157 Days Of Iron Chef Episodes

[SirFozzie]

I picked up 35 GB of Iron Chef Episodes. 157 of them in total. Iron Chef is very useful in keeping me on my current diet (distract me from local food by showing me things I could never afford to eat).

So, here's the thing.

I want someone to give me a # from 1-157 (it's roughly alphabetical, so the higher the number, the later in the alphabet is the theme ingredient in general). That is the episode I will review/recap. I hope to do one episode per day.

[SackAttack]

32.

[SirFozzie]

Episode 32 of 157: Cod Roe Battle 2

Roe is the fully ripe egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as sea urchin, shrimp and scallop. As a seafood it is used both as a cooked ingredient in many dishes and as a raw ingredient.

"Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you what you are" Brillat-Savarin"

Battle Between:

Iron Chef Japanese (2nd) Komei Nakamura versus Katsuko Nanao

Ah, one of the rare female challengers to enter Kitchen Stadium here, a housewife who also is the owner of a resturaunt in Azabu-juban, Tokyo, called Nanao.

Highlights:

Married at age 21, became a full time homemaker
12 years later, became frustrated with being a homemaker and left, with one suitcase and some cash.
She became a stylist for a Japanese Pop group in the mid-1970's called "The Candies"
1980-85, ran a coffee shop with a friend
1985 - Opened Her own resturaunt (because you know, every moment in her career led up to this)

The voice over says that "Nanao shows no pride in technique or excellence, but instead one finds quality, modesty and affection in her home style dishes."

(I'm beginning to believe this means "We had need of a last minute replacement, and we really wanted to give the Iron Chef an easy victory")

So, I'm not quite sure how this turns out. I expect a rout, but who knows?

Here we go with the opening, Don't bite the pepper, Chairman.. don't do it.. Aw he did it, and all of a sudden there's 120 sous-chefs in kitchen stadium. (Insert triumphal music here.)

Damn. Chairman Kaga is almost looking completely non-flamboyant today.

He brings out the challenger, and it's time to summon the Iron Chefs

(please note: They go through the motion of the challenger selecting an Iron Chef for the battle, and show all three Iron Chefs, but only the Iron Chef who will be battling is actually in Kitchen Stadium (it's pre-determined).

Time to unveil the secret ingredient:

Today's theme ingredient: 250 Cod Roe from Hokkaido, Japan. They normally go for about $8 per, so they spent $2,000 on the main ingredient alone (and the chefs can request certain items be stocked in their pantry before the battle)

Allez Cuisine!

Today's commentators, joining "Doc" Yukio Hattori and Fuyuki-san in the commentators booth, baseball commentator, Takehiko Bessho, and an actress, Kazuko Katoh (yes, her voice doesn't give me much hope for any meaningful commentary in this battle, I think we have our first BDJ Judge )

The Iron Chef is not too impressed with the theme ingredient, he gets asked whether he uses it at his restaurant. He basically raises his nose and says "No way".. but he does like it at home cured with red chilli.

I'll not post much of the battle, there's so much going on, besides, the end result is available

Dishes:

Challenger offers five dishes:

Grilled Cod Roe Salad: (made with a dressing made with chinese rice wine and horse radish). Looks kinda like the typical salad you'd find in a fancy resturaunt. High on different iteams, but very small, maybe two-three bites tops.

Cod Roe & Vegetable Soup: Made with, believe it or not, milk (to mask the overwhelming aroma of the salt-cured Cod Roe). Comes with chopped Mint leaves on the side to provide a finishing refreshing touch.

Fried Cod Roe: cheese and code roe wrapped in chiso leaves before being fried, a very simple dish.

Cod and Cod Roe Grilled in Mayonnaise: I'm not sure how to describe it, but it's the cod roe mixed with a diced cod fillet, with sesame seeds as well as honeywart on the side.

Finally, Steamed Cod Rice: bamboo shoots and benito shavings with the Cod Rice on top of glutineous rice.

My judgement: Well, to say the least, I'm not familiar with the theme ingredient, but I'm not sure the dishes are anything spectacular. They all seem very plain, and not sophisticated. Well, again, this is a home-style chef, who's probably more used to making plain, straight forward dishes then the high risk/high reward style of dishes in Iron Chef.

