Iron Chef

If you have been watching the Food Network, then you must have heard about the show Iron Chef at one point or another. But the popular show Iron Chef did not really start in America. The show actually comes from Japan. In fact, when Iron Chef was first featured on the Food Network, the episodes were still clearly in Japanese, and were just dubbed as English.

What makes the show very huge is most likely the Iron Chef theme that is coined with each episode. A challenger chef is placed against one of the Iron Chefs on the show. Each of these Iron Chefs specializes in a particular kind of cuisine. These kinds of cuisine include Japanese, French, Chinese, and Italian. The match-ups are picked before the episode starts, although it is made to appear that the match-up has been made randomly then and there. Originally, Iron Chef aired for a full 90 minutes because of the preliminary rounds, but these rounds were taken off the show over time. This is because this format of the show proved to be quite unnecessary already. Thus, the show has come to air for 60 minutes only.

For each of the episodes, the rivaling chefs are given an hour to prepare a meal of many courses that centralize on a theme ingredient. This theme ingredient, therefore, becomes the Iron Chef theme for that episode. After the hour given, and the Iron Chef recipes have been prepared and ready for tasting, the judges then begin to do their jobs. The chefs are awarded points according to the taste, originality, and presentation of the meals they have prepared. The highest score that a chef can collect is actually just 20 points. But this score does not necessarily imply the winner, you know. This is because the chef that has gained more support from the judges in general would win that episode. But for those rare cases that the scores are tied, as well as the favor of judges are tied down, then an overtime battle ensues. This overtime battle is set right then and there, with the chefs given 30 minutes to come up with dishes with another theme ingredient. Now, this can really hold viewers in suspense, sitting practically on the edge of their seats.

Iron Chef Japan was indeed a popular show from the time it started in the year 1993 up to the point that it ended 6 years later. When the show ended, there were still TV specials of the show that aired until 2002. This is a clear indication that the show is indeed quite the hit in Japan.

So much a hit that the Food Network bought the rights and such to air it all over America. At first, all they did was air the episodes from the Iron Chef Japanese version. They just had the episodes dubbed from Japanese to English. But in a short period of time, the network decided to come up with their own version of the show, which ultimately became Iron Chef America.

Iron Chef America is not to be treated as a remake of the original Japanese version of the show. This is because the American show is just a version of the original. The American version would then become some sort of successor to the original. And this successor complies with the basic theme and format of its predecessor. Iron Chef America has really attracted a lot of viewers from various demographics all over the world. This is because the show has the very nature that comes along with all game shows. It is not just about food and recipes. It is also about competing, pitting yourself against renowned chefs from all over the country. And this has so many viewers hooked to the show.