I love this nutty show imported from Japan and now in re-runs. Chairman Kaga looks like the missing 3rd member of Siegfried & Roy. Two chefs bust it for an hour (one invited the other from Kaga's stable of Iron Chefs) trying to make something edible from such delicacies as eel rectum and shark testicles and they present their "masterpieces" to the celebrity hosts to vote on a winner. There's always a giddy Japanese actress eagerly awaiting the slop that they make. "Oooh! I've never had praying mantis prepared THAT way. I'm really looking forward to it." And how the hell do they vote? "I loved the mosquito larvae ice cream, but you just missed the mark with that beeswax fondue."
great, great show...i personally love the voice-over's and the fake enthusiasm that the english speaker's use when talking about the cooking and the food... is it? could it be? cascarino and i agree on something
Re: Re: Official "Iron Chef" Thread amazing isn't it? some of the goofy expressions they use crack me up every time. when kaga goes into a spiel before revealing the theme ingredient and finishes with something that sounds like "konataaaaaba (yanks the towel off).....shwenshaaaa!" and live eels are crawling out of the basket. when they start the background piece on the theme ingredient - "if memory serves me correctly, pufferfish spines are common in kanegawa prefecture" and they close the piece with a nifty bit of advice for the layperson - "boil pufferfish until the eyes pop out".
I love Iron Chef. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled in Japan a few years ago so you won't be getting too many more episodes. The best part of the dubbed commentary is when the guests joke in Japanese, they try to somehow make it work in English. The result is hilarious. But really, the chefs are amazing. Not only are they completely crazy, their technical skills are amazing. I remember when Morimoto battled Bobby Flay, the Iron Chefs visited the Culinary Institute of America and they put the students to shame there. So some terms used in Iron Chef: Kyo no tema wa kore desu: Kaga, as he reveals the theme ingredient. "Today's theme is this" in Japanese. Allez Cuisine - Kaga says this after the clock starts. Literally means "To the kitchen!" in French. Fukui-san - Ohta, the floor reporter tries to get attention of the host, Fukui, and ask for permission to speak.
They are dubbing his voice on more recent episodes. Though they still use subtitles for him every now and then. Not sure why.
Why? WHY??!! Because he is ...KAGAAA!! I mean, really, who could match that guy? They'd have to hire the Tasmanian Devil to do his overdubs. And speaking of reasons to hate the French (Helloooo Gringo): I recently stumbled onto two of three special Iron Chef episodes where they go to France and battle three French chefs, each Iron Chef taking a turn. There were four judges: Two Japanese and two French. The Japanese judges were the female food critic and some model/actress I think. And the French judges were these two giant flaming Gallic A$$HOLES. You could not fabricate two more stereotypically self-important, snot-faced, dirigibles than these two culinary goons. They were poster boys for bad faith -- completely biased and only paying left-handed compliments to the Iron Chefs. ("..hunh-hunh...on zees deesh, one can really taste zee true nature of zee lobster, which ees zee theme in-gree-dee-ant .... unlike zee ozzher three deeshes...hunh-hunh..") They low-balled every Iron Chef and the French Chefs won all three battles. Rat bastards. May Didier Deschamps give you both head lice.
How could they cancel it?? I thought Chairman Kaga was a crazy rich guy who would keep it running forever.
I read this in an article a few years back. According to the article, it's not uncommon for a Japanese network to cancel a show at the height of it's popularity. Is this true? Anyway, they said that since cancellation, they've just done a few specials here and there. Also, it stated that not dubbing Kaga was intentional, to differentiate him from the others.
This is true. Most shows in Japan only last a season (think Roots, not ER and only very popular shows return for multiple seasons. They actually did a World Cup version in 1998 and they moved Kitchen Stadium to Yokohama Stadium, appropriately enough, the site of the 2002 final. That would make sense. Kaga is a show unto himself.