Iron Chef Rocks!

Going through my old culinary school papers, I came across a bunch of interesting homework, essays and synopses that were fun to read all over again. This one was from my Food in History class where I highlighted one of my fave shows, Iron Chef. This is a long one, but if you've got the time it's a great read. Allez cuizine!

Food is to be looked at as well as Eaten:

Iron Chef and its Impact on the Appetite of Man

Robin D. Aguilar

Food History

Instructor Scott Storms

California School of Culinary Arts

March 26, 2005

Television is a truly powerful medium, capable of educating, entertaining, inspiring and motivating the masses.  Culinary television shows in particular enhance the lives of its viewers by imparting the basics on how to cook for you or your loved ones, and as a result satiating our need to sustain life.  Iron Chef, a Japanese television export, takes this concept a step further by giving a, albeit flamboyant, view into the lives the Japanese and how a culture that respects and reveres food can have some fun with it too.  Although Iron Chef is no cure for Cancer, it has had a lasting impact on many different television viewing cultures, while using a universal medium all humans can relate to; food. 

Show Summary

It happens like all phenomena do.  I’m flipping the channels late one night, and I come across the Japanese channel.  Normally I click past simply because I had no clue what they were saying.  But this time was different.  “Hey”, I think to myself, “there’s a lobster.  What is he doing with that knife?  Oh no, he’s not going to… oooooooooooh.  He did.”  This graphic and vile display of life ending was the proverbial “train wreck” I needed to reel me in.  I was hooked.  And from then on whenever I would come across the loud screaming announcers arguing in Japanese, I was transfixed to the tube waiting for the next slaughter, all in the name of competition.  I would tell my friends about this crazy program where Chefs battle against each other to make several dishes from one ingredient in under an hour.  They would feign interest, but I knew that they had to see it to believe it.  Years went by, and eventually this show, whose name I did not know, popped up on the Food Network, the cable television channel dedicated to all things cuisine.  Turns out the name of the show is Iron Chef.  The premise is that Chairman Takeshi Kaga, a slightly mad millionaire, invests his fortune to build “Kitchen Stadium”, a place where the Japan’s elite chefs come together to compete and prepare unique dishes from a secret ingredient.  And now I could have my fill complete with English voiceovers.  I felt like Chairman Kaga himself, biting into that infamous yellow bell pepper for the first time, exhilarated.  The impact that Iron Chef has had on me is similar to the experience of its viewers all over the world.  Iron Chef is solely responsible for educating suburban American housewives on the fundamentals of Daikon radish, as well as inspire 9 year-olds to worship someone other than gangster rappers.  Iron Chef unwittingly has created an entire culture of fans that can’t get enough, and turn to their brethren online for tips, insights, and gossip.  Who knew this little one hour show would have the historical impact world leaders would kill for.  Host Takeshi Kaga puts it best in saying, “It’s great to be known, but it’s even better to be known as strange” (Iron Chef xvii).

Societal/Cultural Impact

In order to get a full understanding of Iron Chef the television show, one must first fully understand how the Japanese culture relates to food.  Cuisine in Japan is very different from the United States.  Food in the United States seldom has rhyme or reason.  If it looks like a steak, and tastes like a steak we’re happy.  The Japanese have a much deeper relationship with food which transcends fuel for the body.  Portion size is small, but is accompanied by a variety of other complementary dishes which make up the whole meal.  In addition, each portion is prepared so that it is edible the second it hits the table.  Part of this could be attributed to the use of chop sticks rather than a knife and fork, but according to Donald Richie in A Taste of Japan, this is more likely attributed to the appearance of the food itself. 

In Japan, while fish should look like fish, the fish dish ought also to look like something more.  It ought to reflect within its composition another concern, one the West considers aesthetic.  The effect should be as pleasing to the eye as the taste is to the tongue (Richie 9).

Because food should be both looked at and eaten, Japanese cuisine takes on the nature of artwork with contrasting shapes, colors that both highlight the main item and draw your attention away, opposite textures such as crunchy and smooth, and opposing flavors like bitter and sweet.  Japanese food truly is an experience.

            And it is no wonder a culture so focused on experiencing food would create a television show like Iron Chef.  Food that is supposed to be looked at as well as eaten is so interwoven in the concept of Iron Chef, that even the Japanese cuisine rules of arrangement of food on dishes (Richie 9), can be illustrated in the setup.  The first rule of “yamamori, a mountain like mounded arrangement” is illustrated in the unveiling of the secret ingredient at the beginning of the show, where a mountain of crabs, apples, or foie gras elevates from a smoky cavern below the Chairman.  Second is “sugimori, a standing or slanting arrangement” is evident in the Iron Chefs standing defiant on their platforms before being challenged.  Next is “hiramori, a flat arrangement used for foods such as sashimi” can be paralleled to the floor of Kitchen Stadium where the dueling steel kitchens stand side by side eyeing one another.  Ayamori is a woven arrangement, which is similar to the interaction between the sports broadcaster turned announcer Kenji Fukui and Shinichiro Ota who buzzes around asking questions to the obviously busy Chefs.  And finally yosemori which is the gathered arrangement, is represented by the gathering of the guest judges who preside over this experience and decide whose cuisine reigns supreme.