Iron Chef Nakamura also has five dishes:

"Californian Ruby" a chilled appetizer, combining avocado and cod roe

Smoked Cod Roe in a Bamboo Leaf. He fashioned his own smoker out of a metal container and apple wood chips inside. Very interesting to watch this move (he apparently didn't bring his own smoker, and had to improvise.

Cod Roe Dumpling in Soup. Adds Grated Yam and Abalone. I think that's a rather interesting combinations of flavors, from the Yam, to the seafood, to the salt cured Cod Roe in the soup.

Baby Sweetfish stuffed with cod roe: Yes, these are EXTREMELY tiny fish, grilled, and filled with a cod roe mixture. Very haute cuisine (which also means very very small)

Cod Roe and Yam on Rice. Kinda like the challenger's dish. Adds lobster meat as a base.

Off we go to judging:

Judges: Shinichiro Kurimoto (former House of Representatives member in Japan), actress Kazuko Katoh, baseball commentator Takehiko Bessho, and Culinary critic Asako Kishi.

(Just as an aside before I get going with the judging, Asako Kishi is generally known as the "East German" judge when it comes to Iron Chef, because she is not only the Simon Cowell of judges, not hesitating to penalize chefs for substandard dishes, but because in general, the feeling is that the Iron Chef would have to serve fried poop on a plate for her to not favor the Iron Chef. If Kishi ever votes for a challenger, you know the challenger won clearly)

First up in the judging, is the challenger Katsuko Nanao

First dish (the cod roe salad) is met lukewarm by the judges, who generally think its a bit too salty.

Ooof! The 2nd dish (the milk soup) gets savaged by the two judges who reviewed it, and neither of them were Kishi. (if this was an airplane, I'd be shouting Mayday, Mayday at this point)

Third dish: (the cod and code roe grilled in Mayonnaise) they like the fish part of it, but not the cod roe. Since the cod roe is the theme ingredient... The good thing is Kishi likes the dish, so it's not a complete disaster.

Fourth Dish: The Steamed Cod Rice. Again, they try to lessen the blow by saying "I know this is not a common item, but.." ooof. This is painful to watch. Way too salty.

They didn't even show the Fried Cod Roe. That must really say something when they basically dimissed the other four. Can we declare this one a forfeit already?

Iron Chef's turn.

First dish shown is the Cod Roe smoked in the bamboo leaf. They praise the Iron Chef for harmonizing and lessening the saltiness of the cod roe by smoking and mixing eggs in with it.

Next up is the soup. Gets judged a bit too mild and a little too watery. Gets judged too elegant

the Baby sweetfish is next. Gets the best reaction from the judges. Gets full praises.

The Rice is praised as well, for harmonizing many different ingredients

They skip the fifth dish as well.

The BDJ judge says "Can you please come and cook for us every day". If this was wrestling, I'd fully expect the swerve at this point and for the female chef to win.. but it's time to go for judgement..

So who takes it, whose cuisine reigns supreme?

Well, if you made it all the way to the end, the result should be obvious...

The winner is... Iron Chef Komei Nakamura!

Let's go to the scoring (20 point system)

Kurimoto 18-14 Iron Chef
Katoh 19-17 Iron Chef
Bessho 18-14 Iron Chef
Kishi 19-17 Iron Chef

(4-0 Judges 74-62, Score)

The challenger scored VERY poorly, to not even get 15-16 from two judges, is not usual. This was the Iron Chef version of a squash match, basically.

[SirFozzie]

Ok, whoever posts the next # between 1-157 (excluding of course, 32) chooses the next episode for me to review.

[rjolley]

126

[SirFozzie]

Ok, 126. (Looks it up)

Battle Spinach. Coming tonight!

[digamma]

WTF? You know I love you, Foz, but has dynasty writing really come to doing written play by plays of existing television shows?

[Subby]

digamma <3 sir fozzie

[digamma]

[PackerFanatic]

Damn it, dig - now you got that song in my head.

[SirFozzie]

(BTW, if someone wants to move it to general, go ahead. I'm just having fun and doing this, figured General isn't for this volume of "review"

[SirFozzie]

Here we go, Bonus Review time!

