What character would you most like to see killed?

[Worf101]

I don't get it... Splain it too me... All you guys who I usually count on for heaping tons of bile and invective (Pd and Wooch please stand up), seem quite happy to let this (WTF is this guy anyway) wack job in a cape munching on raw onions and peppers get away scot free. My son and his Mum are fascinated with this refugee from a Japanese Dracula movie. I just don't get it. Everything they make looks to me like it'd gag a maggot...

"Tonight's ingredient....... Ruttabegas!!!!"

Are you kiddin me???!!!

In all seriousness.... , it beats watching "reality TV".

Da Worfster

[Woochifer]

I don't get it... Splain it too me... All you guys who I usually count on for heaping tons of bile and invective (Pd and Wooch please stand up), seem quite happy to let this (WTF is this guy anyway) wack job in a cape munching on raw onions and peppers get away scot free. My son and his Mum are fascinated with this refugee from a Japanese Dracula movie. I just don't get it. Everything they make looks to me like it'd gag a maggot...

"Tonight's ingredient....... Ruttabegas!!!!"

Are you kiddin me???!!!

In all seriousness.... , it beats watching "reality TV".

Da Worfster

ALLEZ CUISINE!!!!!

The whole premise behind Iron Chef is that Chairman Kaga's this mysterious wealthy guy who in his quest to find the ultimate culinary warriors has annointed the "best of the best" his Iron Chefs. Of course, in reality, Kaga's actually played by a Japanese stage actor who at one time played the lead role in the Tokyo production of "Les Miserables."

Yeah, on Iron Chef he is a whack job who looks like a Dracula double, but to me that just adds to the whole cult appeal of that show. The whole Chairman Kaga character is so bizarre that it stokes curiosity. Whether that curiosity stems around the concept's originality or speculation on what hallucinagens the writer take is a whole other question! I get the same reaction when watching Australian rules football -- WTF are those officials in the white suits doing when they point their fingers out like a couple of five-years olds engaged in a tag game of cowboys-and-indians? I don't know, but it's so strange that it must be cool! (plus, I don't understand anything about Aussie Football, except that you got these big lunkheads beating one another senseless with no helmets or pads on ... sure beats pro wrestling!)

Anyway, back to Iron Chef. To me, the whole concept of that show is so inspired and bizarre, no way it could possibly have originated in the U.S.! Just the whole idea of turning a cooking competition into a no-holds-barred spectator sport that blends in samurai, pro wrestling, football, American Gladiators, and even high school band (where you challenge people to move up a seat) elements is amazing to me. I mean, you've even got the violent horror pic elements when the chefs are messing around with live animals as the main ingredient (like when they had to pound spikes through the heads of eels to prepare them while they were still squirming around).

In order to fully appreciate Iron Chef, you really need to see it with as much of the original Japanese dialog as possible. The rapid fire delivery of the play-by-play and sideline reporting is like listening to Game 7 of the World Series every week, it's taken that seriously! It was wise of Food Network to stick with the original dialog for Chairman Kaga on most of the dubbed episodes, because you can't really get the full flamboyance and gravity of the moment with the dubbed Chairman!

You have ANY idea how important and momentous those confrontations are? I mean, when that sommalier from Osaka challenged Iron Chef Kobe, you could just feel the tension in Kitchen Stadium as those two great warriors stood eye to eye staring one another down, trying all the psychological gamesmanship that they could muster up.

And couldn't you revel in the sense of redemption when that Chinese chef from Tokyo defeated Iron Chef Chen IN OVERTIME to avenge his brother's defeat at the hands (and cleavers) of Chen two years earlier?

And how could anyone forget when the nemesis traditionalist Chef Kandagawa brought his whole ultra conservative otha faction into Kitchen Stadium and sent his greatest pupil into the maelstrom to try and take down the infidel fusion cuisine of Iron Chef Morimoto, only to leave Kitchen Stadium in disgrace and dishonor as Morimoto brilliantly countered the traditionalist onslaught by cleverly changing strategy and conjuring a reverse play with brilliantly conceived traditional dishes of his own?

Those are legendary moments in culinary history -- on par with when Mr. Big discovered Mac, or when the Colonel added the 11th spice, or when cops discovered donuts!

Just know that in Japan, they take their dining out and celebrity chefs VERY seriously (I heard that's because most people there can't afford homes, so they spend their excess income on fine dining). A lot of the well known French restaurants open their second outlets in Japan, because there's demand for high concept cooking over there.

Oh well, to each their own!

BTW, you mean you didn't like it when Iron Chef Sakai made that sorbet out of sea urchin? Or when Iron Chef Morimoto prepared a Christmas turkey by boiling it in a pig's bladder? Geez, and I thought you had thicker skin than that!

[dph1965]

Dammit man - get to ESPN and tell them you want to do color for Iron Chef! LOL -
And I thought I loved the show! And just think, America gets that excited over WWF and Wrestlemania, what a shame!!!!