            And in Japan, Iron Chef worked, to the tune of 297 episodes, six years, and a grocery bill of $8 million dollars (Iron Chef 188, xiv).  The judging panel alone became an important publicity tool for musicians, actors, athletes, as well as a regular campaign stop for politicians.  More importantly, Japanese audiences tuned in each week simply because “the judges do not hold anything back with their comments.  They become quite emotional and, at times, brutally honest” (J-San).  This alluring combination of interesting personalities, fast-paced drama, and tons of competition reels you in again and again, not only to see what’s cooking, but to see who wins.

Economic Impact

            Media as pervasive as television has a very powerful effect on mans relationship to food.  Simply by turning on the boob tube, your average Joe can decide if broccoli rabe looks interesting, easy to prepare, and tasty enough to reach into his wallet and buy.  Clever marketing has us running out to Burger King one minute, and dialing Dominoes Pizza the next.  Food is big business, and this, according to David Bell and Gill Valentine in Consuming Geographies: We are Where We Eat, is due in part to “those wishing to articulate a certain lifestyle, since they help to attach social meanings to certain products” (Bell & Valentine 203).  Iron Chef’s format of “secret ingredients” makes disgusting food thrilling, watching these very talented chefs turn fish eyeballs into ice cream.  For the consumer, the thought process is if this guy can make sea urchin roe look as yummy as a hamburger, then maybe I could buy it and impress my friends at my next dinner party.  Iron Chef has opened up its viewers to a new world of odd, unusual, and sometimes very expensive ingredients which in turn give them knowledge only the “in crowd” knows about; hence the term “secret ingredient”.

And nothing projects an elite lifestyle, and ultimately makes more money, than items that are in demand or hard to get.  Since the first Japanese television broadcast in 1953 (Japan Information Network), few shows have been exported to the United States for rebroadcast.  With a constant need for exclusive programming, and the growing cult status Iron Chef was already achieving from local Japanese only programming stations, the Food Network was quick (and wise) to license rights to Iron Chef from Fuji Television, Inc.  Likewise, Fuji Television upped the “we’ve got it and you don’t” ante by licensing only a handful of the episodes to the Food Network.  This has spawned an outcry of fans wanting more, signing online petitions to “Put Iron Chef on DVD” (PetitionSpot.com), thereby driving up the popularity quotient.  Iron Chef has grown to a point where even good looking female guest judges, virtual unknowns in the US, have an online following, with the advent of the “Babes of Iron Chef” (ForMen.ign.com)  With publicity like this, the Food Network will have endless old and new Iron Chef viewers to satisfy their advertisers for years to come.

But the economic impact Iron Chef has had doesn’t stop there.  In 2005, The Food Network debuted eight episodes of “Iron Chef America” mimicking the competition format of Iron Chef, complete with Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto from the original Iron Chef, and celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, and Mario Batali as the Iron Chefs America.  Gone is the Liberace-esque host Chairman Kaga (Johnson), but in his place is his “nephew”, and noted martial artist/actor Mark Dacasos (Benwick).  The knowledgeable and affable Alton Brown replaces Kenji Fukui as announcer/commentator, and the guest judges are celebrity “foodies” ranging from Ted Allen, the food expert from Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and Vogue’s Jeffrey Steingarten.  The Iron Chef energy is present in Iron Chef America, but with the added twist of all chefs sporting wireless microphones.  Viewers get to hear Iron Chef Bobby Flay admonish his Sous Chef with an irritated “Dude, you killed this” over mango chutney gone wrong (Benwick).  It’s a whole new thrill for audiences, and an additional money maker for the Food Network.

Religious Impact

            There is an unwritten code among chefs which places an almost fanatic importance on the trade.  And rightfully so.  Preparing food to sustain life is a very powerful undertaking.  The burn wounds, knife cuts, busting your tail in and out of extreme temperatures to put together an amazing tasting dish could be equated to a religious experience.  For the Iron Chefs themselves, the stress of having to constantly create dishes, the frenetic pace of performing within the one hour time constraint, and (gasp!) possibility of losing was draining.  Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai explains the after effects of losing a battle best:

I was apprehensive about what my staff would say to me.  I didn’t want to go straight back to the restaurant.  In the end, I was ultra cheerful and went in saying ‘Hey, I lost today!’ But everyone in the restaurant looked totally miserable.  That was tough (Iron Chef 201).

