Showing at various times on The Food Network.

The Mad Chairman Kaga

Iron Chef is a rare beast - a cooking game show that somehow manages to combine the wonders of strange culinary techniques with over the top kung-fu dubbing. Ostensibly, Chairman Kaga, a strange and mysterious millionaire, has built what is known as Kitchen Stadium. It's a place where the finest chefs in the world can face off with a challenger in a battle of cooking supremacy. Both must use the theme ingredient, usually something uniquely Japanese, like fish heads or bean curd.

There's no joke about the cooking itself. This is a real competition, inasmuch as a reality show about a eccentric character who lives in a castle and has several Iron Chefs in his stead can be. The Iron Chefs themselves have different specialties. You know this because they wear uniforms that match their style of cuisine. Iron Chef Sakai is a French specialist, so he wears a blue and red uniform.

The show has waned in popularity over the last few years. I remember when it first arrived in the states, there were articles and stories about the popularity of this purposefully cheesy cooking competition. Of course, I still find it fascinating to watch occasionally. There's so many uniquely Japanese elements that it'll keep you interested just to see what's going to happen next.

The Scores

In every competition there's a panel of celebrity judges who range from the average to the bizarre. It's not everyday that you see a fortune teller acting as a celebrity judge on a cooking show. There's always and actress and some kind of Japanese musician weighing in with their opinions as well. To tell you the truth, I can't tell the difference between the actresses, although there's a different girl every episode. When they laugh, they place a hand in front of their mouth and make very generalized comments about their love for Kyoto cuisine.

Personally, I find the "musician" guest critic to be the most amusing. Balding, strange looking, Tom Jones-like characters releasing non-sequiturs from their corpulent mouths. But that's not it. I once saw an episode where a geisha sat in the audience cheering on her "friend" the cook.

Sadly, for fans of strange Japanese television shows, Iron Chef is no longer being produced. The Food Network now has the rights, dubs them into English and shows them in a never-ending, delicious rotation.

TV Grade: Priceless

Here's a great drinking game based on the show: Iron Chef Drinking Game

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