'Nightline' Reveals Supposed Secrets of 'Iron Chef America'
Slated to air last Friday, but bumped because of a Qantas jet explosion that occurred the same day, Nightline ran their piece on Iron Chef America last night. The segment, described as a "behind the scenes" look that was supposed to "reveal secrets," actually revealed nothing we didn't already know: they use stand-ins before the Iron Chef is selected, the contestants know the secret ingredient ahead of time (it's one of three), and the Chairman isn't really the nephew of the original Japanese version's Chairman. He's just an actor.
When asked about the judges, Cat Cora said, "you have to grin and bear it. There are times when you want to put a choke hold on someone but, you know, you just stand there and take in their feedback and appreciation." There was also a brief chat with frequent judge and Bon Appetit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton, who gets nervous during "battle quail or battle turkey and [sees] the ice cream machine flip on."
The best part of the segment came from Alton Brown, who explained what a total bloodfest last season was:
This season there's been a fair amount of blood. People have been cutting themselves, lopping off things... the chefs are more likely to injure themselves because sous chefs tend to handle knives better...[The chefs] become big on TV and they become sloppy with knife skills... It's like, 'Oops! I've cut the dickens out of myself.' ... You know, blood all over... Sous chefs are laughing."
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15 Comments:
Speaking of Andrew Knowlton... Annoying. How is this guy a judge? I'm with Gordon Ramsey on food critics...
suburbangourmet at 11:03AM on 08/01/08
i actually didn't know that they knew the secret ingredient beforehand. is this the same for "real" iron chef? colour me disappointed.
lexophile at 11:08AM on 08/01/08
LOL
"'Oops! I've cut the Dickens out of myself..."
hungrychristel at 12:17PM on 08/01/08
What I would like to know is how the Challengers pick their Iron Chef. Do they really get their pick? Or is it just based on who is available or who makes for bigger ratings? I usually catch it 1-2 times a month and either Flay or Batali are at the helm. Am I missing all of Cora's episodes?
SugarNSpice at 12:31PM on 08/01/08
Oh! Good question about when and how the competitors get to pick their Iron Chefs!
And if Andrew "Big" Know-it-all-ton were dropped from the judges lineup, I would be a very happy viewer. He does not good television make. (And does he ever not have that look on his face like he just got a whiff of some used cat litter?) At least Jeffrey Steingarten has a sense of humor to temper his--ahem--unique approach to critiquing the food and fellow judges.
Also: Cat Cora for Funk Queen of the Universe!
Tokyorosa at 12:57PM on 08/01/08
Lexophile:
Well, it's not that they 'know' the ingredient, it's 1 of 3 choices. And yes, it's the same way as Iron Chef (Original) - Challengers picked ahead of time, stand-ins, 1 of 3 ingredients, request any special ingredients, and The Chairman is still just an actor.
stratusgd at 1:53PM on 08/01/08
i didn't know any of that. hmm...
_greenbean at 3:41PM on 08/01/08
Hahaha... when I was scrolling down the page, and just saw the photograph briefly, I thought it might be the cast/crew of the new Star Trek movie. :)
FastFoodCritic at 7:17PM on 08/01/08
iron chef america is our version of wrestling, we know it's mostly fake, alot of the ppl are annoying(most of the judges), but its fun flaky and good tv most of the time. sorry but if Alton Brown is on it i'm there!
huneybumper at 8:55AM on 08/02/08
My Brother-in-law has a friend that competed on ICA a couple years ago, he said they were informed of the ingredients only 2 hours in advance of the show. While that seems like a lot of time, you're really planning 15 different courses since there are 3 possibilities, 8 minutes a dish by my math ... short when you consider plating, playing to particular judges, strengths of your sous chefs, and the camera ... oh and executing on 5 in an hour.
kindageeky at 11:14PM on 08/04/08
As the most frequent judge on Iron Chef, permit me to clear up a few things:
Who gives a f--k whether the Iron Chef is chosen on the spot; whether somebody with Mario's shape is standing in while Mario himself is somewhere in Spain or Del Posto; or whether Mark (a fine martial artist who does backflips on the stage to amuse the rest of us) really is the Japanese chairman's grandson or newphew?
