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April 23, 2004
Iron Chef America
I love Iron Chef. I consider it one of the best shows on television.
The incredible majesty of the chefs in question. Their mastery of the art of cooking. Their incredible imagination. The beauty of the dishes they make. The tastes which I can only dream about.
Food Network has seen fit to create an American version. It stars "the Chairman", who is supposed to be the nephew of Chairman Kaga. Alton Brown serves as host and color commentator. The Iron Chefs are Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck and Mario Battali.
OK, a word of advice to the folks producing this show: don't fuck with an icon. Iron Chef is astonishing for its brilliance. The ingredients, the chaos, the format. They all combined to make it one of the best shows on television. The show has a following that borders on the fanatic. So, please, don't fuck with it.
But they did. The most jarring thing is that the commentary is not all done live during the taping. There was a good bit of dialog added in post (as they say). Why? I suspect it's because Alton Brown can't talk for an hour straight. That's why, in the original, they had a play by play person and a commentator. Brown should be filling the role of Hatori. He's doing too much, and is not very good at it.
Furthermore, they changed the music. Fine, you want new music, create new music. But the music they used was insipid. I want drama and flare. The music sets the mood, especially for the home audience.
But enough with the criticism, on to the battle. Trout. Live, swimming in a tank, trout. Brilliant. Make them catch it and kill it. They brought Iron Chef Sakai back for this one. Did you know, he's never lost a fish battle?
Until now. He lost to Flay. I'm not sure what the judges were thinking, but they gave Sakai fewer points on the presentation. I mean, really? His presentation was flawless. His food looked like food porn. I can't speak to the taste, but he clearly should have won for imagination and presentation.
So, this first episode has left a bland taste in my mouth. We'll see where it goes from here.
Posted by Samer at April 23, 2004 11:52 PM
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Round two. So far, I find it interesting that they went with live sea critters two episodes in a row. The annoying things about the production remained, of course. I think this guy had it right; A.B. just can't talk... [Read More]
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Comments
I strongly agree with you regarding to the judges voting. They may be favorism for American Chefs. the competitors made great presentation dishes. Yet, I wish I could taste the food.... I think American Iron Chef production needs to select the individual with strong background in food like Alton Brown. If there is a tie, wouldn't be cool to see Alton Brown break the tie. I doubt that he is a favorism.
Posted by: Michael at May 12, 2004 12:46 PM