If you love cooking — or even just food — it’s easy to love Food Network’s hit culinary game show Iron Chef America that pitted popular chefs like Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and Mario Batali against a variety of challengers in weekly cooking contests. But even the 21st-century fans who have fallen in love with Iron Chef America might not know of or appreciate the 20th-century international shoulders it stands on. The hit show made for North America was copied almost exactly from the Japanese game show series Iron Chef that aired throughout the 1990s, first in Japan and then in the United States and around the world. Today, you can find Iron Chef streaming on Peacock TV.
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The American version that followed the Japanese original was big and bold, and successful enough to run for 13 seasons. There is even an Iron Chef spin-off series airing this summer titled Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend on Netflix, which will feature returning host Alton Brown. But did the American copy improve upon the original Iron Chef, which ran for seven seasons of its own? Although the American take was entertaining in its own right, and even sought to establish ties to its Japanese predecessor, it could never have captured the quirky fun and charm of the original Iron Chef produced in Japan. What was it that made the original Japanese show so fun and iconic? It had to do with style, creativity, and a secret ingredient.
Iron Chef Delivers a Taste of Japan
Fuji Creative Corporation
The entertainment style of Japan truly possesses its own identity. It doesn’t matter what kind of entertainment; a Japanese production has a distinct and extraordinary flavor. In many ways, something truly Japanese is something so unique that it essentially becomes its own genre.
Dedicated gamers have seen this reality play out for decades. For example, the fantasy role-playing genre has been popular since the first days of computer gaming, perhaps even inspiring the birth of computer gaming. The depth and quality of Japanese games like the Ultima series and the Final Fantasy series were undeniable. But it wasn’t the epic storylines, intuitive controls, or the nearly flawless programming that made them so special. These things can be copied, and have been by many game developers since. What developers outside of Japan have never been able to reproduce is the unique Japanese flair of these pioneering franchises.
That same flair is found in abundance in the original Japanese Iron Chef, and just as in gaming and other forms of entertainment, this flair was a missing ingredient in the American iterations that followed. Those who loved Iron Chef and were looking forward to Iron Chef America weren’t disappointed with the new Kitchen Stadium, its new talent, or the new dramatic competitions; instead, they found themselves waiting for things that no longer happened. When was floor reporter Ohta going to break into the broadcast with his urgent-but-extremely-polite “Fukui-san?” and then be commanded to “Go!” with his report? Where was the silky voice dubbing which unfailingly translated what was said with a mesmerizing blend of serous drama and chill richness? Without these things, Iron Chef turns out to be like sushi without wasabi.
In many ways, the Japanese flair is a cultural heritage. The touches of formality and propriety, the sincere belief that this show is serious business of the utmost importance, and the honor and respect for rank and accomplishment — all these cultural qualities saturate Iron Chef and give it a style that no other production can achieve. It is something a viewer feels, and it’s a delight for viewers to watch.
The Ingenuity of Japan
As wonderful as it is, the uniqueness of Japanese style isn’t something that stands on its own. Whether found in art or industry, Japanese style works because it complements another cultural legacy found in Japan: the highest standards of excellence and innovation.
This isn’t something that is only seen in material things like Toyota vehicles and Sony electronics. In 1954, the Japanese film industry produced a classic film that went unrecognized by the Western filmmakers of the time. Godzilla (Gojira) was mistaken for a very poor-quality King Kong imitation and was released in North America in 1956 only after distributors took the liberty of chopping parts out of it and adding in parts of their own.
What was a brilliant social statement about the morality and consequences of the existence and use of nuclear weapons, and which featured a giant antihero that would go on to become a timeless pop culture icon, was lost on a self-centered Western film industry. Japan was ahead of its time, and Japanese style was misunderstood. So much was lost in translation.
In the same tradition, Iron Chef is a masterpiece of television innovation that perfectly supports its distinct Japanese style, and translating it to the West loses something inherent. It’s multi-paced blend of reality television and sports broadcasting is incredibly entertaining. The handheld closeups and commentary from the booth are perfectly timed. Like the United States, Japan absolutely loves the sport of baseball. And just like the game of baseball, Iron Chef builds to exciting dramatic climaxes from a foundation of methodically-paced setup and intriguing historical matchups with interesting backstories. Iron Chef must be recognized as superb television.
The Secret Ingredient of Iron Chef: Humility!
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about the original Iron Chef series was that each challenge was represented as an underdog story. The judges were assumed to be knowledgeable, and judging was assumed to be fair. Challenging chefs from around the world were assumed to be worthy opponents. And the four Iron Chefs were quickly established as nearly unbeatable.
With the stage thus set, it’s an anticipatory delight to watch interviewed challengers express both their confidence in their abilities and their doubts of being able to topple an Iron Chef. It’s strangely satisfying to see the Iron Chefs quietly praise each opponent and confess their uncertainty of the outcome. The audience ends up cheering for and appreciating both the challenger and the incumbent.
The essence of a winning dish — or anything, perhaps — is its best quality and most important part, and the essence of Iron Chef comes from Japan.
