Watashi no kioku ga tashika naraba†…Iron Chef was a television program produced by Fuji TV in Japan from 1993 to 1999. The format of the show showcased an eccentric gourmet named Chairman Kaga and his team of Iron Chefs.
The Iron Chefs, handpicked by Chairman Kaga himself, were prominent and much respected chefs within their particular cuisines (French, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian). In each episode they were pitted against a challenger from Japan or abroad and for one hour each contender was expected to cook a multicourse meal using a theme ingredient chosen by the Chairman.
The battles tended to be very intense with the chefs scrambling to complete as many dishes within a one hour timeframe. Following the one hour contest, the prepared dishes were then served to a panel of tasters. These tasters comprised of Chairman Kaga with his invited guests (typically famous personalities and food critics). Upon completion of the food tasting, the tasters would then judge the food against certain criteria and then Chairman Kaga would announce the winner.
Of the 300 episodes of Iron Chef that aired in Japan, roughly 180 of those episodes were dubbed into English when the Food Network picked up the program to air in North America. It’s one of the shows that I really miss from Canada. However, the internet being my friend, I’m currently bit-torrenting an archive of 156 shows, which I will shortly inflict on Katy :D
†If my memory serves me correctly…