Iron Chef: The Official Book

Haoru Kotetsu

When Iron Chef ended its six-year run in Japan in 1999, it was the undisputed king of cooking shows. Already nominated for a number of Emmy awards in this country before it had even found a distributor, it was ready-made for the American market. Things were sluggish, though, until Iron Chef Morimoto battled American challenger Bobby Flay in a special battle in New York in 2000. After that, the show caught fire here just as it did in Japan. Capitalizing on this, the Food Network took the then-recently published Japanese book on Iron Chef, expanded it, and released it to the American market.

The book serves as a teaser more than anything else. (For example, two Iron Chefs battled in Kitchen Stadium whom, as I write this, American audiences have never seen in a show, despite us having been seeing it now for four years of endless reruns.) For the obsessed, it might also serve as an episode-checkoff list, as each episode is listed. Not in the detail of, say, the must-have show-by-show Twilight Zone guide serialized in the magazine that shared the show's name, but as a roster, it'll do.

The book also contains interviews with the chefs themselves and various cast and crew members, a number of recipes, profiles of winning challengers, etc. Your basic compendium of trivia.

I must say, however, it never did clear up a question I've had since the beginning of the show's run in America: what if it's all a big joke? If so, it's a massively expensive one (just running down Kaga's list of ingredients in the preface made my wallet beg for mercy), lavishly produced and with enough Europeans and Americans in on the act to fool millions of daily Food Network viewers. But somehow, I've never been able to shake the idea that Kaga and co. are all sitting in Asakawa sharing a carafe of sake and having a good laugh at our expense.

The book shares this general tone of over-the-top theater, which will probably endear existing fans of the show and make those who already find it slightly distasteful stronger in their views. But then, only those who like the show in the first place are going to go seeking it out, so no problem.