Food Network

[libgirl2]

The chairman in the American version was on Dancing with the Stars. I also caught him in a bad version of "I am Legend" on Scyfy.

[FireWoman]

The chairman in the American version was on Dancing with the Stars. I also caught him in a bad version of "I am Legend" on Scyfy.

Mark Dacascos has a long film career in fact.. hes also playing Wo Fat on the new Hawaii 5-O. He is also a well known martial artist.. most of his movies were related to martial arts.

I miss the old Iron Chefs, Takeshi Kaga as the chairman was awesome, so serious! I loved how they treated it as such a prestigious competition. I fell in love with Morimoto so many years ago on that show. I am glad to see he is on this version.

Jade: As far as when this version started I think you are thinking of Wolfgang Puck, who like Cora and Batali, is retired from the show now as he only did one battle. Morimoto was part of the original cast because of Puck not being able to commit. If i recall correctly, Cora was not part of the original cast.. she was mid-way in. In Shatner's Version (Iron Chef USA) none of the chefs on this version were ever on. Roy Yamaguchi, Jean-Francois Meteigner, Alessandro Stratta, and Todd English comprised the cast for the 2 shows they filmed.

[Tilden]

I thought her dishes were more inventive, they looked yummy, I thought she showed plenty of personality and I thought they would want to have at least one IC woman as Cat isn't on the who anymore (at least it appears that way).

Perhaps it wasn't the female personality they wanted--the Food Network seems to prefer its female stars to be all bubbly and perky, ala Rachel Ray and Paula Dean. I can't imagine them ever casting, say, a female version of Alton Brown. Heck, I doubt they'd have ever, ever cast someone like Julia Child either--too old, not pretty enough, weird voice. I can hear all the reasons they'd give her an early ouster on something like the Next Food Network Star.

[biggbaddgirl]

The chairman in the American version was on Dancing with the Stars. I also caught him in a bad version of "I am Legend" on Scyfy.

He's also the villian on the new version of Hawaii Five-O.

[Rembrant]

Eh, color me bummed. I always thought they were very even throughout the competition, but Elizabeth always seemed more versatile and with an interesting personality. She had the best dish of the night, apparently the better dessert, and that amazing wellington with puff pastry from scratch. I don't know, Geoffrey's an amazing chef, no doubt about that, but much like Jose Garces and Marc Forgionne, I don't find enough personality in there to make me wish to watch.

[jadewarlock]

Hopefully Geoffrey will perk up a bit more in personality for the "Iron Chef" challenges. It seems like he has a little more personality based on the teasers I've seen for the next episode.

I found him a bit more interesting than Graces or Forgionne, so there is hope.

And even a lower case of personality doesn't mean uninteresting - even Nakamura, Michiba and Kenichi, seen as little personality, had some fun and warm moments and would banter to the camera.

I'll give him a chance.

[PA Snow Bunny]

I watched Geoffrey's first challange & Forgionne was not on.

[captain]

I liked how Zacharian used Alex Gurnascheli for his sous chef. They do make a good team. He will have to work hard now, since he received a perfect score on his first time out. I could have done without Jill Zarian as a judge.

[Florimel]

Since the original show was on Food Network, I think I can talk a little bit about it.

Kip, I think if you do searches here and there, you will find episodes of the Japanese version. Hopefully you'll find some that have English dubbing though - especially since the Chairman rarely spoke English (I personally heard him speak it ONLY during an American challenge, and it was "I love New York").

BTW - the chairman in the Japanese version and the one in the American version are NOT related and are actors playing the role. This is why you hear the host of our version talk about his uncle. There was also a shortlived attempt prior to this one where Shatner was the host. This one had Batali, Flay and one other fellow (but not Morimoto).

Based on cuisine, there were two French Chefs (Ishinabe and Sakai), Three Japanese Chefs (Michiba, Nakumara, and Morimoto - the only one who has had a regular spot on both shows), one Chinese chef (Kenichi, the only one there for every season) and then Kobe, an Italian Chef. They wore pretty colorful costumes, and Morimoto's current silver grey one is similar to what he wore then (except no hat).

The chefs and the challenges were real, though some storylines between the chairman and a "rival" were a bit exaggerated I think. I recommend it, but there are some challenges you may not want to watch because of the secret ingredient being something most haven't heard of (Natto - my first one ironically. ) or foods that may gross out us because of nationality (horse meat - or at least I think I saw this once (but was ill that day), oxtail).

The ONLY other show I used to watch on Food Network that isn't on any more or is on at a really unusual time I think is "The Galloping Gourmet" simply because Graham Kerr's cooking mishaps were so funny and since he's now on a much healthier track (mostly because of his wife having a heart attack at a younger age and other things that happened between the original show and his healthier cooking shows).

I've watched all the original Japanese episodes multiple times and still do. Those chef were absolute artists; I think Michiba was my favorite of all of them. I have Cox and they do have the Janapense version on a few channels; one of them is the Cooking Channel, so anyone who gets that channel shoujld be able to find it. They are usually very late at night, which works for me, but not, I realize, for most people.

[Ellen]

Way to stack the deck in Zakarian's favor by assigning Guarnaschelli (sp?) as a co-chef. She DEFINITELY didn't act as a sous. FN afraid much of his [in]ability to win against someone young, innovative, and Californian? Two against one. Boo, FN!