Comments on: Behind the Scenes of Iron Chef

By: Websight

Websight — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I enjoy the show, it is always entertaining.

By: GastroGirls

GastroGirls — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I too, wrote about my experience at an Iron Chef America taping…quite interesting…

http://gastrogirls.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/iron-chef/

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

“a friend saw Bobby hiding a prep list among his wax beans. I thought that was cheating?”

Tell that to Michiba – after all, he wrote out a full menu before starting every battle.

(which was always smart of him, as he had the assistants doing all the prep so he could jump straight into the actual cooking.)

ICA isn’t about how to cook the food, it’s about the competition, the sport. That’s why it really screwed up Food Network when it first showed up (… in 1998…?) – rather than drawing what was then FN’s core audience of mid-40s homemakers, it was suddenly being watched on university campuses and younger people. There was a massive disconnect between what FN was selling and what people were watching; my old tapes of the show still have ads aimed at seniors, who clearly weren’t the IC audience. ICA’s moderated that a bit, going for more of an all-ages approach, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Two things I don’t necessarily like about ICA:

1. The lack of judge-by-judge scoring. Heck, the scoring system in general; I presume that you have to award a clean “win” in every category rather than just making sure you name a winner on the final score out of 20 (which was, I believe, the original scoring system. It’d be nice to see patterns in judging from more frequent judges like Steingarten.

2. The lack of Overtime. I know the chefs hated it, but of the five best battles from the original IC four of them were OT battles. For anyone complaining about the lack of true improv cooking, look no further than those; no one knew the OT ingredients going in.

Oh, and Morimoto’s record STILL hasn’t been fixed.

By: J. R.

J. R. — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

This should take you right to the Today Show’s video archive (if not, just search for “Iron Chef”), now that the HULU link has expired:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/28492732#28492732

By: Kanani

Kanani — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

The long haired dude makes a very good point. Though we use them while talking (or even quick and dirty blogging) words like delicious, lovely, beautiful, grand, and tempting only describe an emotional response. They’re nonspecific, and in writing or judging you have to articulate more than an overall feeling.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

On the recent Bean battle between Flay and Tinsley, a friend saw Bobby hiding a prep list among his wax beans. I thought that was cheating?

By: cybercita

cybercita — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

i canNOT believe she asked bobby flay if he thought he was a good cook.

By: Kitchen Lifer

Kitchen Lifer — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

We can’t say delicious anymore?
How did I miss that memo…
Can we still use…um….I dunno…pretentious?

By: luis

luis — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I find ICA a bit showy and thouroughly confusing. For one thing there is no recipe trail to follow and for another they spare no expense. This is why I don’t bother with the food net anymore.
The internet and Pbs will eat fn’s lunch, are eating fn’s lunch. But if you put on a different hat there is drama and they put on an entertaining show. I am very happy Michael gets to judge from time to time and everything is good…
As a home cook I am building my flavor profile one ingredient at a time. I am not so much worried about techniques anymore. I can muddle through fine. Like Michael said in the clip, seasoning is key. First you need to experience and understand flavors and herbs and spices etc… they you need to play with them for a while and then you need to build something of a flavor profile from all that.
ICA is just fluff to me.
There was an interchange in pbs between Jacques Pepin and some hot shot violinist virtuoso hot shot and it all came down to how faithfully can a musician reproduce a note or a cook produce a pure flavor..s0mething like that. How pure, how simple a note is produced..or a flavor.
They both agreed that this type of effort is FAR MORE difficult than anything else. Imagine Isolate a note or an ingredient and drill down so deep into it as to reproduce it in its purest clearest most insanelly beautiful form.

By: Feisty Bourbon Girl

Feisty Bourbon Girl — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Ruhlman, *love* how you say “my fellow haircut” lol! That guy may have made his first (his only?) good literary point here. God, I dunno, every time I see him as a judge he rubs me the wrong way. Is it just me? He always come across as a precocious little git.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Was this really her first time on? They must have had her back or something cuz I just saw her with Steingarten and Joe Bastianich judging Flay vs. Sabrina Tinsley.

Steingarten was clowning the hell out of her.

By: MIke

MIke — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I see the issue of non-foodie judges on ICA as an interesting twist on the process. Its not as though the average person coming into an establishment is a Ruhllman or Knowlton. I would contend that truly great food will appeal broadly even to the relatively unrefined palate. I would agree though, that sometimes it would be best for them to not voice their opinions (not always so articulate) and merely rate the food on paper.

By: Vincent Mack

Vincent Mack — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Okeedokee – first and foremost…jena wolfe is by far the hottest woman on ICA. Well, except for Louisa Chu – but smarts and looks be different. Anyway – nice hair… I guess?

Symon didnt have a top on his vita because heat creates suction in a blender ruhlman – a spill is better than a burn with your staff. I think its actually in one of your books but I cant remember which one. hot liquid in a blender needs air and a slow initial blend.

he still looked like a dork with it spilling all over the place, but you can see the steam and heat obviously.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

ignore that one… misheard someone… D’OH!

By: HappyHoarfrost

HappyHoarfrost — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Three inscrutable little words:
Lou. Diamond. Philips.
How much leg-room is under that judges’ table, exactly? Because when I win the inevitable guest viewer judge-spot, I want to find some space between the mastadon-limbs of Michael Ruhlman & Anthony Bourdain and pray the secret ingredient is caribou.
That would be like the interior of a drunk, caustic clown car for sure.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Hmm… friend (sous?) of chellenger chef (not yet broadcast) was bitching how the Iron Chef (cough… flay… cough) was dictating to the challenger about which dishes he (or she?) could or couldn’t do… which begs to ask did the Iron Chef know ahead of time? Did they both? Seems fishy to me… Or is said Iron Chef just a total tool…?

By: Natalie Sztern

Natalie Sztern — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Being in Canada i cannot get the Hulu video…is there another place it might be posted?

By: Kent Bunn

Kent Bunn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I went to a book signing w/ Alton Brown a couple years ago, and he said the same thing as Rob, pretty much.

They get a list of possible candidates. And prior to the unveiling, there’s only a handful of people that know what is hiding under the dome.

He also said that was ostensibly the way it was done in Japan as well. But there, the contestants were given a list made it obvious which of the possible ingredients it was really going to be

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I have forgotten the chef’s name, but he had written an article about his experiences on ICA (he took on Bobby Flay). As I recall, when the chefs are given the possible “secret ingredients” (I believe I remember reading some time ago on Flay’s site that the number was three), the chefs put together a shopping list for each of the ingredients. And thus, by seeing what winds up in the pantry, they can certainly make an educated guess as to what the actual secret ingredient is going to end up being.

By: Earl Schiffke

Earl Schiffke — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Maybe Bobby Flay can explain the workings of the inner sanctum of ICA on his new XM/Sirius radio show.

Apparently Bobby fancies himself a lifestyle expert and will dispense all sorts of manly stuff to those that tune in. This I have to see.

Some of thes FN people really think they are something uh ?