Here we go, and remember, YOU asked for it (this was for a friend of mine)

(#25, Giant Lobster)

(Note: This is one of the few battles that had extraneous info in the file title.. this should have been down at about 50. Bleah. But still, a tasty battle)

Battle Between:

Iron Chef Italian Masahiko Kobe versus Makoto Osada

Hmm. This is interesting. We've picked up one of the few battles with "the forgotten" Iron Chef. You see, once the show became popular in Japan, they decided they needed a fourth Iron Chef to round out the cooking style, and they chose Masahiko Kobe, who was a mere culinary apprentice (not yet a full chef) who was training in Italy at the time. So it's rather rags to riches here already.)

Also, the set designers had already built Kitchen Stadium, and there was just no ROOM for a fourth pedastal where the other Iron Chefs were.They turned it into a feature. They disregarded the "picking an opponent" part for battles in which Iron Chef Italian would be taking part, and built a fourth platform off on the side, for Kobe. His entrances were always even more flamboyant then the other Iron Chefs, as he had his own group of violinists playing as his platform rose.

As they set the story for today's battle.. here's the funny part, there are episodes where Chairman Kaga is subtitled, and there are episodes where he is translated. This happens to be one where both. Dubbed and Subbed. Also, while I'm making notes on our erstwhile chairman, I find it hilarious that they show him trying what is supposed to be a dish from the challenger's style of cuisine, and the reactions he has after eating them is funny (it almost looks like he's ahem.. reaching climax). Just once, JUST ONCE, I want to see Chairman Kaga try a dish, and spit out. Is that too much to ask?

Today's challenger is from one of the premier Tokyo-Style chinese cuisine restuaraunts Nangoku-shuka in Akaska (1,005 seats!). Head Chef Makoto Osada.

They spend some time bringing up the challenger's background, became an apprentice at age 20. Spent his whole career (24 years at the time of the battle),eventually rising to the job of head chef. Kinda funny statement, he states that he wishes to "maintain the great traditional flavors and style of his resturaunt". (Anyone ever known a chef to spend twenty four years rising to head a massive resturaunt, then spontaneously decide, "Hey. This food we've been cooking for the past quarter of a century? It's crap! I think we need to go Polynesian instead!"? Me Neither.)

He is lauded, however, for using fruit to enhance his traditional dinners, bringing them to new heights.

Uh oh.. is it about that time? Secure the peppers.. I SAID SECURE THE.. Damn. Kaga's already there. Another pepper falls to Kaga's unholy appetites! Cue the legion of sous chefs. Cue the triumpant music! Cue The Logo.. and.. Cue the Commercial!

They bring in the challenger, and all of Osada's predecessors and co-workers are attending the battle. Just a light note that if you really screw up, your co-workers and predecessors will take you behind Kitchen Stadium and remonstrate with you about how you've made a resturaunt with 40 years of history look bad on national Japanese television (and eventually over in America and Australia as well). No pressure, mind you.

Time to summon the Iron Chef Italian. Complete with six violinists.

It's time to unveil the secret ingredient.. and it's 30 year old Giant Lobsters! Kobe's screwed. I can think of many Chinese dishes that require Lobsters to work properly. Can you come up with many Lobster dishes for Italian cuisine?

Allez Cuisine!

Today's Theme Ingredient: 12 Giant (estimated at the age of 30 years old) Lobsters fished off the seas of Tazmania, Australia. They went for about $400 each!

Talk about opposites in demeanor. Osada is calm, spending about 10 seconds discussing issues with his sous-chefs before heading up to get some of the theme ingredient. Kobe, who has the nickname the Prince of Pasta, SPRINTS up to the platform to get his hands on as many of the choice Lobsters as he can.

(as an aside:It's now the part that will make your friendly neighborhood vegan turn green, and your local society of prevention of cruelty to animals think of rioting.. yes, these lobsters are still alive, and it's time to start preparing them (and by preparing, I mean cutting them open with giant knives, hacking off their limbs, etcetera. It's almost enough for me to turn vegetarian. I said almost there, because by the end of the battle, I'll probably be ready to head over to Australia, grab them out of the sea, and start devouring them raw.)

