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Iron Chef USA debuts Friday
devinoni writes "Yes, the long awaited American version of Iron Chef is coming. As reported on Slashdot, William Shatner will be hosting it on UPN 9pm (8 central) on Friday. The 4 Iron Chefs are: Todd English, Iron Chef American; Jean Francois Meteigner, Iron Chef French; Alessandro Stratta, Iron Chef Italian; and Roy Yamaguchi is Iron Chef Asian. Check out UPN's site (flash required) for more info." CD: The SF Chronicle review wasn't all that enthusiastic about this, so heads up, foodies.
...tribbles!
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Yeah, I can NEVER wait until great foreign TV shows get moved over to the US, where they are immediatly ruined (eg. Whose line is it anyway, Junkyard Wars, Robot Wars, etc.) The originals are much better.
If you're like me, you assumed that this was the Japanese show "ported" over to the USA, with no modifications. Don't be silly.
What made Iron Chef so entertaining? The hosts. The voice-overs. The theatrical music. Kitchen Stadium.
Guess what! They're all gone. They've been replaced by Shattner, English-speaking announcers, no sound effects, and a mock-up of Kitchen Stadium, but including screaming fans. That is NOT what Iron Chef was about.
It's lame, through and through.
They shouldn't be busting on the new show so much. Sure, it's Americanized, removing every hint of high cuisine and majesty that made the show what it was.
But Shatner will clasp his hands together and deliver crushing two handed blows to the losing chef. So it can't be all bad.
Right?
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
"Data-san?"
"Yes, Wesley?"
"It appears that Quark is having second thoughts about challenging Iron Chef Klingon. He's headed over to talk to him, and..."
[Half a minute later]
"Well, *that* was unexpected. Worf's display has convinced Picard to change the theme ingredient to Ferengi, which of course disqualifies all of Quark's dishes so far. Quark will have a hard time preparing more while being the theme ingredient."
"If my memory serves me correctly, this happened the last time someone challenged Iron Chef Klingon."
--- or ---
Q: "The theme ingredient..." [removes drape with a dramatic flourish] "...PARADOXES!"
I agree.
99% of the fun of watching Iron Chef is the intensity the Japanese cast gives the show. Even if it's faked, they display such an incredible depth of passion for what they're doing that it verges on being ridiculous.
And can we get Shatner into a Rhinestone-studded, sequined suit like Kaga? Well, maybe.
Americans just don't get that passionate about simple things like that, whereas I can (almost) really believe all the old grudges and tests of honor that happen on Iron Chef Japan.
Well, unlike most Japanese shows that come to the U.S. (America's Funniest Videos, ?!?!) we USians have fairly broad access to Iron Chef, both through Food Network and through the episodes that float around on FT and Gnutella. I wouldn't be suprised to see the Iron Chef Japan get quite a bit more recognition by the major players in the U.S.
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Iron Chef White Trash presents four dishes showcasing the theme ingredient of squid.
First, a deep fried squid, served with ketchup and a side of fires.
Second, a squid and peanut butter sandwich, served on Wonder Bread (tm) with the crusts carefully trimmed.
Third, a delicious squid Jello salad. The squid is chopped and suspended in lime Jello with carrots. The Jello mold is topped with Miracle Whip.
Fourth, squid nachos. Hunks of squid are spread over Doritos, covered with Velveeta and Pace Picante sauce and nuked.
Okay, American, French, Italian, and... Asian. Three countries and an entire freakin' continent.
"Iron Chef Asian." How... American. Makes me proud to be a citizen. Gods bless the empire.
Karma: T-rexcellent.
I completely agree. If he is truly a master of American cuisine he'll just phone in a take-out order anyway.
"He's reaching for the ramen! It looks like it's going to be Mountain Dew and ramen!"
I bet by the 3rd show the producers will make Shatner say "Where no chef has gone before"
9. Show is more concerned with obnoxious video effects than with food.
8. William Fatner is a pompous ass, not a dignified chairman.
7. Can't hear the commentary through the crowd noise. (What you say again?)
6. Commentary sucks anyway -- not enough substance about the food, but plenty of information about who cuts the chef's hair. Anthony Dias Blue should be ashamed of himself.
5. Judges are obviously two-bit no-name losers from failing UPN shows (no wait a minute -- all UPN shows are failing...) that are about to be canceled.
4. No drama. No logic behind why the theme ingredient was chosen. Doesn't matter, nobody seems to notice anyway. (Since when is Dungeness crab "unusual"?
3. Chefs are more concerned with playing to the camera than with cooking -- talking on the cell phone in an obviously set up call (you could hear both halves of the conversation!) and throwing caviar to the commentators? Puh-leeze! Escoffier would roll over in his grave....
2. The three "Iron Chefs" watching the competition look like the Three (fat) Stooges.
1. Commentator's yellow blazers look like they were fished from a dumpster behind the local Century 21 office.
0. Sissy Biggers.
Maybe this was all just a bad Priceline ad. We can only hope. The show was so bad that it made Shatner's toupee look good.
On a clear disk you can seek forever
The good points:
The two chefs really kind of got into it.
Shatner's natural cheeziness is perfect for this sort of production.
I thought the audience screaming, cheering, and holding up signs like it was a SmackDown! taping was hysterical.
The motorcycle entrance.
The suckitude:
Lame secret ingredient.
The announcers absolutely blew goats. Big-time.
Way too much computer graphics to distract from the action.
And not enough attention was paid to the food itself - the sheer exoticness and detail is one of the key things that makes the original Iron Chef so cool.
There's a fine line between the kind of cheeziness that comes from good intent and earnestness, and the kind that comes from a calculated effort to be cheese. Iron Chef (classic) is the former kind - the US version, while watchable, is more like the latter. I'll watch the second one, but I'm not sure I'd watch it regularly if it became an ongoing series.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."