Chefs are looked upon as leaders of men, like ministers with the answers to help you out when the going gets tough.  You don’t, however, expect them to go on Iron Chef and lose.  In Japan this is a disgrace which will remain on your reputation as long as people remember that episode.

            Iron Chef effectively portrays the high regard the Japanese have for the culinary profession.  This is highlighted in contrast to cocky American celebrity chefs.  In the last international Iron Chef battle fought, Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto went head to head with Bobby Flay in the “New York Battle”.  A makeshift Kitchen Stadium was recreated in Manhattan and all the stars of Iron Chef were flown to New York, hailing the event that brought Iron Chef to America.  But as the battle drew to a close, challenger Flay, in an attempt to pump up the crowd and let off steam, jumped up onto his cutting board and “raised the roof”, a motion where one puts both hands in the air and moves them up and down as if they are “raising the roof” in excitement.

Iron Chef Morimoto, with obvious agitation and without mincing words, dismissed Flay as a pretender.  ‘In my country,’ Morimoto told America, ‘the cutting board is sacred.  This man is not a chef (Iron Chef 5).

The “cutting board incident”, which it has come to be known as, is indicative of the solemn respect and almost religious deference with which chefs in Japan are regarded.

            The media is single handedly responsible for elevating chefs to a celebrity icon status, and Iron Chef is no different.  If the viewer relates to either the chefs food or personality, that bodes well for most restaurant endeavors they put their name behind.  According to Donald Sloan, author of Culinary Taste: Consumer Behavior in the International Restaurant Sector, it is this branding which creates customer loyalty that allows restaurants “not only to maintain a strong market share but also to increase profitability.  In an increasingly competitive environment therefore, brands make strong commercial sense for restaurant operators” (Sloan 120).  Eating at a celebrity chef restaurant is an event fans feel a necessary pilgrimage, much like going to services once a year on Easter, Rosh Hashanah, etc.

Political Impact

            Whenever you put a powerful show on television like Iron Chef, everyone is going to have an opinion on what transpires.  And because Iron Chef was so successful, people form strong judgments simply because of the shows pervasiveness.  On a broad level, the cuisine of Japan has changed since the advent of Iron Chef.  The 1^st Iron Chef French, Yutaka Ishinabe explains:

[W]hen you go out to the countryside, you anticipate a delicious dish of boiled fresh vegetables cooked by the local ladies.  Instead, you get a strange combination of ingredients served in the so-called Iron Chef style.  When faced with such situations, I feel that the Iron Chef has done malice to society (Iron Chef 57).

Clearly, Japanese purists would agree that society and its cuisine has not benefited from Iron Chef.  But nouvelle cuisine supporters would strongly disagree, citing that change is good, and just because something is different doesn’t mean that it is necessarily bad.  The debate rages on today.

            Similarly, the issue of English voice-overs on the American broadcast of Iron Chef has raised purist eyebrows, citing that the show doesn’t have the same impact with dubs.  However, it is interesting to note that the voice of Chairman Kaga is left in tact, instead utilizing sub-titles.  The reason for this is up for debate as well, some saying it is out of respect for the Lord of Kitchen Stadium, and others opining that the over dubs just never seemed to sound quite right (CFHF.net).

            The political impact of Iron Chef also exists in the selection of “secret ingredients”.  The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took issue with Battle Octopus because the animals were presented to the chefs live, and subsequently had to be rendered dead at some point during the battle (Harris).  Both Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi and Challenger Kazuhiko Tei were forced to beat the squirming animals repeatedly, as viewers watched the octopi try and escape boiling pots.  PETA took issue with this treatment, although did not make this a forefront issue on their agenda.  Clearly for chefs, animal activism has little place in the kitchen.

            And on the politics of economy scale, regular Iron Chef Judge Shinichiro Kurimoto, former Japanese Lower House Member has spawned the liberal “Internet Breakthrough Party of Japan” which combines pushing for free markets, and opposing the American Empire (Harris).  Although Kurimoto does not use Iron Chef to further his propaganda, it is interesting to note life after Iron Chef.  This only goes to show further the impact Iron Chef has had on all walks of life, not just food.

