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Iron ChefFirst Aired in 1993 Iron Chef is a Japanese television program made by FujiTV. The original Japanese title is Ryori no tetsujin (料理の鉄人, Iron men of cookery). It began airing in 1993 as a half-hour show, and was soon expanded to a one-hour format. Aired as a prime-time TV show, the series lasted for six years and more than 300 episodes. The final regular season episode was broadcast in September 1999. Each episode presents a culinary battle between two chefs in "Kitchen Stadium". A contestant – usually a famous chef from Japan or elsewhere – is pitted against one of the show's four "Iron Chefs". Each of the Iron Chefs is an expert in a different cuisine, either Japanese, Chinese, French, or Italian. The chefs have just one hour to complete their dishes; at the end of the hour, a panel of Japanese celebrities tastes and rates the dishes and crowns a victor. The program has an eccentric flavor, even for a game show. Its host is the flamboyant Takeshi Kaga (鹿賀丈史), known on the show as Chairman Kaga(主宰) Its extravagant production values contrast with well-informed yet curiously pedestrian voice-over narration and polite but generally insipid commentary ("This is really very good") from the judges, not all of whom are food professionals. Almost all battles require the opponents to cook a multicourse meal in which a special theme ingredient plays a starring role. The chefs are given a short list of possible theme ingredients beforehand, which enables them to have the necessary ingredients stocked. The chefs compete to "best express the unique qualities of the theme ingredient." Featured ingredients tend toward the exotic and expensive. Many theme ingredients reflect the Japanese nature of the show -- River Eel, tofu, udon -- though ingredients more familiar in the West – green peppers, summer corn, peaches – are spotlighted as well. In the American version, this is misleadingly called the secret ingredient. Originally, the panel consisted of three judges, and contained preliminary battles for challengers to earn the right to face an Iron Chef. Later, the panel expanded to four. Since ties were now possible, each judge scored each chef's dishes on a 20-point scale. If the judges were deadlocked 2–2, the first tiebreaker was total points. If the point total was also level, the chefs would immediately begin an overtime period, with a new theme ingredient and only 30 minutes and what remains in the pantry to complete their dishes. The overtime aired as a separate episode. On one occasion, the judges deadlocked 2–2 and on points after the overtime; the host Takeshi Kaga then declared both the Iron Chef and his challenger as winners. If you see any mistakes on this page or if you have more infomation about this show, please submit a comment |