These are so big compared to normal lobsters, that the chefs are having trouble getting the useable parts out of them because their shells are so tough. Both chefs are very happy with the quality of these lobsters, apparently they're better then even the ones you get at top resturaunts. (Well, I guess at $400 each, they should be super high quality!)

Commentators for this battle, along with "Doc" Hattori and Fuyuki-San are Tsurutaro Kataoka, an actor, and Naomi Hosokawa an actress

Both chefs sticking to their respective styles, Osada with a lot of Chinese style sauces and Kobe with more European style (including his trademark hand made pasta)

They hold one of the Giant Lobsters at the commentators booth to show you how large it is. The body of the one they show is about the size of Doc Hattori's HEAD (and there's a long tail) and apparently this was just one of the average sized ones.

Kobe is putting together a dish that boggles the mind. Ham on the outside, Boiled Lobster, a paste of mixed herbs and spices in paste form with minced prawns, wrapped in a fat netting to provide body. That's right folks, you give an Italian chef $400 lobster, and he'll make a sausage out of it.

The challenger has already completed a sweet-and-sour lobster dinner already, only 30 minutes into the hour long cooking side.

You can tell how well the chefs have judged their preperation by seeing how they act in the last few minutes. Both chefs seem to be setting up well, except Kobe holds off on boiling and frying the Italian style noodles till the last minutes.

And now the post cooking, pre judging interviews.

When asked how it turned out, the challenger says "Um, well, uh, I did my very best for the day." and he doesn't sound too confident. Kobe admits that he's never even worked with Lobster before today.

The Challenger offers four dishes.

Lobster & Shark Fin Soup: A reimagining of one of Nangoku-shuka's famous dishes, Shark Fin and Crab Brain soup (It looks VERY exotic, a VERY thick soup.)

Sweet & Sour Lobster: Imagine high level Sweet & Sour Pork, like that you would find at a top notch Chinese cuisine resturaunt. Then add lobster to it. I have to admit, it's a powerful looking, luxurious Chinese dish.

Steamed Lobster Salad: Another high class "salad" item, providing a little of a lot of different items, including very thin small chunks of mushroom for texture.

Lettuce in Twice-Fried Rice with Hot&Sour Lobster Soup: Looks absolutely mouth watering. This is based off a more classical soup, and before making the fried rice, he mixed eggs and lobster meat with the Rice to keep it fluffy and non-sticky, and it's not greasy at all (since he fried it in nothing but the moisture from the eggs)

The Iron Chef also offers four dishes:

Lobster Hors D'oeuvure, Three Flavors: Featuring a Lobster cracker, a marinated lobster in a mini-tomato topped with a bit of caviar. The third part is a Lobster Tartare sandwich, all bite sized and looking very good.

Lobster Carapaccio, in Bouillabaise Sauce. Another beautiful looking dish, very European in presentation.

Lobster Brain Carbonara: This is the noodles that he boiled and fried at the last minute, in a VERY luxurious sauce.

Finally, the Lobster Sausage: Served with a curry based, sauce, and fried up nicely in the fat netting, it is exactly the dish I'd want, but could never ever afford. Who would think of making this all together?

Judging time!

On the judging panel today are: Photographer Tenmei Kanoh, actor Tsurutaro Kataoka, actress Naomi Hosokawa and fortune teller (kinda like Miss Cleo but infinitely more classy) Kazuko Hosoki. No Kishi today, so the challenger might have a chance.

The challenger (as always on Iron Chef's Japanese version) goes first.

The Shark Fin soup is first, and gets some pretty good reviews, thanks to it's aroma and taste.

Sweet and Sour Lobster next. Again, praise, and they like the matching of the sweetness of the fruit and the lobster meat, although one reviewer (Kataoka) would have liked to see the Lobster meat more accentuated.

The Salad: again meets with the approval of the panel, and Hosoki, praises everything, saying she's never had Chinese food this good.

Rice and Soup: "Eating this is quite a pleasure". Not a negative comment to be found.

Next up is Iron Chef KObe's dishes.

Again, he says he's surprised about the size of the lobsters and he was worried about how sophisticated they would taste (Not smart, even if you've never been there before, act like you have been)

Up first is the Carapaccio in the Bouillabaise sauce. Gets good comments, the sauce seems to be enhancing the taste of the raw lobster, and they like the texture as well.

