The Japanese Iron Chef really was a rare, deliciously over-the-top spectacle.
Iron Chef America—I’ve just now realized for some reason—really is pretty fucking stupid.
Also, does anybody remember Version 1.0, aka Iron Chef USA? The chairman was William Shatner, Todd English was the Iron Chef, and Kerry Simon was the first challenger. Maybe it didn’t happen, and was just a hallucination.
Wasn’t the ingredient blue crabs, and English made a blue crab and old bay ice cream (or was it sorbet)? He ran up and dunked a piece of crab shell into the tasters area, because he was a monster. I think the challenger made a bisque and served it in a sea urchin shell.
And fitting with your next post, apparently one of the first judges was Ron Motherfucking Popeil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Chef_USA