Geographical Impact

            Iron Chef has done wonders to advance the idea that the world is a very small place, and human beings are very similar wherever you go.  What we share in common is the necessity of eating to stay alive, and more often than not, cooking that food before we eat it.  More importantly, Iron Chef has taught its viewers techniques they may not otherwise be familiar with.  For example, 1^st Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba had a standing policy to always include a dish in his presentation that the lay person could be inspired to prepare at home (Iron Chef 84).  In addition to technique, unusual flavor pairings became somewhat less daunting, rendering home chefs everywhere more willing to try out new combinations.  Creative thinking in terms of what tastes go together rather than what has worked in the past has given people kitchen license not usually found before the advent of Iron Chef (Norton).  Iron Chef can also be thought of as an educational tool, providing Western audiences with information about the many Japanese culinary styles (Shimabukuro), and the vast arsenal of unique Japanese ingredients as well.  Audiences of Iron Chef become undaunted by the different, and venture out to eat unfamiliar food items, even if only in their local sushi bar.  But it’s Iron Chef’s subtle encouragement to try something new which opens up doors for viewers to look upon other cultures as not so different after all.  Iron Chef created a world without borders, and many exceptional dishes to boot.  And this is perhaps the most beneficial impact which Iron Chef has given its audience by far.

Conclusion

            Culinary television shows have been around since television was invented.  But never has a culinary show had such a powerful and lasting impact on the history of food and cuisine since Julia Child like Iron Chef has.  Iron Chef changed cooking shows from the ‘here is the correct way to de-bone a chicken’ format, to culinary wrestling match.  The appeal, energy, kitsch, and sexiness of Iron Chef all combined to create a television show that has not only furthered the development of cuisine globally, but has had a lasting positive impact on its viewers.  I, for one, will never forget the class and grace of watching Iron Chef Sakai peel a tomato with his knife in long fluid strokes.  I still giggle whenever I think of floor commentator Shinichiro Ota being screamed at to go away by Iron Chef Kenichi for asking one too many questions.  Iron Chef Morimoto will always be my favorite Iron Chef, despite critics saying his food is not “traditional Japanese”.  And no matter what I’m doing, I will always stop and pay attention to the screen when I hear Chairman Kaga say “If memory serves me right…”  And if that isn’t historical impact, then I don’t know what is.

Works Cited

 

Adams, Rilla.  “Sushi Surprise”.  OffOffOff. 1 October1999. Available at OffOffOff.com: “A
Guide to Alternative New York”.  4 March 2005.
http://www.offoffoff.com/radio/oct99/ironchef.php3

Babes of Iron Chef.  ForMen.ign.com. 26 January 2001. 8 March 2005.
http://formen.ign.com/news/30451.html

Bell, David, and Valentine, Gill.  Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat.  London,
England: Routledge, 1997.

Benwick, Bonnie S.  “Iron Chef America, as Sauce as Its Predecessor”.  15 January 2005. Available at WashingtonPost.com: “The Washington Post”.  8 March 2005.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11023-2005Jan14.html

Catton, John Paul.  “Big in Japan: Iron Chef”.  Available at Metropolis.JapanToday.com: “Japan’s
#1 English Magazine”.  4 March 2005.
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Chawalko, Charles.  “Put Iron Chef on DVD!!!”.  19 December 2004. Available at
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http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ironchef

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New York, NY: Berkley Books, 2000.

Harris, Franklin.  “The Libertarian Politics of Iron Chef”.  11 June 2001. Available at
LewRockwell.com: “Anti-State, Anti-War, Pro-Market”.  8 March 2005.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/harris4.html

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Johnson, Lorena D.  “Canada’s Iron Man: Rob Feenie Tackles Quirky Television Competition”.  
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8 March 2005.
http://www.calgarysun.com/perl-bin/niveau2.cgi?s=Lifestyles&p=92546.html&a=1

J-San.  “Iron Chef 101”.  Available at Destroy-All-Monsters.com: “Asian-American Pop-Culture
Upside Your Head”.  8 March 2005.
http://www.destroy-all-monsters.com/ironchef.shtml

Norton, James.  “WWF meets haute cuisine on ‘Iron Chef’”.  3 October 2001. Available at
CSMonitor.com: “The Christian Science Monitor”.  8 March 2005.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1003/p16s1-lifo.html

Richie, Donald.  A Taste of Japan: What the People Eat, Food Fact and Fable, Customs and
Etiquette.  New York, NY: Kodansha America, Inc., 1985.

Shimabukuro, Betty.  “Men of Iron: They glare, they battle, they cook.  They are mighty kitchen
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http://starbulletin.com/1999/08/18/features/story1.html

Slaton, Joyce.  “Battle Lettuce Online!  Inside the Web cult of cable’s weirdest show”. 1998.
Available at SFWeekly.com.  8 March 2005.
http://www.sfweekly.com/extra/ironchef.html

Sloan, Donald.  Culinary Taste: Consumer Behaviour in the International Restaurant Sector.  
Oxford, England: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2004.