Lobster Brain Carbonara next, some worries about the overpowering nature of the black pepper, but it was well-received.

The Giant Lobster sausage is next, and we all hold our breath. They seem to like the balance of the dish between the different textures and tastes (the saltyness and crispness of the ham on the outside, the firmness of the boiled lobster inside). They love the imagination that it comes to take this.

No word on the Hors d'oeuvre.. they probably didn't show any comments because it was a rather simplistic dish (for haute cuisine), and nothing special.

And here come the judges, time for the result.

And the winner is... Iron Chef Masahiko Kobe!

Have to admit a bit surprise from that..

Let's go to the scorecard

Kanoh: 19-15 Iron Chef
Hosokawa: 20-19 Iron Chef
Kataoka: 20-19 Iron Chef
Hosoki: 19-15 Iron Chef

(78-68, 4-0 on judges)

I get the impression from the voiceovers that while Osada's dishes were good, they weren't INNOVATIVE, and that's why the verdict when to Kobe. The Giant Lobster Sausage was innovative!

Cue the credits, we are out!

[SirFozzie]

(slightly late due to sleep, but...)

Spinach Battle

(Originally Aired 3/29/96)

Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi vs Mori Katsuaki

The challenger is Katsuaki Mori. He is the owner and (of course) head chef of Esperia in Tokyo, and he has something that probably no other challenger on Iron Chef can claim... a title. That title? A Cavalier of Cheese Tasters. That may be one of the most.. well bizarre titles, even for a show like Iron Chef. But that's what we have here. Officially recognized by the French Government, for his palate and knowledges of cheeses.

Mori started out as a French chef, becoming the head chef of his first restaurant. He spent a lot of time developing cheese-based salad dressings. When he decided to start his own restauraunt, he then traveled to Italy and tried every resturaunt he could find. Now he's returned, with his own resturaunt, and is ready to take down an Iron Chef.

Fun fact while we go through our opening. Chairman Kaga (or more accurately, Takeshi Kaga, the man who plays the Chairman), has grown into the role of a connoisseur of food. By the time the show ended in 2002, he had tasted over 2,000 dishes. However, the one food they show him eating every episode.. is the one food he can't stand! That's right, for some reason, Chairman Kaga does not like any kind of peppers!, if you watch him when they transition between shots, it may look like he's laughing, but he stated in an interview that he was trying NOT to spit out the pepper!

As of the air date, they hadn't had an italian challenger in Kitchen Stadium for five months, so this is something new. I wish I could describe Mori's look. With his mustache, and craggy facial features , he looks.. well, the only way I could describe it when I first saw it was "A Japanese Porn Star from the 70s in 1996". So now that I've gotten that out of my system, it's time to summon the Iron Chefs!

After the introduction, Katsuaki is asked who he wants to challenge, it's Chen! He'll be facing the "Schezuan Sage", son of the legendary Chen Kenmin. And we're ready for the battle.

Chairman Kaga says he's aware that the challenger always tries to keep his diners health in mind with his dishes (wait, he makes cholesterol and fat ladened cheese dressings on all his salad, and he has diners health in mind?), so he unveils the theme ingredient... SPINACH.

Well, this has to be a benefit as it's good for a salad chef, but right now it's time for the beginning of the one hour of cooking...

ALLEZ CUISINE!

They have both Regular and Salad Spinach, all very fresh.

You can tell this is a less prestigious battle, as one of the commentators is an Archeologist and Professor, Sakuji Yoshimura, and actress Hiroko Mita. She's reduced to giggles within seconds. Hooo boy. Prime BDJ.

The challenger has brought five kinds of cheese with him: Gorgonzola, Mascarpone, Parmesan, Cambazola, and Mozzarella

Chen's going to go right for the most expensive ingredients, as he immediately starts cooking some swallow's nest in a wok, and gently makes fun of his opponent's title, as he dubs himself the Cavalier of Processed Cheese, because that's what he'll be using today.

The challenger starts making a salt crust grill with spinach in a chicken dumpling, wrapped in salt cured cherry leaves. My sodium level went up 15% just watching that.

Both sides are still hustling in the last few seconds.

And we're done.