When you watch the Japanese ancestor of ICA, do you believe the polymorphously perverse chairman is truly a Japanese nobleman who lives in a castle with three Iron Chefs. (You shouldn't: he's a Japanese actor who played Jesus in the first Japanese production of "Jesus Christ Superstar." ) As I may have mentioned before, who gives a f--k?
The important thing is the cooking! And the cooking happens right in front of the audience and the judges in the span of exactly one hour. I've never seen that one hour extended or interrupted (as is all the TV frippery at the start and finish). Kindageeky (just above) has it pretty much as I've guessed it; the producers would do better to explain the secret ingredient and knowledge of it more frankly--to stifle the more extreme forms of skepticism. Listen to Kindageeky.
The food is nearly always good, even if it doesn't meet my two overall tests--would I actually pay for this dish, and would I ever want to eat it again? To my surprize, at least one-fourth of the dishes we're expected to eat are good enough to find a place at any modern American restaurant in this country. And there's nothing fake about it. Winning on Iron Chef is a very special and particular skill, and not necessarily the sign of a fine chef. Tracy Des Jardin, for example, is a wonderful cook who has done poorly on both Iron Chef and Next Iron Chef. And there have been others like Tracy.
One of my favorite American chefs (from the Berkeley-Oakland megalopolis) once asked me, gently, how I can believe in the value of fast cooking. All of us these days prize slow food, not as an ideology or formal organization, but as a belief that so many wonderful things (including, for example, real barbecue and peaches ripening on their trees and aged Scotch and wine and cheese) require lots of time and attention. In exchange, they yield incomparable sensual experiences; all of them make us all extremely happy when they're done right--and slow.
Yes, but contests like Iron Chef are something else--an entertainment that just happens (unlike, say, Top Chef) to show us some of the special skills of some of the finest American chefs. As Vogue's food critic, I get to eat at pretty much any restaurant in the world I wish. But the standard is sometimes set by Iron Chef. I've never eaten a Foie Gras Chawan Mushi that actually transported and transfixed me as the one Morimoto made on Battle Someting or other--maybe duck. (Even the version at his own restaurant and a version I enjoyed at a modern Chinese restaurant in Beijing didn't compare. And I don't think Morimoto remembers how to make the ICA version.) Not only would I pay to eat that dish again, I would pay double or quadruple, if I could charge it to Vogue.
I know that the Food Network has narrowed it focus and its audience over the past ten years, and the result is too often disappointing. But with ICA, they've figured out how to lure a general TV audience into a fascination with great, modern American food. There's nothing else like that on television.
jsteingarten at 3:24AM on 08/05/08
I miss the original Iron Chef. At first I hated Iron Chef America, but I guess when they completely phased out the reruns of the original, it kinda grew on me. Or maybe the turning point was when a local chef I was well acquainted with totally creamed Bobby Flay. Or maybe the show just got better.
At least Morimoto is still on it. But I, for one, don't care about the "secrets" that were leaked. I don't think it matters.
jayevee at 10:55PM on 08/05/08
HI,
I totally agree with everything MR. JEFF STEINGARTEN said in above
comments.. Who really cares about what goes on behind the scenes
or when they knew what the secret ingredients are or who picked the judges or which IC to go against.. It all should just rest on the end
result.. The show that comes across our tv screens.. The enjoyment
we get from THE CHAIRMAN'S (MARK DACASCOS") silly faces,
(he is the one and only
reason i started watching the show in the first place but now love it)
The beautiful and unique dishes that come at the end and the amazing
pace the are created..
PS.. JEFF is mine and my husband's favorite
judge...
MARY
mentdijinn at 12:31PM on 08/06/08
If you care to check at more on THE CHAIRMAN - MARK DACASCOS
check out www.dacascos.com
www.dacascosfan.com
www.markdacascos.de
and his myspace page.
Mary
mentdijinn at 12:33PM on 08/06/08
kudos to Jeffrey stepping in there ... couldn't agree more on this ONE sweet spot that Food Network has cornered for themselves, amidst a host of culinary travesties (e.g. Simply Estupido, even Alton won't acknowledge the existance of Rachel Ray)
kindageeky at 1:47AM on 09/18/08