How Tough is Iron Chef America?
I came across this article on MSNBC a couple of days ago and thought that it was interesting. Many of you may have read this already, but for those who haven’t, it exposes the “behind the scenes” of Food Network’s Iron Chef show. In doing so, the article reveals that the challenger chooses the Iron Chef that he/she will be competing against in advance and both chefs are given a handful of possibilities as to what the “secret ingredient” will be and they then supply shopping lists so that whatever the ingredient is, their kitchen is stocked with the correct ingredients for the dishes they will prepare. Basically, no matter what the secret ingredient is, they already have a menu designed and the ingredients ready, so that when the competition starts all that they need to do is execute. Do you feel that this lessens the intensity that the show tries to create? Certainly it seems to make the competition for The Next Iron Chef seem to be more difficult than the actual job!
What do you all think? Discuss 
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: food network, iron chef, iron chef america
I had a hunch that it might be fixed.I interned at a TV station and got all the gossip about these things. It kind of takes the fun away from them. A lot of those “game” shows are fixed, but that’s what makes them interesting. I guess no one wants to see Bobby Flay or Mario stumble over a menu., god forbid
Oh that’s really interesting Amanda! I bet you got all kinds of good scoop! It definitely takes away from the intensity, but I still think being able to pull off the dishes and plating in an hour is commendable
I wasn’t surprised to hear that. Creating and cooking an entire menu in an hour doesn’t really seem possible. But I wish Food Network would do a behind-the-scenes and show the menu planning process. I think it would be really cool to watch one of the Iron Chefs figure out what they’re going to cook!
Karina - good point on creating and cooking the menu! I know Food Network has done a behind-the-scenes on Alton Brown’s show (which was very neat) - I love the idea of a behind the scenes for Iron Chef as well!
I still think its the making of the dishes under time constraints which is the really “wowee” of the show.
Yeah I definitely agree Kate!
For me, I think that it does lessen the intensity now. I think that maybe the time restraint may be the challenge, but probably, they take more than an hour to film it. and in that case, I really don’t see a challenge.
Oh April that’s an interesting point - I wonder how long it really takes to film! Just another reason why they should do a “behind the scenes” of Iron Chef.
I agree with some of the above. The time constraints are what the heart of the show is all about.
I always figured they at least knew a LITTLE bit about what the secret ingredient was because they have recipe specific dishes available. Some of Masimoto’s dishes are way to ingredient specific to just go “Oh, today bell paper, let do this” plus you never see them with a pen and paper forming a menu do you?!?
Always kind of knew, didn’t really care
I assumed they cut after the ingredient reveal to give the two crews time to plan and coordinate. It’s a little disappointing to know that they have weeks to do dress rehearsals on their planned menus.
It explains the few challengers who have brought special presentation props though.
Jhianna - that would be an interesting concept - if they got an “intermission” to outline a menu before the show started again.
I never knew this officially, but from the first time I saw Iron Chef, I thought that had to be the case. The way the whole team automatically goes and begins cooking immediately with no discussion whatsoever made me sure they knew the menu beforehand. I still think it is amazing to see how quickly they can go from ingredients to five courses. So I guess it doesn’t lessen the intensity for me, only because I always thought it was this way.
Ann - I guess I have been watching it naively
Haha. I’m pretty gullible! I do agree that completing the courses and the creative plating done in under an hour is amazing!
Adam of The Amateur Gourmet got to see a taping of Iron Chef a few years ago. According to his writeup the 1 hour time constraint is real…but it’s pretty much the only thing that is. Among other things, it’s actually filmed in the same studio as Rachel Ray and Emeril’s shows.
Karina - Adam’s write up was really interesting - thank you for linking to it!
wow, i had no idea! i had figured that they already picked the chef ahead of time…. i couldn’t see why all 4 chefs would be standing around like that…but i had no idea they had an idea of what the “secret” ingredient was ahead of time… that kind of spoils all the fun.
Jaime - I really thought so too. I mean, although the actual act of putting together and plating the meals is a feat in and of itself, I thought that the central “thing” about the show is that the ingredient is REALLY a secret and they kind of had to fly by the seat of their pants.
This is the second blow to my belief in ICA. A few weeks ago my husband and I were channel surfing and stopped on the SciFi channel when we both yelled “Is that The Chairman!?’
It was, in some weirdo action movie. Now when we watch him I feel like he’s a fraud.
Oh well.