Dishes:

Challenger Mori has four dishes

Dried Scallops & Spinach Linguine, with chopped tomatoes, this is a very colorful dish with the Spinach-green linguine and the red tomatoes on top.

Secondly, a Spinach Salad. Expected by one and all, after all, this plays in to his strengths.

Third: Chicken Grilled in a Salt Crust. Seals in the flavor.. but how much saltiness is transmitted to the food.

Finally, "Arrival of Spring", a spinach desert, with spinach, cheese, and strawberries forming the colors of the Italian Flag.

Iron Chef Chen has five dishes:

Chinese Spinach Appetitzer: the main part of this dish is spinach wrapped in a pork loin with Abalone

Chinese Spinach Pasta: Unlike the dish by the challenger, this is a more traditional dish, where the spinach is on top of the pasta, not made in the pasta.

Seafood & Spinach Stir-Fry in Milk Sauce: Made with processed cheese and ginger, this is a very textural dish.

Spinach Fried Rice: Made in the past five minutes of the battle, very colorful with the rice, fried eggs, and spinach proviing contrasts

Spinach Dessert: Chilled, a spoonful of a jellied spinach mixture with swallow's nest.

Here comes Da Judges...

On the panel today is novelist Tamio Kageyama, actress Hiroko Mita, archeologist Sakuji Yoshimura and East German Judge, er, excuse me, Culinary Critic Asako Kishi.

Judged first are the dishes of the challenger:

The pasta is first: Wow. Either Kishi is attracted to Mori's Magnum PI mustache, or the dish is very good, because all she can say is "This is very delicious" and dissolves into almost BDJ embarassed giggles. The rest of the panel seems to love this dish as well.

Up next is the Spinach Salad, with the blended cheese sauce served right there by Mori. Oof Kishi returns to form, gently reminding the challenger while the cheese sauce is indeed delicious, the theme ingredient was spinach, and he's kinda overshadowing the theme.

The Salt Crust is next: Gets good results, apparently the salt crust did not make the food inside too salty, but sealed in the aroma of the cherry leaves with the chicken and spinach.

Finally is the unusual strawberry/cheese/spinach dessert. Ok, I hope it's just the translation here, because I don't expect the words "yummy-yum" to ever come out of the words of a Culinary Critic, especially one like Asako Kishi.

Let's shift over to the dishes of Iron Chef Chen, before we get an indecent proposal from Kishi..

Chinese Spinach Appetitzer is well liked, and called innovative, almost neo-chinese. Everyone likes it.

The Pasta is next: They love the technique involved with bacon and spinach with the pasta

The Spinach Fried Rice is next: They spend a moment discussing the nutritional value of this dish. Kishi said the dish could have used about double the spinach

The jellied dessert is last, and the spinach and honey mixture in the jellied mixture is rather well liked. Kishi calls it a masterpiece.

The Seafood & Spinach Stir-Fry in Milk Sauce is not reviewed on the show. Not sure how I'd describe it myself.

But the judging is over, and it's time for the verdict.

The music plays, everyone holds their breath, and the winner is:

IRON CHEF CHEN KENICHI!

It's always fun to see the shot of Chen after he wins, like he can't believe he won and is trying not to scream out in victory. Mori's Magnum PI Mustache wasn't enough for the win.

Let's go to the scores:

Kagemura 19-18 Iron Chef
Mita 20-19 Iron Chef
Yoshimura 19-18 Iron Chef
Kisi 19-18 Iron Chef

4-0, 78-74 score!

So a brave fight by the challenger, with a winning score on most days, but the Iron Chef wins! And considering the comments by Kishi regarding the challenger's dishes, you have to wonder what it will take for a challenger to win her over.

[MrBug708]

#77

[SirFozzie]

Let see, #77.. #77

Oh my.

*grins*

The next battle to be reviewed is:

Battle Milk!

[SirFozzie]

#77 Milk Battle

Originally Aired: 6/24/1994

Iron Chef Chen Kenichi vs Challenger Miyamoto Mashiko

I feel sorry for Iron Chef Chen Kenichi sometimes. He was probably the 2nd most talented Iron Chef on the show. But it seemed sometimes like Chen got all the weirdo ingredients. There's a classic battle out there, where he gets assigned yogurt as a theme. YOGURT and Chinese cooking. Yeah. That's like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.. only if Reese's weren't made with delicious choccolate and peanut butter, but more like motor oil and peanut butter.

