji (Main Announcer), and Hattori Yukio (Culinary Expert Announcer). Ohta is the Man on the Floor and he gives Fukui the specifics on ingredients used and a bit of insight into each of the chefs during the battle. Fukui is the main announcer and comments in a sportscaster style the start of the battle, the progression of the battle, and the final decision. Hattori is the culinary expert and Fukui's companion announcer, who gives more specific culinary comments during the battle. The Guest Panelists add their comments on culinary knowledge together with Fukui, Hattori, and Ohta on how each chef is handling the theme ingredient.

The Iron Chefs, the top chefs in their specialty cuisines: Japanese, Chinese, French, and Italian, dress in silken garb designed for their particular cuisines. Iron Chef Japanese, Morimoto Masaharu, owner and head chef at the popular high-class Japanese restaurant Nobu in New York, wears the silver chef garb with a U.S. flag on the back. Iron Chef French, Sakai Hiroyuki, head chef at La Rochelle in Tokyo, dons the red chef garb. Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi, owner and master chef at Akasaka Szechwan Restaurant also in Tokyo, wears the yellow chef garb. Finally, Iron Chef Italian, Kobe Masahiko, master chef at Il Penne, dons the red, green and white chef garb.

[Editor's note: Readers interested in more information on these fine restaurants as well as the challenger chefs' restaurants should check out the Iron Chef Website.]

The show itself follows a distinctive format: there is the dramatic opening where Fukui tells of Kaga's adventures in searching for the best gourmet dishes to be had around the world and that Kaga built the Kitchen Stadium and gathered the top chefs in order to pursue this dream. The opening is very well done and sets the tone for the show. The viewer does not get a full effect of Iron Chef until he sees the opening. Kind of overdramatic at worst, it is quite an interesting and enjoyable twist to your everyday cooking contest type shows like Ready, Set, Cook! on the Food Network. Introducing the show, Kaga steps out onto the stage, surveys the arena, and picks up a perfect yellow pepper, which he bites into with gusto. Making for an awesome scene, the camera view changes from an extreme close-up of Kaga with a "take over the world" look in his eye to the pan shot of numerous sous chefs standing proudly under him. Even the Iron Chef logo looks impressive as it is set ablaze and has a stony texture to it.

After the opening, Kaga tells his tale of his search for the Challenger Chef of the week. He explains in detail the background of the Challenger Chef in a very robust fashion much like a featurette or documentary. Even the Challenger Chef is given the dramatic treatment with a final pose at the end of his documentary in which the Challenger Chef and his staff stand proudly awaiting the battle ahead.