I can just see the production meetings where they really have a hate on for Chen..

'''Production Assistant #1''': Ok, so we need a theme ingredient for Chen-san's battle against Miyamoto Masahiko.

'''Production Assistant #2''': Well, we need something cheap. Kaga's outfits have gone up 20% in price over the last three months.

'''Production Assistant #1''': That much?

'''Production Assistant #2''': Trust me, you don't want to know how much it costs for those sequins and extra ruffles.

'''Production Assistant #3''': Damn. There goes my idea for a veal battle.

'''Production Assistant #1''': Nah. Too easy for him any way.. We really need to stretch him out. I have 10 bucks on the fact that I can make him faint with a secret ingredient some time this year.

(Production Assistant #3's cell phone rings)

('''Production Asstitant #3 starts talking on his phone'')

'''Production Assistant #2''': What about mushrooms? Chinese cooking doesn't use mushrooms, does it?

'''Production Assistant #1''': Nah.. we did that a couple months ago.

'''Production Assitant #3 (on cell phone)''' no, I won't forget the milk this time. Good bye.

(hangs up to see the other two PA's look at him)

'''Production Assistant #3''': What? Why are you looking at me like that!

'''Production Assistant #2''': You are a genius!

'''Production Assistant #1''': Oh man, I can't wait to see Chen's face. Milk as a theme ingredient!

'''Production Assistant #3''': Um.. glad to have helped?

But that's yet to come. Apparently , out of the 200,000 resturaunts in France, there's only 5 3-star (the highest rating) chefs in all of France, and today's challenger. Today's challenger has studied under two of them. His name is Masahiko Miyamoto, the head chef of Club NYX in Tokyo.

He got the bug for French cooking early, and traveled to France to try to apprentice himself without any references or connections in the French resturaunt business. Needless to say, the going was hard, and only after a year's fruitless search was he able to find employment at Ferme de Mougins, a one star resturaunt, where he began to learn his trade. He continued to search, and moved up the lines, first to a two star resturaunt, and then finally, was accepted as an apprentice under three star chef Michel Guerard, and then with the recommendation of Guerard, trained for several months under ANOTHER 3-star chef, Georges Blanc. He became the head sauce chef, where he flourished.

He has since returned to Japan, and became head chef of Club NYX, a high class resturaunt on Tokyo's waterfront. How high class? Miyamoto imports all his meat from France, and only purchases fish from Tsukiji market, one of the highest quality fish markets in Japan. With his high class pedigree, will he live up to the reputation he's earned?

The eloquent Chairman Kaga comes out, and chomps into his pepper, and all the sous chefs appear, it must be time to battle!

Well, before the challenger comes out, they introduce the one and only guest commentator, actress Mayuko Takata, who nearly rivals Kaga in the excessive ruffles department, as she has three levels of ruffles on her dress. It's time to bring out the challenger!

The challenger's fiancee is here, and Chairman Kaga introduces her before asking who Miyamoto will challenge.. and it's Chen Kenichi! The fiery Chinese chef steps down, ready for battle, ready to bring new levels to his fiery Schezuan cuisine.. If he only knew what's waiting for him..

Chairman Kaga says he tried to squeeze his brain for a suitable ingredient.. and he kept squeezing, and squeezing, but the thought of Squeezing got him the idea for today's ingredient, and he unveils the secret ingredient... Milk! (this is the first ever liquid theme ingredient in the history of Iron Chef)

Chen's face when he views the secret ingredient, is indeed priceless.. as he turns away, muttering what seems to be the chinese version of "You HAVE to be kidding me".

But there's no time to be spent bemoaning fate, (or in this case a production team with a sense of humor), in fact there's one hour of time to....

ALLEZ CUISINE!

The hour time limit works against both chefs, but Chen epsecially, as he has to ditch one dish at the last moment when the milk does not come together with the lobster he had mixed in, but both sides come up with some innovative dishes, including a homemade cheese by Chen (created from milk and vinegar during the one hour battle.

The dishes:

Challenger Miyamoto has four dishes:

Sauteed Lobster in Potato Crust, Orange Flavor: The milk is combined with orange juice to help form the sauce for this battle. It comes with bacon wrapped asparagus.

Soup Royale with Sea Urchin and Truffles. Started with a puree of Sea Urchin and Milk, and finished with a konsume with seafood and mushrooms

Cresson Chowder: Another dish with seafood and milk, along with rice, stewed in milk

The final dish is a Vanilla Flavored Kudzu Jelly, topped with an almond powder and brown sugar mixture. Inspired by a Japanese confection.

The Iron Chef also has four dishes (Not including the one ditched at the last moment)

Stir-Fried Lobster & Scallops, Milk Flavor: The white sauce and green shanghai cabbage give this dish color and texture.

Fried Milk Cheese with Fruit Sauce: Completely made during this battle, this cheese was then fried to give texture and served with a fruit sauce with a hint of a kick from Tobasco sauce.

Milk Stew With Five Vegetables: The milk based soup has absorbed the flavor of the various vegetables, and has a good body from the stewing.

Coconut Milk Dessert: Combineing coconut milk with reguar milk, adding pieces of watermelon and chilled, this dish is very high class.

And now, it's time for judging.

At this time in Iron Chef's history, there was only three judges. They are:

Director Kazuyoshi Okuyama, Actress Mayuko Takata, and Rosanjin Scholar Masaaki Hirano.

You ask what a Rosanjin Scholar is? Well, Rosanjin refers to Kitaoji Rosanjin, who was one of Japan's most unique figures. Not only was he a top chef who set the grounds for Japanese cuisine throughout his life (he was known to emphasize the flavor of the food over preperation, saying, '''"Cookery is a splendid art because people can be greatly moved by the flavors of food. therefore, it is most important for a chef to understand flavors well. Anyone can become good at preparing sashimi or cooking tempura if they practice for many years, but understanding flavors is a talent one must be born with, it cannot be learned with time."'''. He was not famous solely as a chef, he was also one of Japan's most beloved ceramists. He even had his own exhibition of his pottery shown in New York in 1954!) Enough of the history lesson, time to get to eating.

Judged first as always, are the dishes of the challenger.

Up first, is Sauteed Lobster in Potato Crust, Orange Flavor. Hirano loves the food, and the other judges seem to enjoy the mixture.

Up next is the Soup Royale with Sea Urchin and Truffles. The dish also gets praised, esepcially for its mixture of textures, from the mushrooms, to the konsume.

The Chowder is next. The milk is judged to be powerful, two judges say it reminds them of their childhood (I have NO idea what they mean by that, but let's leave it where it lies there!)

Finally is the Vanilla Flavored Kudzu Jelly, and the almond/ginger powder is judged to interfere with the dish, and is the only dish not universally liked.

Up next is the Iron Chef's dishes.

The judges like the Stir-fried Lobster & Scallops, and Hirano humorously complains that Takata keeps saying what he wants to say before he can say it. The milk brings the dish all together.

The judges are mixed on the hand made cheese. there's thoughts that it could have used a bit more firmness, and it was too subtle.

The judges love the Milk Stew with the vegetables. Well put together.

Hirano says that the desert should be a regular dish, due to the regular ingredients, combined into a new level.

Kaga admits that the theme ingredient was designed to make the lives difficult. He says this was the toughest decision in the history of the panel so far. But a decision has been reached. So, who takes it? Whose cuisine reigns supreme?

IRON CHEF CHEN KINICHI wins.

But from all indications this was a great battle for both sides. The look of disappointment on the face of Miyamoto's fiancee is palpable. But Chen seems relieved at having won over such a difficult ingredient. Little does he know what awaits him in the future.

(No scores, the results of the voting was not publicly announced during the three judge era)

[SirFozzie]

Up next is a personal request that someone asked me about:

The Iron Chefs have pushed Chairman Kaga too far! With Chairman Kaga boycotting his own show due to his Iron Chefs poor performance, who will restore the pride of the Iron Chefs?

[flere-imsaho]

Many LOLs, would read again.

That's right folks, you give an Italian chef $400 lobster, and he'll make a sausage out of it.

[Marmel]

Do you have the stork's nest episode? I think that is my favorite.

[SirFozzie]

I'll go looking. I'm writing up three episodes today (day off) so more is coming